Yakut language


The Yakut language, also known as Yakutian, Sakha, Saqa or Saxa, is a Turkic language with around 450,000 native speakers spoken in Sakha, a federal republic in the Russian Federation by the Yakuts.
The Yakut language differs from all other Turkic languages in the presence of a layer of vocabulary of unclear origin. There are also a large number of words of Mongolian origin related to ancient borrowings, as well as to the late times of borrowings from the Russian language. Like most Turkic languages and their ancestral Proto-Turkic, Yakut is an agglutinative language and employs vowel harmony.

Classification

Yakut is a member of the Northeastern Common Turkic family of languages, which includes Shor, Tuvan and Dolgan in addition to Yakut. Like all Turkic languages, Yakut has vowel harmony, is agglutinative and has no grammatical gender. Word order is usually subject–object–verb. Yakut has been influenced by Tungusic and Mongolian languages.

Geographic distribution

Yakut is spoken mainly in the Sakha Republic. It is also used by ethnic Yakut in Khabarovsk Region and a small diaspora in other parts of the Russian Federation, Turkey, and other parts of the world. Dolgan, a close relative of Yakut, considered by some a dialect, is spoken by Dolgans in Krasnoyarsk Region. Yakut is widely used as a lingua franca by other ethnic minorities in the Sakha Republic – more Dolgans, Evenks, Evens and Yukagirs speak Yakut than their own languages. About 8% of the people of other ethnicities than Yakut living in Sakha claimed knowledge of the Yakut language during the 2002 census.

Phonology

One characteristic feature of Yakut is vowel harmony. For example, if the first vowel of a Yakut word is a front vowel, the second and other vowels of the same word are usually the same vowel or another front vowel: кэлин "back": э is open unrounded front, и is close unrounded front.

Consonants

Vowels

Writing system

Yakut is written using the Cyrillic script: the modern Yakut alphabet, established in 1939 by the Soviet Union, consists of the usual Russian characters but with five additional letters: Ҕҕ, Ҥҥ, Өө, Һһ, Үү.
Сахалыы сурук-бичик ''Saxalıı suruk-biçik
LetterNameIPANoteLatin translit.
А ааA a
Б ббэB b
В ввэfound only in Russian loanwordsV v
Г ггэG g
Ҕ ҕҕэĞ ğ
Д ддэD d
Дь дьдьэC c or Dj dj
Е ееfound only in Russian loanwordsYe ye or e
Ё ёёfound only in Russian loanwordsYo yo
Ж жжэfound only in Russian loanwordsJ j
З ззэfound only in Russian loanwordsZ z
И ииİ i
Й йыйNasalization of the glide is not indicated in the orthographyY y
К ккыK k
Л лэлL l
М мэмM m
Н нэнN n
Ҥ ҥҥэÑ ñ
Нь ньньэNj nj
О ооO o
Ө өөÖ ö
П ппэP p
Р рэрR r
С сэсS s
Һ һһэH h
Т ттэT t
У ууU u
Ү үүÜ ü
Ф фэфfound only in Russian loanwordsF f
Х ххэH h
Ц ццэfound only in Russian loanwordsTs ts
Ч ччеÇ ç
Ш шшаfound only in Russian loanwordsŞ ş
Щ щщаfound only in Russian loanwordsŞş şş
Ъ ъкытаанах бэлиэfound only in Russian loanwords—
Ы ыыI ı
Ь ьсымнатар бэлиэnatively in дь and нь ; otherwise only in Russian loanwords'
Э ээE e
Ю ююfound only in Russian loanwordsYu yu
Я яяfound only in Russian loanwordsYa ya

Grammar

Syntax

The typical word order can be summarized as subject – adverb – object – verb; possessor – possessed; noun – adjective.

Nouns

Nouns have plural and singular forms. The plural is formed with the suffix /-LAr/, which may surface as -лар, -лэр, -лөр, -лор, -тар, -тэр, -төр, -тор, -дар, -дэр, -дөр, -дор, -нар, -нэр, -нөр, or -нор, depending on the preceding consonants and vowels. The plural is used only when referring to a number of things collectively, not when specifying an amount. Nouns have no gender.
Final sound basicsPlural affix optionsExamples
Vowels, л-лар, -лэр, -лор, -лөрКыыллар, эһэлэр, оҕолор, бөрөлөр
к, п, с, т, х-тар, -тэр, -тор, -төрАттар, күлүктэр, оттор, бөлөхтөр
й, р-дар, -дэр, -дор, -дөрБаайдар, эдэрдэр, хотойдор, көтөрдөр
м, н, ҥ-нар, -нэр, -нор, -нөрКыымнар, илимнэр, ороннор, бөдөҥнөр

Pronouns

Personal pronouns in Yakut distinguish between first, second, and third persons and singular and plural number.
Although nouns have no gender, the pronoun system distinguishes between human and non-human in the third person, using кини to refer to human beings and ол to refer to all other things.

Questions

Question words in Yakut remain in-situ; they do not move to the front of the sentence. Sample question words include:
туох "what", ким "who", хайдах "how", хас "how much", ханна "where", and ханнык "which".

Vocabulary

Numbers

In this table, the Yakut numbers are written in Latin transcription.
Old TurkicAzerbaijaniTurkishYakutEnglish
birbirbirbiirone
ekiikiikiikkitwo
üçüçüçüsthree
törtdörddörttüörtfour
beşbeşbeşbiesfive
altıaltıaltıaltasix
yetiyeddiyedisetteseven
sekizsəkkizsekizağiseight
tokuzdoqquzdokuztoğusnine
onononuonten

Literature

The first printing in Yakut was a part of a book by Nicolaas Witsen published in 1692 in Amsterdam.
In 2005, Marianne Beerle-Moor, director of the Institute for Bible Translation, Russia/CIS, was awarded the Order of Civil Valour by the Yakut Republic for the translation of the New Testament into Yakut.

Oral traditions

The Yakut have a tradition of oral epic in their language called "Olonkho", traditionally performed by skilled performers. Only a very few older performers of this Olonkho tradition are still alive. They have begun a program to teach young people to sing this in their language and revive it, though in a modified form.

Language-related

*
*
*
*