Altai language


Altai is a Turkic language, spoken officially in the Altai Republic, Russia. The language was called Oyrot prior to 1948.

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 which is within the Turkic language family. 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 and Altai Krai.

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.

Orthography

The language was written with the Latin script from 1928–1938, but has used Cyrillic since 1938.
The letter Ÿ is sometimes used instead of Ӱ.

Missionary's Cyrillic Alphabet

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. The first books were printed in Altai not long thereafter and in 1868, the first Altaic 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:

First Cyrillic Alphabet (1922-1928)

After the Bolshevic Revolution in 1917, publishing books into Altai was resumed in 1921, 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 :
Interestingly, in the same space, many considered adapting the old Mongolian Script for use in writing Altai.

Latin Alphabet (1928-1938)

The Latin Alphabet was eventually adopted and was used from 1922-1928. The final version of this alphabet was published in 1931, taking this form:
AaBʙCcÇçDdEeFfGgIiJj
KkLlMmNnꞐꞑOoӨөPpRrSs
ŞşTtUuVvXxYyZzƵƶЬь

Second Cyrillic Alphabet (1938-1944)

In 1938, the Central Research Institute of Language and Writing of the Peoples of the USSR began a project of designing a new Altaic Alphabet, based on the Cyrillic script. Their new alphabet consisted of all 33 Russian letters, as well as the additions of the digraph 〈Дь дь〉 and the letter 〈Ҥҥ〉, for the phonemes /d͡ʒ/ and /ŋ/, respectively. However, this was later rejected, because it could not contain for all of Altai's phonological inventory. So too, was the use of 〈Ёё〉 and 〈Юю〉 for Altai's vowels /ø~œ/ and /y/ removed.
To amend, the Institute's first revised alphabet contained the base Russian with the edition of four extras, two digraphs and two letters: 〈Дь дь〉, 〈Нъ нъ〉, 〈Öö〉, and 〈Ӱӱ〉 for the sounds: /d͡ʒ/, /ŋ/, /ø~œ/, and /y/ respectively. In its second revision, however, 〈Нъ нъ〉 was replaced with 〈Ҥҥ〉. Thus was born:
Though, the speakers of Altai accepted the first variant, but preferring 〈Н' н'〉 over 〈Ҥҥ〉.

Modern Standard Altai Alphabet

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 〈Öö〉, 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: 〈йа〉, 〈йо〉 and 〈йу〉, for native words. So, words that were written: кая and коён, are now written as: кайа and койон.

Linguistic features

The following features refer to the outcome of commonly used Turkic isoglosses in Northern Altai.
The sounds of the Altai language vary among different dialects.

Consonants

The voiced palatal plosive varies greatly from dialect to dialect, especially in the initial position, and may be recognized as a voiced affricate. Forms of the word јок "no" include and . Even within dialects, this phoneme varies greatly.

Vowels

There are eight vowels in Altai. These vowels may be long or short.

Morphology and syntax

Pronouns

Altai has six personal pronouns:
The declension of the pronouns is outlined in the following chart.
Nomменсенолбисслеролор
Accменисенионыбистислердиолорды
Genмениҥсениҥоныҥбистиҥслердиҥолордыҥ
Datмегесегеогобискеслергеолорго
Locмендесендеандабистеслердеолордо
Ablмендеҥсендеҥондоҥбистеҥслердеҥолордоҥ
Instменилесенилеонылабислеслерлеолорло

Pronouns in the various dialects vary considerably. For example, the pronouns in the Qumandin dialect follow.