Southern Altai (also known as Oirot, Oyrot, Altai and Altai proper) is a Turkic language spoken in the Altai Republic, a federal subject of Russia located in Southern Siberia on the border with Mongolia and China. The language has some mutual intelligibility with the Northern Altai language, leading to the two being traditionally considered as a single language. According to modern classifications—at least since the middle of the 20th century—they are considered to be two separate languages.[5]
Written Altai is based on Southern Altai. According to some reports, however, it is rejected by Northern Altai children. Dialects include Altai Proper and Talangit.[6]
Classification
Southern Altai is a member of the Turkic language family. Within this family, there have been various attempts to classify Altai, and not all of them agree as to its position as it has a number of ambiguous characteristics.[7] Due to certain similarities with Kyrgyz, some scholars group Altai with the Kyrgyz–Kipchak subgroup of the Kypchak languages.[2][3][8]
Geographic distribution
Southern Altai is primarily spoken in the Altai Republic, where it has official status alongside Russian.
Dialects
Baskakov identifies three dialects of Southern Altai, some of which have distinctive sub-varieties:[2]
^ abcBaskakov, N. A. (1958). "La Classification des Dialectes de la Langue Turque d'Altaï". Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae (in French). 8: 9–15. ISSN0001-6446.
^Baskakov, N.A. (1997). "Altaysky yazyk" Алтайский язык [Altai language]. In Institut Jazykoznanija (ed.). Tyurkskie yazyki Языки мира: тюркские языки [Languages of the world: Turkic languages]. Jazyki mira / Rossijskaja Akademija Nauk, Institut Jazykoznanija. [Glav. red. koll.: V. N. Jarceva (otv. red.) ...] Biškek: Kyrgyzstan. ISBN978-5-655-01214-1. OCLC42579926.
^Russko-altaysky slovar. Tom 1: A-O Русско-алтайский словарь. Том I: А – О [Russian-Altai dictionary. Book I: A-O]. Gorno-Altaysk: Nauchno-issledovatelsky institut altaistiki im. S.S. Surazakova. 2015. ISBN978-5-903693-23-8.