Altai languages

Altai
Altai
Алтай тили
Altay tili
Native to	Russia
Region	Altai Republic, Altai Krai
Ethnicity	Altai, Chelkans, Telengits, Tubalar
Native speakers	55,720 (2010 census); (may not all be fluent)
Language family	Turkic Common Turkic Siberian Turkic Altai; ; ;
Writing system	Cyrillic
Official status
Official language in	Russia Altai Republic;
Language codes
ISO 639-2	alt
ISO 639-3	Either:; atv – Northern Altai; alt – Southern Altai
Glottolog	alta1276
	This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Altai (also Gorno-Altai) is a Turkic language, spoken officially in the Altai Republic, Russia. The language was called Oyrot (ойрот) prior to 1948.

Classification

Due to its isolated position in the Altai Mountains and contact with surrounding languages, the classification of Altai 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 subgroup.^[2] Due to certain similarities with Kyrgyz, it has been grouped with the Kypchak languages which is within the Turkic language family. A more recent classification by Talat Tekin places Southern Altai in its own subgroup within Turkic and groups the Northern Altai dialects with Lower Chulym and the Kondoma dialect of Shor.^[3]

Geographical distribution

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

Official status

Alongside Russian, Altai 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 Northern Altai Republic.

Varieties

Though traditionally considered one language, Southern Altai is not fully mutually intelligible with the Northern varieties. Written Altai is based on Southern Altai, and according to Ethnologue is rejected by Northern Altai children.^[4] In 2006, a Cyrillic alphabet was created for the Kumandy variety of Northern Altai for use in Altai Krai.^[5]

Dialects are as follows:^[6]

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

Closely related to the northern varieties are Kondom Shor and Lower Chulym, which have -j- for proto-Turkic inter-vocalic *d, unlike Mras Shor and Middle Chulym, which have -z- and are closer to Khakas.

Orthography

Altay is written in the Cyrillic alphabet:

а б в г д ј е ё ж з и й к л м н ҥ о ӧ п р с т у ӱ ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я

Linguistic features

The following features refer to the outcome of commonly used Turkic isoglosses in Northern Altai.^[7]^[8]^[9]

*/ag/ — Proto-Turkic */ag/ is found in three variations throughout Northern Altai: /u/, /aw/, /aʁ/.
*/eb/ — Proto-Turkic */eb/ is found as either /yj/ or /yg/, depending on the variety.
*/VdV/ — With a few lexical exceptions (likely borrowings), proto-Turkic intervocalic */d/ results in /j/.

Phonology

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

Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Altai
	Labial		Alveolar		Palatal		Velar
Nasal		m		n				ŋ
Plosive	p	b	t	d	c	ɟ	k	ɡ
Fricative			s	z	ç	ʝ	x	ɣ
Approximant				l		j
Tap				ɾ

The voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/ varies greatly from dialect to dialect, especially in the initial position. Forms of the word јок "no" include [coq] (Kuu dialect) and [joq] (Kumandy). Even within dialects, this phoneme varies greatly.^[10]^[11]

Vowels

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

Vowel phonemes of Altai
		Close		Open
		short	long	short	long
Front	unrounded	i	iː	e	eː
Front	rounded	y	yː	ø	øː
Back	unrounded	ɯ	ɯː	a	aː
Back	rounded	u	uː	o	oː

Writing system

The language was written with the Latin script from 1928–1938, but has used Cyrillic (with the addition of 9 extra letters: Јј [d͡z~ɟ], Ҥҥ [ŋ], Ӧӧ [ø~œ], Ӱӱ [y~ʏ], Ғғ [ʁ], Ққ [q], Һһ [h], Ҹҹ [d͡ʑ], Ii [ɨ̹]) since 1938.

The letter Ÿ is sometimes used instead of Ӱ.

Morphology and syntax

Pronouns

Altai has six personal pronouns:

Personal pronouns in Standard/Southern dialect
Singular		Plural
Altai (transliteration)	English	Altai (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

The declension of the pronouns is outlined in the following chart.

Declension of pronouns in Standard/Southern dialect
Nom	мен	сен	ол	бис	слер	олор
Acc	мени	сени	оны	бисти	слерди	олорды
Gen	мениҥ	сениҥ	оныҥ	бистиҥ	слердиҥ	олордыҥ
Dat	меге	сеге	ого	биске	слерге	олорго
Loc	менде	сенде	анда	бисте	слерде	олордо
Abl	мендеҥ	сендеҥ	ондоҥ	бистеҥ	слердеҥ	олордоҥ
Inst	мениле	сениле	оныла	бисле	слерле	олорло

Pronouns in the various dialects vary considerably. For example, the pronouns in the Qumandin dialect follow.^[12]

Personal pronouns in Qumandin
Singular		Plural
Altai (transliteration)	English	Altai (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

References

^ "Population of the Russian Federation by Languages (in Russian)" (PDF). gks.ru. Russian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 1 November 2017. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
^ Gordon, Raymond G. Jr., ed. (2005). "Ethnologue report for Northern Turkic". SIL International. Retrieved 2007-09-14.
^ Tekin, Tâlat (January 1989). "A New Classification of the Chuvash-Turkic Languages". Erdem. 5 (13): 129–139. ISSN 1010-867X.
^ Raymond G. Gordon Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
^ В Алтайском крае издана азбука кумандинского языка. 2006
^ Baskakov, N. A. (1958). "La Classification des Dialectes de la Langue Turque d'Altaï". Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae (in French). 8: 9–15. ISSN 0001-6446.
^ Баскаков, Николай Александрович (1966). Диалект Черневых Татар (Туба-Кижи): грамматический очерк и словарь. Москва: Наука.
^ Баскаков, Николай Александрович (1972). Диалект Кумандинцев (Куманды-Кижи): грамматический очерк, тексты, переводы и словарь. Москва: Наука.
^ Баскаков, Николай Александрович (1985). Диалект Лебединских Татар-Чалканцев (Куу-Кижи). Москва: Наука.
^ Baskakov, N.A. (1985). Диалект Лебединских Татар-Чалканцев (Куу-Кижи). Северные Диалекты Алтайского (Ойротского) Языка (in Russian). Moscow: Издательство «Наука». ISBN 0-8285-3393-8. OCLC 21048607.
^ Baskakov, N.A. (1972). Диалект Кумандынцев (Куманды-Кижи). Северные Диалекты Алтайского (Ойротского) Языка (in Russian). Moscow: Издательство «Наука». ISBN 0-8285-3393-8. OCLC 38772803.
^ Сатлаев, Ф.А. (n.d.). Учитесь говорить по-кумандински, русско-кумандинский разговорник (in Russian). ?: Горно-Алтайская типография.

External links

[1] "Population of the Russian Federation by Languages (in Russian)" (PDF). gks.ru. Russian Bureau of Statistics. Retrieved 1 November 2017. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)

[2] Gordon, Raymond G. Jr., ed. (2005). "Ethnologue report for Northern Turkic". SIL International. Retrieved 2007-09-14.

[3] Tekin, Tâlat (January 1989). "A New Classification of the Chuvash-Turkic Languages". Erdem. 5 (13): 129–139. ISSN 1010-867X.

[4] Raymond G. Gordon Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

[5] В Алтайском крае издана азбука кумандинского языка. 2006

[6] Baskakov, N. A. (1958). "La Classification des Dialectes de la Langue Turque d'Altaï". Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae (in French). 8: 9–15. ISSN 0001-6446.

[7] Баскаков, Николай Александрович (1966). Диалект Черневых Татар (Туба-Кижи): грамматический очерк и словарь. Москва: Наука.

[8] Баскаков, Николай Александрович (1972). Диалект Кумандинцев (Куманды-Кижи): грамматический очерк, тексты, переводы и словарь. Москва: Наука.

[9] Баскаков, Николай Александрович (1985). Диалект Лебединских Татар-Чалканцев (Куу-Кижи). Москва: Наука.

[10] Baskakov, N.A. (1985). Диалект Лебединских Татар-Чалканцев (Куу-Кижи). Северные Диалекты Алтайского (Ойротского) Языка (in Russian). Moscow: Издательство «Наука». ISBN 0-8285-3393-8. OCLC 21048607.

[11] Baskakov, N.A. (1972). Диалект Кумандынцев (Куманды-Кижи). Северные Диалекты Алтайского (Ойротского) Языка (in Russian). Moscow: Издательство «Наука». ISBN 0-8285-3393-8. OCLC 38772803.

[12] Сатлаев, Ф.А. (n.d.). Учитесь говорить по-кумандински, русско-кумандинский разговорник (in Russian). ?: Горно-Алтайская типография.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

v t e Languages of Russia
Federal language	Russian
State languages of federal subjects	Abaza Adyghe Aghul Altai Northern Altai Southern Altai Avar Azerbaijani Bashkir Buryat Chechen Chuvash Crimean Tatar Dargwa Ingush Kabardian Kalmyk Karachay-Balkar Khakas Komi Kumyk Lak Lezgin Mari Hill Meadow Mordvin Erzya Moksha Nogai Ossetian Rutul Yakut/Sakha Tabasaran Tat Tatar Tsakhur Tuvan Udmurt Ukrainian
Languages with official status	Chukchi Dolgan Even Evenki Finnish Karelian Kazakh Khanty Komi-Permyak Mansi Nenets Selkup Veps Yukaghir Northern Yukaghir Southern Yukaghir
Scripts	Cyrillic¹ Cyrillic Braille Latin script² Mongolian script (Buryat script, Kalmyk script)²
¹ In Russia, the Cyrillic alphabet is officially supported. ² For other, non-Cyrillic alphabets, separate federal laws are required. Languages of Russia Wikipedia in languages of Russia Mass media by language of Russia