Native to Russia Writing system Cyrillic | Ethnicity Altai, Tubalar, etc. | |
Region Altai Republic (Southern Altai), Altai Krai (Northern Altai) Native speakers 57,000 (2010 census)
(may not all be fluent) Language family Turkic
Common Turkic
Siberian Turkic
Altai | ||
Gorno-Altai (also Gorno-Altay) is a Turkic language, spoken officially in the Altai Republic, Russia. The language was called Oyrot prior to 1948.
Contents
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. 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.
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. In 2006, a Cyrillic alphabet was created for the Kumandy variety of Northern Altai for use in Altai Krai.
Dialects are as follows:
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.
Sounds
The sounds of the Altai language vary from dialect to dialect.
Consonants
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.
Vowels
There are eight vowels in Altai. These vowels may be long or short.
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 [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.
Pronouns
Altai has six personal pronouns:
The declension of the pronouns is outlined in the following chart.
Pronouns in the various dialects vary considerably. For example, the pronouns in the Qumandin dialect follow.