Northern Altai language

Last updated
Northern Altai
тÿндÿк алтай тили, tündük altay tili
Native to Russia
Region Altai Republic
Altai Krai
Native speakers
57,000 speakers (2010) [1]
Turkic
Dialects
  • Kumandy
  • Chelkan
  • Tubalar?
Cyrillic
Language codes
ISO 639-3 atv
Glottolog nort2686
ELP Northern Altai
Altay.svg
Map showing the locations of the Northern and Southern Altai varieties in Russia

Northern Altai or Northern Altay is the several triba moribund Turkic dialects spoken in the Altai Republic of Russia. [2] Though traditionally considered one language, Southern Altai and the Northern varieties are not fully mutually intelligible. Written Altai is based on Southern Altai, and is rejected by Northern Altai children. [1]

Contents

Northern Altai is written in Cyrillic. In 2006, in the Altay kray, an alphabet was created for the Kumandin variety. [3]

Phonology

Northern Altai has 8 vowels, which may be long or short, and 20 consonants, plus marginal consonants that occur only in loan words. [4]

Vowels

Northern Altai vowels
Front Back
High i y ɯ u
Low e ø a o

Consonants

Northern Altai consonants
Labial Alveolar Post-alveloar Velar Uvular
Plosive p b t d c k ɡ q
Affricate ts [lower-alpha 1]
Fricative f v s z ʃ ʒ x [lower-alpha 1] ɣ
Nasal m n ŋ
Trill r
Approximant l j
  1. 1 2 Phoneme occurs only in Russian loanwords.

Demographics

According to data from the 2002 Russian Census, 65,534 people in Russia stated that they have command of the Altay language. [5] Only around 10% of them speak Northern Altay varieties, while the remaining speak Southern Altay varieties. Furthermore, according to some data, only 2% of Altays fluently speak the Altay language. [6]

Varieties

Northern Altay consists of the following varieties:

The Tubalar language  [ ru; tr ] (also known as Tuba language), is also often ascribed to belong to the Northern Altai group, but its relation to other languages is dubious and it may belong to Kipchak languages. [10] 408 Tubalars claim to know their national language, and 436 people in all reported knowing Tuba.

Closely related to the northern varieties of Altay are the Kondoma dialect  [ ru; tr ] of the Shor language and the Lower Chulym dialect  [ ru; tr ] of the Chulym language. [10]

Linguistic features

The following features refer to the outcome of commonly used Turkic isoglosses in Northern Altay. [11] [12] [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Turkic languages</span> Language family of Eurasia

The Turkic languages are a language family of more than 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia (Siberia), and West Asia. The Turkic languages originated in a region of East Asia spanning from Mongolia to Northwest China, where Proto-Turkic is thought to have been spoken, from where they expanded to Central Asia and farther west during the first millennium. They are characterized as a dialect continuum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tatar language</span> Turkic language spoken by Tatars

Tatar is a Turkic language spoken by the Volga Tatars mainly located in modern Tatarstan, as well as Siberia. It should not be confused with Crimean Tatar or Siberian Tatar, which are closely related but belong to different subgroups of the Kipchak languages.

Abaza is a Northwest Caucasian language spoken by Abazins in Russia. The language has gone through several different orthographies based primarily on Latin and Cyrillic letters. Its consonant-to-vowel ratio is remarkably high; making it quite similar to many other languages from the same parent chain. The language evolved in popularity in the mid to late 1800s, but has become an endangered language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altai Republic</span> First-level administrative division of Russia

The Altai Republic, also known as Gorno-Altai Republic, and colloquially, and primarily referred to in Russian to distinguish from the neighbouring Altai Krai as the Gornyi Altai, is a republic of Russia located in southern Siberia. The republic borders the Russian federal subjects of Kemerovo Oblast to the north, Khakassia to the northeast, Tuva to the east, Altai Krai to the west, as well it borders three countries: Mongolia to the southeast, China to the south and Kazakhstan to the southwest. It is a part of the Siberian Federal District, and covers an area of 92,903 square kilometers (35,870 sq mi), with a population of 210,924 residents. It is the least-populous republic of Russia and least-populous federal subject in the Siberian Federal District. Gorno-Altaysk is the capital and the largest town of the republic.

Altai is a set of Turkic languages, which are in turn hypothesized by some to be a set of Altaic languages spoken officially in the Altai Republic, Russia. The 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. Gorno–Altai refers to a subgroup of languages in the Altai Mountains.The languages were called Oyrot (ойрот) prior to 1948.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nogai language</span> Kipchak Turkic language of the North Caucasus

Nogai also known as Noğay, Noghay, Nogay, or Nogai Tatar, is a moribund Turkic language spoken in Southeastern European Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. It is the ancestral language of the Nogais. As a member of the Kipchak branch, it is closely related to Kazakh, Karakalpak and Crimean Tatar. In 2014 the first Nogai novel was published, written in the Latin alphabet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kumyk language</span> Kipchak Turkic language

Kumyk is a Turkic language spoken by about 426,212 people, mainly by the Kumyks, in the Dagestan, North Ossetia and Chechen republics of the Russian Federation. Until the 20th century Kumyk was the lingua-franca of the Northern Caucasus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siberian Tatars</span> Indigenous Turkic-speaking ethnic group of South Siberia

Siberian Tatars or Sybyrs/Sibirs are the indigenous Turkic-speaking population of the forests and steppes of Western Siberia, originating in areas stretching from somewhat east of the Ural Mountains to the Yenisey River in Russia. The Siberian Tatars call themselves Yerle Qalıq, to distinguish themselves from more recent Volga Tatar immigrants to the region.

Chulym, also known as Chulim, Chulym-Turkic, is a critically endangered language of the Chulyms. The names which the people use to refer to themselves are 1. пистиҥ кишилер, pistɪŋ kiʃɪler and 2. ось кишилер, øs kiʃɪler. The native designation for the language are ось тил(и), øs til(ɪ) ~ ø:s til(ɪ), and less frequently тадар тил(и), tadar til(ɪ).

The Chelkans are a small group of Turkic Indigenous people of Siberia. They speak the Northern Altai Chelkan language. Those residing in Altai Republic are sometimes grouped together with the Altai ethnic group and those in Kemerovo Oblast are grouped with the Shors; however, they are recognized as a separate ethnic group within the list of Indigenous small-numbered peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East by ethnographers and the Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 255 dated March 24, 2000, and Russian Census (2002). But, during the 2010 census, they were again "united" with the Altaians. According to the 2010 census, there were 1,181 Chelkans in Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teleuts</span>

Teleuts are a Turkic Indigenous people of Siberia living in Kemerovo Oblast, Russia. According to the 2010 census, there were 2,643 Teleuts in Russia. They speak the Teleut language/dialect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kumandins</span> Turkic ethnic group in Siberia

The Kumandins (natively, Kumandy, Kuvandy(g)) are a Turkic Indigenous people of Siberia. They reside mainly in the Altai Krai and Altai Republic of the Russian Federation. They speak the Northern Altai Kumandin language.

The Tubalars are an ethnic subgroup of the Altaians native to the Altai Republic in Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khakas language</span> Northeastern Turkic language

Khakas, also known as Xakas, is a critically endangered Turkic language spoken by the Khakas, who mainly live in the southwestern Siberian Republic of Khakassia, in Russia. The Khakas number 73,000, of whom 42,000 speak the Khakas language. Most Khakas speakers are bilingual in Russian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altai people</span> Turkic people living in the Siberian Altai Republic, Russia

The Altai people, also the Altaians, are a Turkic ethnic group of indigenous peoples of Siberia mainly living in the Altai Republic, Russia. Several thousand of the Altaians also live in Mongolia and China but are not officially recognized as a distinct group and listed under the name "Oirats" as a part of the Mongols, as well as in Kazakhstan where they number around 200. For alternative ethnonyms see also Tele, Black Tatar, and Oirats. During the Northern Yuan dynasty, they were ruled in the administrative area known as Telengid Province.

The Nanai language is spoken by the Nanai people in Siberia, and to a much smaller extent in China's Heilongjiang province, where it is known as Hezhe. The language has about 1,400 speakers out of 17,000 ethnic Nanai, but most are also fluent in Russian or Chinese, and mostly use one of those languages for communication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Altai language</span> Kipchak Turkic language of the Altai Republic, Russia

Southern Altai is a Turkic language spoken in the Altai Republic, a federal subject of Russia located in Southern Siberia on the border with Mongolia and China. The language has some mutual intelligibility with the Northern Altai language, leading to the two being traditionally considered as a single language. According to modern classifications—at least since the middle of the 20th century—they are considered to be two separate languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nikolai Baskakov (linguist)</span> Soviet Turkologist (1905–1996)

Nikolai Aleksandrovich Baskakov was a Soviet Turkologist, linguist, and ethnologist. He created a systematization model of the Turkic language family, and studied Turkic-Russian contacts in the 10-11th centuries CE. During 64 years of scientific work (1930-1994), Baskakov published almost 640 works including 32 books. The main area of Baskakov's scientific interests was linguistics, but he also studied folklore and ethnography of the Turkic peoples, and also was a musician and composer.

The Hinukh are a people of Dagestan living in 2 villages: Genukh, Tsuntinsky District - their 'parent village' and Novomonastyrskoe, Kizlyarsky District - where they settled later and live together with Avars and Dargins and also in the cities of Dagestan. They are being assimilated by the Caucasian Avars.

Siberian Tatar is a moribund Turkic language spoken in Western Siberia, Russia, primarily in the oblasts of Tyumen, Novosibirsk, Omsk but also in Tomsk and Kemerovo. According to Marcel Erdal, due to its particular characteristics, Siberian Tatar can be considered as a bridge to Siberian Turkic languages.

References

  1. 1 2 Northern Altai at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) Closed Access logo transparent.svg
  2. "Northern Altai". ELP Endangered Languages Project . Retrieved 2021-07-15.
  3. В Алтайском крае издана азбука кумандинского языка. 2006
  4. Baskakov, N.A. (1997). "Altaysky yazyk" Алтайский язык[Altai language]. In Institut Jazykoznanija (ed.). Tyurkskie yazykiЯзыки мира: тюркские языки[Languages of the world: Turkic languages]. Jazyki mira / Rossijskaja Akademija Nauk, Institut Jazykoznanija. [Glav. red. koll.: V. N. Jarceva (otv. red.) ...] Biškek: Kyrgyzstan. ISBN   978-5-655-01214-1. OCLC   42579926.
  5. Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года. Том 13. «Коренные малочисленные народы Российской Федерации»
  6. Энциклопедия «Кругосвет»
  7. Russian census figures
  8. Russian census figures
  9. BASKAKOV, N. A. (1958). "LA CLASSIFICATION DES DIALECTES DE LA LANGUE TURQUE D'ALTAÏ". Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 8 (1): 9–15. ISSN   0001-6446. JSTOR   23682215.
  10. 1 2 Tubalarskie ėti︠u︡dy. Tatevosov, S. G. (Sergeĭ Georgievich), Татевосов, С. Г. (Сергей Георгиевич), Moskovskiĭ gosudarstvennyĭ universitet im. M.V. Lomonosova. Filologicheskiĭ fakulʹtet., Московский государственный университет им. М.В. Ломоносова. Филологический факультет. Moskva: IMLI RAN. 2009. ISBN   9785920803504. OCLC   613983309.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  11. Baskakov, Nikolay Aleksandrovich (1966). Диалект Черневых Татар (Туба-Кижи): грамматический очерк и словарь. Moscow: Наука.
  12. Baskakov, Nikolay Aleksandrovich (1972). Диалект Кумандинцев (Куманды-Кижи): грамматический очерк, тексты, переводы и словарь. Москва: Наука.
  13. Baskakov, Nikolay Aleksandrovich (1985). Диалект Лебединских Татар-Чалканцев (Куу-Кижи). Москва: Наука.