Altai languages

Altai or Altay is a group of languages from the Turkic languages family. These languages are used in the Altai Republic in Russia. The main language used as a base is called Southern Altai, but people who speak Northern Altai also use it. Before 1948, these languages were known as Oyrot.

People mainly speak Altai in the Altai Republic. There are also a few speakers living close by in Altai Krai. The Altai languages are part of the rich culture in the Altai Mountains.

Classification

Altai is a group of languages spoken in the Altai Republic in Russia. Because it is located in the Altai Mountains and has been influenced by nearby languages, people have disagreed about exactly how Altai fits into the larger family of Turkic languages.

Some experts think Altai belongs to a group called Northern Turkic because of its closeness to the Shor and Khakas languages. Others believe it should be grouped with Kyrgyz and the Kypchak languages because of some similarities. One classification by Talat Tekin places Southern Altai in its own subgroup and groups Northern Altai with Lower Chulym and a dialect of Shor.

Varieties

Although often thought of as one language, Southern Altai and the Northern varieties are not fully understood by speakers of each other. Since the middle of the 20th century, they have been considered two separate languages.

Written Altai is based on Southern Altai, and Ethnologue reports that children who speak Northern Altai do not accept this written form. In 2006, a Cyrillic alphabet was created for the Kumandy variety of Northern Altai to be used in Altai Krai.

The main varieties include:

• Southern Altai
  • Altai proper
    • Mayma
  • Telengit
    • Tölös
    • Chuy
  • Teleut
• Northern Altai
  • Tuba
  • Kumandy
    • Turachak
    • Solton
    • Starobardinian
  • Chalkan (also called Kuu, Lebedin)

Closely related to the northern varieties are Kondoma Shor and Lower Chulym.

Official status

Altai is one of the official languages of the Altai Republic, along with Russian. The version of Altai used officially is based on the Southern Altai language, which is spoken by a group known as the Altay-Kiži. Recently, this version has also been used by people who speak the Northern Altai language.

Linguistic features

The Altai languages have special sounds that change in different ways. For example, a sound from old Turkic words can turn into different sounds like /u/, /aw/, or /aʁ/ in Northern Altai. Another sound can become either /yj/ or /yg/, depending on which version of the language you hear. And a certain sound between vowels usually becomes /j/, with just a few exceptions.

Phonology

The sounds of the Altai language change depending on the different dialects spoken.

The way some sounds are made can vary a lot, especially at the start of words. For example, the sound in the word for "no" can be said in different ways in different areas.

Altai has eight vowel sounds, and these vowels can be said for a short time or a longer time.

Orthography

The Altai language used the Latin script from 1928 to 1938. Since 1938, it has used the Cyrillic script with nine extra letters: Јј, Ҥҥ, Ӧӧ, Ӱӱ, Ғғ, Ққ, Һһ, Ҷҷ, and Ii.

The letter Ÿ is sometimes used instead of Ӱ.

Missionary's Cyrillic alphabet

The first writing system for Altai was created by missionaries in the 1840s. It was based on the Cyrillic alphabet and was used for the Teleut dialect, mainly for church books. The first Altai books were printed not long after, and the first Altai alphabet was published in 1868. This early alphabet changed often and did not have a stable form.

First Cyrillic alphabet (1922–1928)

After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, book publishing in Altai started again in 1921, using a script similar to the Missionary's Alphabet. Many new letters were added to better write Russian words that were used in Altai. This alphabet looked like this:

Some people thought about using the old Mongolian script for writing Altai.

Latin alphabet (1928–1938)

The Latin alphabet was used from 1928 to 1938. The final version of this alphabet was published in 1931 and looked like this:

The Latin letters match the modern Cyrillic letters as follows:

Second Cyrillic alphabet (1938–1944)

In 1938, a new alphabet was designed for Altai based on the Cyrillic script. The first version included all 33 Russian letters plus some new ones, but it could not show all Altai sounds correctly. Changes were made to fix this, adding and changing some letters and digraphs. Altai speakers liked one version better than another.

Modern Standard Altai alphabet

In 1944, the alphabet was changed again to fix problems. The letters Ёё and Юю were dropped for native words and replaced with Ӧӧ and Ӱӱ. The letter Дь дь was replaced with Јј, and Н' н' was replaced with Ҥҥ.

The letters Ёё, Юю, and Яя are still used only for Russian loan-words. In modern Standard Altai, these sounds are written as йа, йо, and йу for native words. For example, the words кая "cliff, rock" and коён "hare" are now written as кайа and койон.

Morphology and syntax

Altai has six personal pronouns. These pronouns change in form depending on how they are used in sentences, and this change is shown in a chart.

The way pronouns are used can differ a lot between dialects. For instance, the Qumandin dialect uses pronouns that are different from the main Altai forms.

Sample text

The Bible in Altai