Telengit is a Turkic language spoken in the Altai Republic in Russia by the Telengits.[2] It is widespread in the Kosh-Agach and Ulagan districts of the Altai Republic.[1]

Telengit
Телеҥит тил
Native toRussia
RegionAltai Republic
Ethnicity15,000 Telengits (no date)[1]
Native speakers
(undated figure of c. 15,000)[1]
DialectsTelengit-Teles
  • Balyktuyul
  • Kara-Kudyur
  • Chibilin
  • Saratan-Yazulin
    • Saratan
    • Yuzulin
  • Cholushman
  • Chibit
Chui
Cyrillic
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottologtala1279
A map of the Altai languages, including Telengit (in orange).

The Telengit are also known as the Telengit-kiji or Chui-kiji.

Classification

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It is classified as a Siberian Turkic language. It is considered to be a dialect of the Southern Altai language, along with the Teleut and the literary varieties.

Dialects

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The Telengit language can be divided into two main dialects, the Telengit-Teles and Chui dialects.

Linguistic characteristics

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The Telengit language differs from the literary form of the Altai language in phonetics and morphology.

Instead of the initial [ш], [ч] is used. For example, Telengit "чирдек", Altay: ширдек, English: felt carpet. Also, in the roots of words, [ш] is used instead of [ч] (Telengit "тепчи", Altay: тепши, English: bowl).[3]

The sounds [ф], [в], [ш], [ж], [щ], [ц] are not native Telengit and are found mainly in borrowings from the Russian language.[1]

Alphabet

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An alphabet for the Ulagan dialect was proposed in 2016.[4]

Ulagan Telengit alphabet[5]
а б ӷ ғ д j и й к қ л м н ҥ о ӧ ҧ р с т у ӱ ч х ш ы э ӓ

Another variant of the alphabet, similar to that of the Altai:[citation needed]

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

Notes and references

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  1. ^ a b c d "Теленгитский язык | Малые языки России". minlang.iling-ran.ru.
  2. ^ "Теленгитский язык — все самое интересное на ПостНауке". postnauka.ru (in Russian).
  3. ^ "Исследования по теленгитскому диалекту алтайского языка" (PDF) (in Russian). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-01-21.
  4. ^ Тазранова 2021.
  5. ^ Алмадакова 2017b, p. 39.

Sources

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