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 theShor andKhakas languages, some classifications place it in a Northern Turkic subgroup.[9]Due to certain similarities withKyrgyz, it has been grouped as the Kyrgyz–Kipchak subgroup with theKypchak languages which is within the Turkic language family.[3][4] A classification byTalat Tekin places Southern Altai in its own subgroup within Turkic and groups the Northern Altai dialects withLower Chulym and the Kondoma dialect ofShor.[10]
Though they are traditionally considered one language,Southern Altai is not fully mutually intelligible with theNorthern varieties. According to modern classifications—at least since the middle of the 20th century—they are considered to be two separate languages.[11]
Altai is an official language of theAltai Republic, alongsideRussian. The official Altai language is based on theSouthern Altai language spoken by the group called the Altay-Kiži, however in the few years it has also spread to the Northern Altai Republic.[13]
Thevoiced 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 wordјок "no" include[coq] (Kuu dialect) and[joq] (Kumandy). Even within dialects, this phoneme varies greatly.[17][18][19]
The language was written with theLatin script from 1928 to 1938, but has usedCyrillic (with the addition of 9 extra letters: Јј[d͡z~ɟ], Ҥҥ[ŋ], Ӧӧ[ø~œ], Ӱӱ[y~ʏ], Ғғ[ʁ], Ққ[q], Һһ[h], Ҷҷ[d͡ʑ], Ii[ɪ]) since 1938.
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 theTeleut dialect, and was used mostly for Church publications.[20] 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:
After the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, publishing books into Altai was resumed in 1921,[21] 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 oldMongolian script for use in writing Altai.[22]
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:[23]
Aa
Bʙ
Cc
Çç
Dd
Ee
Ff
Gg
Ii
Jj
Kk
Ll
Mm
Nn
Ŋŋ
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:[24]
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. Its new alphabet consisted of all 33 Russian letters, as well as the letter⟨Іі⟩, digraph⟨Дь дь⟩ and the letter⟨Ҥҥ⟩, for the phonemes [ɪ], [d͡ʒ] and [ŋ] respectively. However, this proposal was later rejected, because it could not accurately represent all of Altai's phonological inventory.
To amend for this deficiency, 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
Іі
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
Altai speakers accepted the first variant, but generally preferred⟨Н' н'⟩ over⟨Ҥҥ⟩.
The Institute's 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; in modern Standard Altai, the equivalent sounds are written as⟨йа⟩,⟨йо⟩ and⟨йу⟩, for native words. Words that were written asкая "cliff, rock" andкоён "hare" are now written asкайа andкойон respectively.
^abcBaskakov, N. A. (1958). "La Classification Des Dialectes De La Langue Turque D'altaï" [Classification of dialects of the Altai Turkic language].Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae (in French).8 (1):9–15.JSTOR23682215.
^Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva Ágnes (2022).The Turkic Languages (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 9.[ISBN missing]
^Johanson, L. (2006). "Altaic Languages".Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics. pp. 170–172.doi:10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/02093-9.ISBN978-0-08-044854-1.The Altaic languages include Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic, and sometimes also Korean and Japanese. Common typological features are an agglutinative suffixing word structure, sound harmony, verb-final word order, and the use of numerous nonfinite verb constructions.
^Баскаков, Николай Александрович (1966).Диалект Черневых Татар (Туба-Кижи): грамматический очерк и словарь. Москва: Наука.
^Баскаков, Николай Александрович (1972).Диалект Кумандинцев (Куманды-Кижи): грамматический очерк, тексты, переводы и словарь. Москва: Наука.
^Баскаков, Николай Александрович (1985).Диалект Лебединских Татар-Чалканцев (Куу-Кижи). Москва: Наука.
^Baskakov, N.A. (1985).A History of AfghanistanДиалект Лебединских Татар-Чалканцев (Куу-Кижи). Северные Диалекты Алтайского (Ойротского) Языка (in Russian).Moscow: Издательство «Наука».ISBN0-8285-3393-8.OCLC21048607.[page needed]
^Baskakov, N.A. (1972).A History of AfghanistanДиалект Кумандынцев (Куманды-Кижи). Северные Диалекты Алтайского (Ойротского) Языка (in Russian).Moscow: Издательство «Наука».ISBN0-8285-3393-8.OCLC38772803.[page needed]
^Баскаков, Николай Александрович (1997).Алтайский язык. Москва.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^V. N. Tadikin. Orthography of the Altai language (in Russian) || Orthography of the Turkic literary languages of the USSR. – Moscow: Nauka, 1973
^М.S. Katashev. National-language construction in the Mountainous Altai in the 1920s–1930s: Experience, History, Problems.Altai language and culture: modern trends in development. – Gorno-Altaisk, 2016. – pg. 109–116, 260, and 350 –ISBN978-5-903693-32-0.[verification needed]
^А. Тыбыкова. Об усовершенствовании и унификация алфавита алтайского языка (рус.) // Вопросы совершенствования алфавитов тюркских языков СССР. — М.: Наука, 1972. — С. 41–48.
^Баскаков, Н.А.; Тощакова, Т.М. (1947).Ойротско-русский словарь. Москва: ОГИЗ. pp. 224–225.
^Сатлаев, Ф.А. (n.d.).Учитесь говорить по-кумандински, русско-кумандинский разговорник (in Russian). ?: Горно-Алтайская типография.
1These are traditional areas of settlement; the Turkic group has been living in the listed country/region for centuries and should not be confused with modern diasporas. 2State with limited international recognition.
