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Altay language
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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.
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.

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Encyclopedia
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.
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.
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.
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 Northen 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:
- Southern Altay
- Altay proper
- Telengit
- Teleut
- 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
The voiced palatal plosive // varies greatly from dialect to dialect, especially in initial position. Form of the word for "no" - ??? (in standard Altay: //) include // (Kuu dialect) and // (Kumandy). Even within dialects this phoneme varies greatly..
Vowels
There are eight vowels in Altay. These vowels may be long or short.
caption| Vowel phonemes of Altay | Short | Long | | Close | Open | Close | Open | | Front | Unrounded | i | e | i? | e? | | Rounded | y | ø | y? | ø? | | Back | Unrounded | | a | | a? | | Rounded | u | o | u? | o? |
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: ) 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 |
|---|
| ??? (men) | I | ??? (bis) | we | | ??? (sen) | you (singular) | ???? (sler) | you (plural, formal) | | ?? (ol) | he/she/it | ???? (olor) | they |
Pronouns in the various dialects vary considerably. For example, the pronouns in the Qumandin dialect follow.
Personal pronouns in Qumandin| Singular | Plural | | Altay (transliteration) | English | Altay (transliteration) | English |
|---|
| ??? (men) | I | ??? (pis) | we | | ??? (sen) | you (singular) | ???? (sner) | you (plural, formal) | | ?? (ol) | he/she/it | ???? (anar) | they |
Sources
See also
External links
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