Altai languages
Grouping of two Turkic languages From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Grouping of two Turkic languages From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Altai (Altay: Алтай тил, romanized: Altay til) is a set of Turkic languages spoken officially in the Altai Republic, Russia. The standard vocabulary is based on the Southern Altai language, though it is 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.[5]
| Altai | |
|---|---|
| Gorno–Altai | |
| алтайдыҥ тилин, алтай тил | |
| (ethnically defined) | |
| Geographic distribution | Altai Republic, Altai Krai, Kemerovo Oblast |
| Ethnicity | Altai, including Chelkans, Telengits, Tubalars |
Native speakers | 125,700 (Total of Southern and Northern Altai speakers)[1][2] |
| Linguistic classification | Turkic |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 / 5 | alt |
Either:atv – Northern Altaialt – Southern Altai | |
| Glottolog | None alta1276 (code retired) |
Map of Altai varieties | |
Altai is spoken primarily in the Altai Republic. There is a small community of speakers in the neighbouring Altai Krai as well.
Due to its isolated position in the Altai Mountains and contact with surrounding languages, the exact 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.[6] Due to certain similarities with Kyrgyz, it has been grouped as the Kyrgyz–Kipchak subgroup with the Kypchak languages which is within the Turkic language family.[3][4] A 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.[7]
Though they are traditionally considered one language, Southern Altai is not fully mutually intelligible with the Northern varieties. According to modern classifications—at least since the middle of the 20th century—they are considered to be two separate languages.[8]
Written Altai is based on Southern Altai, and according to Ethnologue is rejected by Northern Altai children.[citation needed] In 2006, a Cyrillic alphabet was created for the Kumandy variety of Northern Altai for use in Altai Krai.[9]
Dialects are as follows:[3]
Closely related to the northern varieties are Kondoma 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.
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Alongside Russian, Altai is an official language of the Altai Republic. The official language is based on the Southern Altai language spoken by the group called the Altay-Kiži, however in the few years it has also spread to the Northern Altai Republic.
The following features refer to the outcome of commonly used Turkic isoglosses in Northern Altai.[10][11][12]
The sounds of the Altai language vary among different dialects.
The voiced palatal plosive /ɟ/ varies greatly from dialect to dialect, especially in the initial position, and may be recognized as a voiced affricate /d͡z/. Forms of the word јок "no" include [coq] (Kuu dialect) and [joq] (Kumandy). Even within dialects, this phoneme varies greatly.[13][14][15]
There are eight vowels in Altai. These vowels may be long or short.
The language was written with the Latin script from 1928 to 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.
The first writing system for Altai was invented by missionaries from the Altai Spiritual Mission in the 1840s; it was based on the Cyrillic alphabet and invented for the Teleut dialect and was used mostly for Church publications.[16] The first books were printed in Altai not long thereafter and in 1868, the first Altai alphabet was published. There was no stable form of this alphabet, and it changed from edition-to-edition.
With this in mind, this is an inventory of some of these letters:
| Аа | Бб | Гг | Дд | Jj | Ее | Жж | Зз | Ii | Йй |
| Кк, К̅ к̅ | Лл | Мм | Нн | Ҥҥ, Н̄ н̄ | Oo | Ӧӧ | Пп | Рр | Сс |
| Тт | Уу | Ӱӱ | Чч | Шш | Ыы | ||||
After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, publishing books into Altai was resumed in 1921,[17] using a script similar to the Missionary's Alphabet. About this time, many post-revolution letters were adopted to better compose Russian words adopted into the language. As such, it took on this form (non-Russian letters bolded):
| Аа | Бб | Вв | Гг | Дд | Јј | Ее | Жж | Зз | Ии |
| Йй | Кк | Лл | Мм | Нн | Ҥҥ | Оо | Ӧӧ | Пп | Рр |
| Сс | Тт | Уу | Ӱӱ | Фф | Хх | Цц | Чч | Шш | Щщ |
| Ъъ | Ыы | Ьь | Ээ | Юю | Яя | ||||
Interestingly, in the same space, many considered adapting the old Mongolian script for use in writing Altai.[18]
The Latin alphabet was eventually adopted and was used from 1922 to 1928. The final version of this alphabet was published in 1931, taking this form:[19]
| Aa | Bʙ | Cc | Çç | Dd | Ee | Ff | Gg | Ii | Jj |
| Kk | Ll | Mm | Nn | ņ | Oo | Ɵɵ | Pp | Rr | Ss |
| Şş | Tt | Uu | Vv | Xx | Yy | Zz | Ƶƶ | Ьь |
The Latin letters correspond as follows to the modern Cyrillic letters:[20]
| Latin (1922–1938) | Modern Cyrillic (after 1944) |
|---|---|
| C | Ч |
| Ç | Ј |
| J | Й |
| ņ | ҥ |
| Ɵ | Ӧ |
| Ş | Ш |
| Y | Ӱ |
| Ƶ | Ж |
| Ь | Ы |
|
In 1938, the Central Research Institute of Language and Writing of the Peoples of the USSR began the project of designing a new alphabet for Altai, based on the Cyrillic script. Their new alphabet consisted of all 33 Russian letters, as well as the digraph ⟨Дь дь⟩ and the letter ⟨Ҥҥ⟩, for the phonemes /d͡ʒ/ and /ŋ/ respectively. However, this was later rejected, because it could not accurately represent all of Altai's phonological inventory.
To amend for this, the Institute's first revised alphabet saw the graphemes ⟨Ёё⟩ and ⟨Юю⟩ for Altai's vowels /ø~œ/ and /y/ fall out of use, and the addition of two digraphs and two letters: ⟨Дь дь⟩ for /d͡ʒ/, ⟨Нъ нъ⟩for /ŋ/, ⟨Ӧӧ⟩ for /ø~œ/, and ⟨Ӱӱ⟩ for /y/. In the second revision, however, ⟨Нъ нъ⟩ was replaced with ⟨Ҥҥ⟩. Thus was created:
| Аа | Бб | Вв | Гг | Дд | Дь дь | Ее | Ёё | Жж | Зз |
| Ии | Йй | Кк | Лл | Мм | Нн | Нъ нъ, Ҥҥ | Оо | Ӧӧ | Пп |
| Рр | Сс | Тт | Уу | Ӱӱ | Фф | Хх | Цц | Чч | Шш |
| Щщ | Ъъ | Ыы | Ьь | Ээ | Юю | Яя |
Altai speakers accepted the first variant, but generally preferred ⟨Н' н'⟩ over ⟨Ҥҥ⟩.
| Аа | Бб | Вв | Гг | Дд | Дь дь | Ее | Ёё | Жж | Зз |
| Ии | Йй | Кк | Лл | Мм | Нн | Н' н' | Оо | Ӧӧ | Пп |
| Рр | Сс | Тт | Уу | Фф | Хх | Цц | Чч | Шш | Щщ |
| Ъъ | Ыы | Ьь | Ээ | Юю | Яя |
|
Their second Cyrillic alphabet had many shortcomings, thus begging for a reform, which was carried out in 1944. The usage of ⟨Ёё⟩ and ⟨Юю⟩ /ø~œ/ and /y/ was dropped entirely, being replaced by the adoption of the Institute's second revision's usages of ⟨Ӧӧ⟩, and ⟨Ӱӱ⟩, for native words. ⟨Дь дь⟩ was dropped in favour of ⟨Јј⟩; for ⟨Н' н'⟩, they finally accepted ⟨Ҥҥ⟩.
The letters ⟨Ёё⟩, ⟨Юю⟩, and ⟨Яя⟩ are still used, though they are reserved for only non-native, Russian loan-words. So, in modern Standard Altai, the equivalent sounds are written as ⟨йа⟩, ⟨йо⟩ and ⟨йу⟩, for native words. So, words that were written as кая 'cliff, rock' and коён 'hare' are now written as кайа and койон respectively.
| А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Д д | Ј ј | Е е | Ё ё |
| Ж ж | З з | И и | Й й | К к | Л л | М м | Н н |
| Ҥ ҥ | О о | Ӧ ӧ | П п | Р р | С с | Т т | У у |
| Ӱ ӱ | Ф ф | Х х | Ц ц | Ч ч | Ш ш | Щ щ | Ъ ъ |
| Ы ы | Ь ь | Э э | Ю ю | Я я |
Altai has six personal pronouns:
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | мен men I |
бис bis we |
| 2nd person | сен sen you (singular) |
слер sler you (plural, formal) |
| 3rd person | ол ol he/she/it |
олор olor they |
The declension of the pronouns is outlined in the following chart.
| Nom | мен | сен | ол | бис | слер | олор |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Acc | мени | сени | оны | бисти | слерди | олорды |
| Gen | мениҥ | сениҥ | оныҥ | бистиҥ | слердиҥ | олордыҥ |
| Dat | меге | сеге | ого | биске | слерге | олорго |
| Loc | менде | сенде | ондо | бисте | слерде | олордо |
| Abl | менеҥ | сенеҥ | оноҥ | бистеҥ | слердеҥ | олордоҥ |
| Inst | мениле | сениле | оныла | бисле | слерле | олорло |
Pronouns in the various dialects vary considerably. For example, the pronouns in the Qumandin dialect follow.[21]
| Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st person | мен men I |
пис pis we |
| 2nd person | сен sen you (singular) |
снер sner you (plural, formal) |
| 3rd person | ол ol he/she/it |
анар anar they |
Bible in Altai language[22]
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