Telengit language
Telengit is a Turkic language spoken in the Altai Republic in Russia by the Telengits. It is widespread in the Kosh-Agach and Ulagan districts of the Altai Republic.
The Telengit are also known as the Telengit-kiji or Chui-kiji.
Classification
It is classified as a Kyrgyz-Kipchak. It is considered to be a dialect of the Southern Altai language, along with the Teleut and the literary varieties.Dialects
The Telengit language can be divided into two main dialects, the Telengit-Teles and Chui dialects.The Telengit-Teles dialect can be subdivided in to the following subdialects:
- Balyktuyul
- Kara-Kudyur
- Chibilin
- Saratan-Yazulin
- *Saratan
- *Yuzulin
- Cholushman
- Chibit
- Kosh-Agach
- Jazzator - This subdialect has a unique feature that is not typical of other dialects of the Altaic language: affixes with a wide rounded vowel occur after bases with a narrow rounded vowel .
Comparison with standard Altai
Instead of the initial , is used. For example, Telengit чирдек, 'felt carpet'. Also, in the roots of words, is used instead of .
The sounds , , , , , are not native Telengit and are found mainly in borrowings from the Russian language.
Alphabet
An alphabet for the Ulagan dialect was proposed in 2016.| 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 |
But the alphabet used is similar to that used in the Altaic language.: