Altai language

Short description: Turkic language of the Altai Republic, Russia

Altai

Gorno-Altai
алтайдыҥ тилин, алтай тил
Native to| Russia
Region| Altai Republic, Altai Krai, Kemerovo Oblast
Ethnicity| Altaians, including Chelkans, Telengits, Tubalars

Native speakers

| 55,720 (2010 census)[1]
(may not all be fluent)

Language family

Turkic

* Common Turkic
* Siberian Turkic or Kipchak
* Kyrgyz–Kipchak[2][3]
* Altai

Writing system

| Cyrillic
Official status

Official language in

|  Russia

* Altai Republic

Language codes
ISO 639-1| `alt`
ISO 639-3| Either:
`atv` – Northern Altai
`alt` – Southern Altai
Glottolog| None
`alta1276` code retired[4]
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 (Template:Lang-alt) is a Turkic language, spoken officially in the Altai Republic, Russia . Its standard vocabulary is based on the Southern Altai language, though it's also taught to and used by speakers of the Northern Altai language as well., also, sometimes, as Gorno-Altai refers to a subgroup of languages in the Altai Mountains. The language was called Oyrot (ойрот) prior to 1948.

Altai is spoken primarily in the Altai Republic. There is a small community of speakers in the neighbouring Altai Krai as well.

## Contents

* 1 Classification
* 1.1 Official status
* 1.2 Varieties
* 2 Orthography
* 2.1 Missionary's Cyrillic Alphabet
* 2.2 First Cyrillic Alphabet (1922–1928)
* 2.3 Latin Alphabet (1928–1938)
* 2.4 Second Cyrillic Alphabet (1938–1944)
* 2.5 Modern Standard Altai Alphabet
* 3 Linguistic features
* 4 Phonology
* 4.1 Consonants
* 4.2 Vowels
* 5 Morphology and syntax
* 5.1 Pronouns
* 6 See also
* 7 References
* 8 External links

## 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.[5] Due to certain similarities with Kyrgyz, it has been grouped as the Kyrgyz–Kipchak subgroup with the Kypchak languages which is within the Turkic language family.[2][3] A 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.[6]

### Official status

Alongside Russian, Altai is an official language of the Altai Republic. The official language is based on the Southern Altai language spoken by the group called the Altay-Kiži, however in the few years it has also spread to the Northern Altai Republic.

### Varieties

Though they are traditionally considered one language, Southern Altai is not fully mutually intelligible with the Northern varieties. According to modern classifications—at least since the middle of the 20th century—they are considered to be two separate languages.[7]

Written Altai is based on Southern Altai, and according to Ethnologue is rejected by Northern Altai children.[8] In 2006, a Cyrillic alphabet was created for the Kumandy variety of Northern Altai for use in Altai Krai.[9]

File:WIKITONGUES- Dmitry speaking Altai.webm Dialects are as follows:[2]

* 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

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.

### Missionary's Cyrillic Alphabet

The first writing system for Altai was invented by missionaries from the Altai Spiritual Mission in the 1840s; it was based on the Cyrillic alphabet and invented for the Teleut dialect and was used mostly for Church publications.[10] The first books were printed in Altai not long thereafter and in 1868, the first Altaic Alphabet was published. There was no stable form of this alphabet, and it changed from edition-to-edition.

With this in mind, this is an inventory of some of these letters:

Аа  | Бб  | Гг  | Дд  | Jj  | Ее  | Жж  | Зз  | Ii  | Йй

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Кк, К̅к̅  | Лл  | Мм  | Нн  | Ҥҥ, Н̄н̄  | Oo  | Öö  | Пп
Рр  | Сс  | Тт  | Уу  | Ӱӱ  | Чч  | Шш  | Ыы  |

### First Cyrillic Alphabet (1922–1928)

After the Bolshevic Revolution in 1917, publishing books into Altai was resumed in 1921,[11] using a script similar to the Missionary's Alphabet. About this time, many post-revolution letters were adopted to better compose Russian words adopted into the language. As such, it took on this form (non-Russian letters emboldened):

Аа  | Бб  | Вв  | Гг  | Дд  | Јј | Ее  | Жж  | Зз  | Ии

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Йй  | Кк  | Лл  | Мм  | Нн  | Ҥҥ | Оо  | Ӧӧ | Пп  | Рр
Сс  | Тт  | Уу  | Ӱӱ | Фф  | Хх  | Цц  | Чч  | Шш  | Щщ
Ъъ  | Ыы  | Ьь  | Ээ  | Юю  | Яя  |

Interestingly, in the same space, many considered adapting the old Mongolian Script for use in writing Altai.[12]

### Latin Alphabet (1928–1938)

The Latin Alphabet was eventually adopted and was used from 1922–1928. The final version of this alphabet was published in 1931, taking this form:[13]

Aa  | Bʙ  | Cc  | Çç  | Dd  | Ee  | Ff  | Gg  | Ii  | Jj

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Kk  | Ll  | Mm  | Nn  | ņ  | Oo  | Өө  | Pp  | Rr  | Ss
Şş  | Tt  | Uu  | Vv  | Xx  | Yy  | Zz  | Ƶƶ  | Ьь  |

The Latin letters correspond as follows to the modern Cyrillic letters:[14]

Latin (1922–1938)  | Modern Cyrillic (after 1944)

|

C  | Ч
Ç  | Ј
J  | Й
ņ  | ҥ
Ө  | Ö
Ş  | Ш
Y  | Ӱ
Ƶ  | Ж
Ь  | Ы

### Second Cyrillic Alphabet (1938–1944)

In 1938, the Central Research Institute of Language and Writing of the Peoples of the USSR began the project of designing a new alphabet for Altai, based on the Cyrillic script. Their new alphabet consisted of all 33 Russian letters, as well as the digraph 〈Дь дь〉 and the letter 〈Ҥҥ〉, for the phonemes /d͡ʒ/ and /ŋ/ respectively. However, this was later rejected, because it could not accurately represent all of Altai's phonological inventory.

To amend for this, the Institute's first revised alphabet saw the graphemes〈Ёё〉 and 〈Юю〉 for Altai's vowels /ø~œ/ and /y/ fall out of use, and the addition of two digraphs and two letters: 〈Дь дь〉 for /d͡ʒ/, 〈Нъ нъ〉for /ŋ/, 〈Öö〉 for /ø~œ/, and 〈Ӱӱ〉 for /y/. In the second revision, however, 〈Нъ нъ〉 was replaced with 〈Ҥҥ〉. Thus was born:

Аа  | Бб  | Вв  | Гг  | Дд  | Дь дь | Ее  | Ёё  | Жж  | Зз

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Ии  | Йй  | Кк  | Лл  | Мм  | Нн  | Нъ нъ, Ҥҥ | Оо  | Öö
Пп  | Рр  | Сс  | Тт  | Уу  | Ӱӱ | Фф  | Хх  | Цц  | Чч
Шш  | Щщ  | Ъъ  | Ыы  | Ьь  | Ээ  | Юю  | Яя  |

Altai speakers accepted the first variant, but generally preferred 〈Н' н'〉 over 〈Ҥҥ〉.

Аа  | Бб  | Вв  | Гг  | Дд  | Дь дь | Ее  | Ёё  | Жж  | Зз

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Ии  | Йй  | Кк  | Лл  | Мм  | Нн  | Н' н' | Оо  | Öö | Пп
Рр  | Сс  | Тт  | Уу  | Фф  | Хх  | Цц  | Чч  | Шш  | Щщ
Ъъ  | Ыы  | Ьь  | Ээ  | Юю  | Яя  |

### Modern Standard Altai Alphabet

Their second Cyrillic alphabet had many shortcomings, thus begging for a reform, which was carried out in 1944. The usage of 〈Ёё〉 and 〈Юю〉 /ø~œ/ and /y/ was dropped entirely, being replaced by the adoption of the Institute's second revision's usages of 〈Öö〉, and 〈Ӱӱ〉, for native words. 〈Дь дь〉 was dropped in favour of 〈Јј〉; for 〈Н' н'〉, they finally accepted 〈Ҥҥ〉.

The letters 〈Ёё〉, 〈Юю〉, and 〈Яя〉 are still used, though they are reserved for only non-native, Russian loan-words. So, in modern Standard Altai, the equivalent sounds are written: 〈йа〉, 〈йо〉 and 〈йу〉, for native words. So, words that were written: кая and коён, are now written as: кайа and койон.

Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destinationModern Southern Altai Cyrillic with Names

## Linguistic features

The following features refer to the outcome of commonly used Turkic isoglosses in Northern Altai.[15][16][17]

* */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 among different dialects.

### Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Altai  | Labial  | Alveolar  | Palato-
alveolar  | Palatal  | Velar

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Nasal  |  | m |  | n |  |  |  | ŋ
Plosive  | p | b | t | d |  | c | ɟ | k | ɡ
Affricate  |  |  | tʃ |  |  |
Fricative  |  | s | z | ʃ | ʒ |  |  | x | ɣ
Approximant  |  |  | l |  |  | j |
Rhotic  |  |  | ɾ~r |  |  |

The voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/ varies greatly from dialect to dialect, especially in the initial position, and may be recognized as a voiced affricate /d͡z/. Forms of the word јок "no" include [coq] (Kuu dialect) and [joq] (Kumandy). Even within dialects, this phoneme varies greatly.[18][19][20]

### Vowels

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

Vowel phonemes of Altai  | Front  | Back

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short | long | short | long
Close  | unrounded | i | iː | ɯ | ɯː
rounded | y | yː | u | uː
Open  | unrounded | e | eː | a | aː
rounded | ø | øː | o | oː

## Morphology and syntax

### Pronouns

Altai has six personal pronouns:

Personal pronouns in Standard/Southern dialect  | Singular  | Plural

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1st person
2nd person
3rd person

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

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Acc  | мени  | сени  | оны  | бисти  | слерди  | олорды
Gen  | мениҥ  | сениҥ  | оныҥ  | бистиҥ  | слердиҥ  | олордыҥ
Dat  | меге  | сеге  | ого  | биске  | слерге  | олорго
Loc  | менде  | сенде  | ондо  | бисте  | слерде  | олордо
Abl  | менеҥ  | сенеҥ  | оноҥ  | 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.[21]

Personal pronouns in Qumandin  | Singular  | Plural

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1st person
2nd person
3rd person

## See also

* Telengits, Teleuts (names of related ethnic groups)
* Turkic peoples

## References

1. ↑ "Population of the Russian Federation by Languages (in Russian)". Russian Bureau of Statistics. http://www.gks.ru/free_doc/new_site/perepis2010/croc/Documents/Vol4/pub-04-05.pdf.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Baskakov, N. A. (1958). "La Classification des Dialectes de la Langue Turque d'Altaï" (in fr). Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 8: 9–15. ISSN 0001-6446.
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Kormushin, I. V. (2018). "Алтайский язык". Большая российская энциклопедия/Great Russian Encyclopedia Online. https://bigenc.ru/linguistics/text/5199785.
4. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds (2017). "code retired". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. http://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/alta1276.
5. ↑ Gordon, Raymond G. Jr., ed (2005). "Ethnologue report for Northern Turkic". SIL International. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=92721.
6. ↑ Tekin, Tâlat (January 1989). "A New Classification of the Chuvash-Turkic Languages". Erdem 5 (13): 129–139. ISSN 1010-867X.
7. ↑ Baskakov, Nikolay (1958) (in ru). Алтайский язык. Moscow: Nauka.
8. ↑ Raymond G. Gordon Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
9. ↑ В Алтайском крае издана азбука кумандинского языка. 2006
10. ↑ V. N. Tadikin. Orthography of the Altai language (in Russian) || Orthography of the Turkic literary languages of the USSR. – Moscow: Nauka, 1973
11. ↑ Basic Dates of Altai Book History.
12. ↑ М.S. Katashev. National-language construction in the Mountainous Altai in the 1920s–1930s: Experience, History, Problems. Altai language and culture: modern trends in development. – Gorno-Altaisk, 2016. – pg. 109–116, 260, and 350 – ISBN 978-5-903693-32-0.
13. ↑ А. Тыбыкова. Об усовершенствовании и унификация алфавита алтайского языка (рус.) // Вопросы совершенствования алфавитов тюркских языков СССР. — М.: Наука, 1972. — С. 41–48.
14. ↑ Баскаков, Н.А.; Тощакова, Т.М. (1947). Ойротско-русский словарь. Москва: ОГИЗ. pp. 224–225.
15. ↑ Баскаков, Николай Александрович (1966). Диалект Черневых Татар (Туба-Кижи): грамматический очерк и словарь.. Москва: Наука.
16. ↑ Баскаков, Николай Александрович (1972). Диалект Кумандинцев (Куманды-Кижи): грамматический очерк, тексты, переводы и словарь.. Москва: Наука.
17. ↑ Баскаков, Николай Александрович (1985). Диалект Лебединских Татар-Чалканцев (Куу-Кижи). Москва: Наука.
18. ↑ Baskakov, N.A. (1985) (in ru). A History of Afghanistan. Северные Диалекты Алтайского (Ойротского) Языка. Moscow: Издательство «Наука». ISBN 0-8285-3393-8. OCLC 21048607.
19. ↑ Baskakov, N.A. (1972) (in ru). A History of Afghanistan. Северные Диалекты Алтайского (Ойротского) Языка. Moscow: Издательство «Наука». ISBN 0-8285-3393-8. OCLC 38772803.
20. ↑ Баскаков, Николай Александрович (1997). Алтайский язык.. Москва.
21. ↑ Сатлаев, Ф.А. (n.d.) (in ru). ?: Горно-Алтайская типография.

## External links

|  South Altai language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

|

| North Altai language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

|

* Altai Alphabet
* Altai phrases (Archived 2009-10-25)
* Russian–Altai Online Dictionary

* v
* t
* e

Languages of Russia

Federal language|

* Russian

State languages of federal subjects|

* Abaza
* Adyghe
* Aghul
* Altai
* Southern Altai
* Avar
* Azerbaijani
* Bashkir
* Buryat
* Chechen
* Chuvash
* Crimean Tatar
* Dargwa
* Erzya
* Ingush
* Kabardian
* Kalmyk
* Karachay-Balkar
* Khakas
* Komi
* Kumyk
* Lak
* Lezgian
* Mari
* Hill
* Meadow
* Moksha
* Nogai
* Ossetian
* Rutul
* Sakha
* Tabasaran
* Tat
* Tatar
* Tsakhur
* Tuvan
* Ukrainian
* Udmurt

Languages with official status|

* Chukchi
* Dolgan
* Even
* Evenki
* Finnish
* Karelian
* Kazakh
* Khanty
* Komi-Permyak
* Mansi
* Nenets
* Selkup
* Veps
* Yukaghir

Scripts|

* Cyrillic
* Cyrillic Braille

* v
* t
* e

Turkic languages

Proto-language|

* Proto-Turkic

Common Turkic|

| Arghu|

* Khalaj

|

Karluk|

* Äynu1
* Ili Turki
* Uyghur
* Uzbek
* Extinct
* Middle Turkic
* Khorezmian
* Chagatai

Kipchak|

| Ponto-Caspian|

* Crimean Tatar
* Karachay-Balkar
* Karaim
* Krymchak
* Kumyk
* Urum
* Extinct
* Kipchak
* Cuman

|

Aralo-Caspian|

* Siberian Tatar
* Karakalpak
* Kazakh
* Kyrgyz
* Nogai
* Extinct
* Fergana Kipchak

Uralo-Caspian|

* Bashkir
* Tatar
* Extinct
* Old Tatar

Oghuz|

* Azerbaijani
* Gagauz
* Khorasani Turkic
* Qashqai
* Rumelian Turkish
* Salar
* Turkish
* Turkmen
* Extinct
* Pecheneg2
* Old Anatolian Turkish
* Ottoman Turkish

Siberian|

* Altai
* Chulym
* Dolgan
* Khakas
* Shor
* Tofa
* Tuvan
* Yakut
* Western Yugur2
* Extinct
* Orkhon Turkic
* Old Turkic
* Old Uyghur
* Fuyu Girgis
* Dukhan

Oghur|

* Chuvash
* Extinct
* Khazar2
* Bulgar

* 1 Mixed language.
* 2 Classification disputed.

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