Altay language

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Altay Алтай тили Altay tili
Spoken in:	Russia, Mongolia, China
Region:	Altai Republic (Southern Altay), Altai Krai (Northern Altay)

Total speakers:	67,900 (2002 census)^[1]^[2]
Language family:	Altaic^[3] (controversial) Turkic Northern Turkic Altay
Official status
Official language in:	Altai Republic
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`tut`
ISO 639-3:	either: `atv` – Northern Altai `alt` – Southern Altai
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Altay is a language of the Turkic group of languages. It is an official language of Altai Republic, Russia. The language was called Oyrot prior to 1948. There were ca. 67,900 people speaking this language in 2002.

1 Classification
2 Geographical distribution
- 2.1 Official status
- 2.2 Dialects
3 Sounds
- 3.1 Consonants
- 3.2 Vowels
4 Writing system
5 Morphology and syntax
- 5.1 Pronouns
6 Sources
7 See also
8 External links

Classification

Due to its isolated position in the Altay Mountains and contact with surrounding languages, the classification of Altay within the Turkic languages has often been disputed. Because of its geographic proximity to the Shor and Khakas languages, some classifications place it in a Northern Turkic sub-group^[4]. Due to certain similarities with Kyrgyz, it has been grouped with the Kypchak languages. A more recent classification by Talat Tekin places Southern Altay in its own sub-group within Turkic and groups the Northern Altay dialects with Lower Chulym and the Kondoma dialect of Shor^[5].

Geographical distribution

Altay is spoken primarily in the Altai Republic (Southern Altay) and Altai Krai (Northern Altay).

Official status

Along with Russian, Altay is an official language of the Altai Republic. The official language is based on the Southern dialect spoken by the group called the Altay-kiži, however in the few years it has also spread to the Northen Altai Republic.

Dialects

Altay is usually divided into Northern and Southern dialects, which are then further broken down into a number of sub-dialects. The breakdown of these dialects is as follows^[6]:

Southern Altay
- Altay proper
  - Mayma
- Telengit
  - Tölös
  - Chuy
- Teleut
Northern Altay
- Tuba
- Kumandy
  - Turachak
  - Solton
  - Starobardinian
- Chalkan (also called Kuu, Lebedin)

Sounds

The sounds of the Altay language vary from dialect to dialect.

Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Altay
	Bilabial		Dental		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar
Plosives	p	b	t	d			c	ɟ	k	ɡ
Nasals	m		n						ŋ
Fricatives					s	z	ʃ	ʒ	x	ɣ
Tap					ɾ
Approximant							j
Lateral approximants					l

The voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/ varies greatly from dialect to dialect, especially in initial position. Form of the word for "no" - јок (in standard Altay: /ɟoq/) include /coq/ (Kuu dialect) and /joq/ (Kumandy). Even within dialects this phoneme varies greatly.^[7]^[8].

Vowels

There are eight vowels in Altay. These vowels may be long or short.

Vowel phonemes of Altay
		Short		Long
		Close	Open	Close	Open
Front	Unrounded	i	e	iː	eː
Front	Rounded	y	ø	yː	øː
Back	Unrounded	ɯ	a	ɯː	aː
Back	Rounded	u	o	uː	oː

Writing system

The language was written with the Latin alphabet from 1928-1938, but has used the Cyrillic alphabet (with the addition of 4 extra letters: Јј, Ҥҥ, Ӧӧ, Ӱӱ) since 1938.

Morphology and syntax

Pronouns

Altay has six personal pronouns:

Personal pronouns in Standard/Southern dialect
Singular		Plural
Altay (transliteration)	English	Altay (transliteration)	English
мен (men)	I	бис (bis)	we
сен (sen)	you (singular)	слер (sler)	you (plural, formal)
ол (ol)	he/she/it	олор (olor)	they

Pronouns in the various dialects vary considerably. For example, the pronouns in the Qumandin dialect follow.^[9]

Personal pronouns in Qumandin
Singular		Plural
Altay (transliteration)	English	Altay (transliteration)	English
мен (men)	I	пис (pis)	we
сен (sen)	you (singular)	снер (sner)	you (plural, formal)
ол (ol)	he/she/it	анар (anar)	they

Sources

^ Russian Census 2002. Распространенность владения языками (кроме русского)(Knowledge of languages other than Russian)(Russian)
^ Includes speakers who identify as Altay, Teleut, and Tuba.
^ "[1] Ethnologue"
^ Gordon, Raymond G., Jr.:"Ethnologue report for Northern Turkic". SIL International (2005). Retrieved on 2007-09-14.
^ Tekin, Tâlat (January 1989). "A New Classification of the Chuvash-Turkic Languages". Erdem 5 (13): 129–139. ISSN 1010-867X.
^ Baskakov, N. A. (1958). "La Classification des Dialectes de la Langue Turque d'Altaï" (in French). Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 8: 9–15. ISSN 0001-6446.
^ Baskakov, N.A. (1985). Диалект Лебединских Татар-Чалканцев (Куу-Кижи). Северные Диалекты Алтайского (Ойротского) Языка. Moscow: Издательство «Наука». OCLC 21048607.
^ Baskakov, N.A. (1972). Диалект Кумандынцев (Куманды-Кижи). Северные Диалекты Алтайского (Ойротского) Языка. Moscow: Издательство «Наука». OCLC 38772803.
^ Сатлаев, Ф.А. (?). Учитесь говорить по-кумандински, русско-кумандинский разговорник. ?: Горно-Алтайская типография.

External links

v • d • e Altaic languages

Turkic · Mongolic · Tungusic · Korean¹ · Japonic¹

¹ Not always recognized as Altaic languages. See also Buyeo languages.

v • d • e Turkic languages

Italics indicate extinct languages

Oghur	Bulgar · Chuvash · Hunnic · Khazar · Turkic Avar

Uyghuric	Old Turkic · Aini¹ · Chagatai · Ili Turki · Lop · Uyghur · Uzbek

Kypchak	Altay · Baraba · Bashkir · Crimean Tatar² · Cuman · Karachay-Balkar · Karaim · Karakalpak · Kazakh · Kipchak · Krymchak · Kumyk · Kyrgyz · Nogai · Old Tatar · Tatar · Urum²

Oghuz	Afshar · Azerbaijani · Crimean Tatar · Gagauz · Balkan Gagauz Turkish · Khorasani Turkic · Ottoman Turkish · Pecheneg ³ · Qashqai · Salar · Turkish · Turkmen · Urum

Arghu	Khalaj

Siberian	Chulym · Dolgan · Fuyü Gïrgïs · Khakas · Shor · Tofa · Tuvan · Western Yugur · Sakha/Yakut

¹ Mixed language. ² Also Oghuz. ³ Disputed.