Altay language
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| Altay Алтай тили Altay tili |
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|---|---|---|
| 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 |
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| 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 |
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| 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.
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[edit] 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].
[edit] Geographical distribution
Altay is spoken primarily in the Altai Republic (Southern Altay) and Altai Krai (Northern Altay).
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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)
[edit] Sounds
The sounds of the Altay language vary from dialect to dialect.
[edit] Consonants
| 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].
[edit] Vowels
There are eight vowels in Altay. These vowels may be long or short.
| 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 | |
[edit] 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.
[edit] Morphology and syntax
[edit] Pronouns
Altay has six personal pronouns:
| 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 |
[edit] 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 (in Russian). Moscow: Издательство «Наука». OCLC 21048607.
- ^ Baskakov, N.A. (1972). Диалект Кумандынцев (Куманды-Кижи), Северные Диалекты Алтайского (Ойротского) Языка (in Russian). Moscow: Издательство «Наука». OCLC 38772803.
[edit] See also
- Telengits, Teleuts (names of related ethnic groups)
- Altay Tatars
- Turkic peoples
- Altaic languages
[edit] External links
- Ethnologue report for Northern Altai
- Ethnologue report for Southern Altai
- Altaian Alphabet
- Altay phrases
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