Altai language

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Not to be confused with Altaic languages.
Altai
Алтай тили
Altay tili
Native to Russia
Region Altai Republic (Southern Altai), Altai Krai (Northern Altai)
Ethnicity Altai, Tubalar, etc.
Native speakers
 57,000 (2010 census)[1]
(may not all be fluent)
Cyrillic
Official status
Official language in
 Altai Republic (Russia)
Language codes
ISO 639-2 alt
ISO 639-3 Either:
atv – Northern Altai
alt – Southern Altai
Glottolog alta1276[2]
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Gorno-Altai (also Gorno-Altay) is a Turkic language, spoken officially in the Altai Republic, Russia. The language was called Oyrot 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.[3] Due to certain similarities with Kyrgyz, it has been grouped with the Kypchak languages. 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.[4]

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.[5] In 2006, a Cyrillic alphabet was created for the Kumandy variety of Northern Altai for use in Altai Krai.[6]

Dialects are as follows:[7]

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.

Linguistic features

The following features refer to the outcome of commonly used Turkic isoglosses in Northern Altai.[8][9][10]

  • */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/.

Sounds

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 ʃ ʒ 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.[11][12]

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
rounded y yː ø øː
Back unrounded ɯ ɯː a aː
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(/ɟ/ or /dz/), Ҥҥ(/ŋ/), Ӧӧ(/œ/), Ӱӱ(/y/), 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

Pronouns in the various dialects vary considerably. For example, the pronouns in the Qumandin dialect follow.[13]

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

See also

References

  1. ↑ Northern Altai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
    Southern Altai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ Raymond G. Gordon, Jr, ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
  6. ↑ В Алтайском крае издана азбука кумандинского языка. 2006
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

External links

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