- Altay language
-
Not to be confused with Altaic languages.
Altay Алтай тили Altay tili Spoken in Russia, Mongolia, China Region Altai Republic (Southern Altay), Altai Krai (Northern Altay) Ethnicity Altay, Tubalar, etc. Native speakers 20,000 (1993)[1]
70,000 with 'knowledge' of Altay (2002 census)[2][3]Language family Turkic- Siberian Turkic
- Altay
Official status Regulated by No official regulation Language codes ISO 639-3 either:
atv – Northern Altai
alt – Southern AltaiThis page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. Altay (also Altai) 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.
Contents
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 Northern 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
- Altay proper
- 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
approximantsl The voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/ varies greatly from dialect to dialect, especially in initial position. Form of the word јок "no" 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 Rounded y ø yː øː Back Unrounded ɯ a ɯː aː 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
- ^ Altay language at Ethnologue
- ^ Распространенность владения языками (кроме русского) Knowledge of languages other than Russian(Russian)
- ^ Includes speakers who identify as Altay and Teleut (67,900), plus Tubalar (1,600).
- ^ Gordon, Raymond G., Jr., ed (2005). "Ethnologue report for Northern Turkic". SIL International. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=92721. Retrieved 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) (in Russian). Диалект Лебединских Татар-Чалканцев (Куу-Кижи). Северные Диалекты Алтайского (Ойротского) Языка. Moscow: Издательство «Наука». ISBN 0828533938. OCLC 21048607.
- ^ Baskakov, N.A. (1972) (in Russian). Диалект Кумандынцев (Куманды-Кижи). Северные Диалекты Алтайского (Ойротского) Языка. Moscow: Издательство «Наука». ISBN 0828533938. OCLC 38772803.
- ^ Сатлаев, Ф.А. (?) (in Russian). Учитесь говорить по-кумандински, русско-кумандинский разговорник. ?: Горно-Алтайская типография.
See also
- Telengits, Teleuts (names of related ethnic groups)
- Altay Tatars
- Turkic peoples
External links
- Ethnologue report for Northern Altai
- Ethnologue report for Southern Altai
- Altaian Alphabet
- Altay phrases (Archived 2009-10-25)
- Russian-Altay On-Line Dictionary (a)
- Russian-Altay On-Line Dictionary (b)
Turkic languages Italics indicate extinct languagesOghur Uyghuric Kypchak Oghuz Afshar · Azerbaijani · Crimean Tatar · Gagauz · Balkan Gagauz Turkish · Khorasani Turkic · Old Anatolian Turkish · Ottoman Turkish · Pecheneg 3 · Qashqai · Salar · Turkish · Turkmen · UrumArghu Siberian 1 Mixed language. 2 Also Oghuz. 3 Classification disputed.Categories:- Agglutinative languages
- Turkic languages
- Languages of Russia
- Languages of Mongolia
- Languages of China
- Altai
- Altai Republic
- Siberian Turkic
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
