Chelkan language

Chelkan is a Turkic language spoken in the Altai Republic in Russia by 648 Chelkans.

The Chelkans

The Chelkans are sometimes called "Lebeds", of the name of the river which runs through the Altai Republic, or Qu'Kiji. In the 2002 Russian census, their population rose to 855 people.

Classification

Chelkan is classified in the Siberian Turkic languages. It is considered to be a dialect of Northern Altai. The Chelkan, aside from knowing Chelkan, can also understand Tubalar and Kumandin, which comprise the Northern Altai language.

Phonology

Consonants

The word-final guttural phonemes of Chelkan are more stable then in literary Altai, for example Chelkan таг versus literary туу 'mountain'.

Vowels

Chelkan has vowel harmony.

Orthography

In 2008, an alphabet was created for the Chelkan language. However, only one textbook has been published, "Аба-jыштың-аң-куштары", in 2004.
In 2017-18, the alphabet was modified with the addition of the letter Њ њ.