Chelkan language

Chelkan
Kuu-Kizhi, Chalkan
куу, къуу, чалкъанду, шалкъанду
Native to	Russia
Region	Altai Republic
Ethnicity	Chelkans
Native speakers	648 (2021)
Language family	Turkic Siberian Turkic Southern Siberian Northern Altai Chelkan
Writing system	Cyrillic script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	chel1242
A map of the Altai languages, including Chelkan (in red).

Chelkan (also Chalkan, Chalqandu) is a Turkic language spoken in the Altai Republic in Russia by 648 Chelkans.

The Chelkans

Main article: Chelkans

The Chelkans are sometimes called "Lebeds" (Russian: Лебедины, Lebediny), 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 than in literary Altai, for example Chelkan таг versus literary туу 'mountain'.

Consonants in Chelkan

		Labial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal
Nasal		m	n		ɲ	ŋ
Stop	voiceless	p	t			k	/q/
	voiced		d			/g/
Fricative	voiceless		s	ʃ				/ħ/
	voiced	β	z	ʒ		ɣ
Approximant		w	l		j
Vibrant			r

Vowels

Chelkan has vowel harmony.

Vowels of Chelkan

	Front				Back
	unrounded		rounded		unrounded		rounded
	short	long	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i	iː	ʏ	ʏː	ɪ	ɪː	ʊ	ʊː
	e	eː
Mid			œ	œː			ɔ	ɔː
Open							ɑ	ɑː

Orthography

In 2008, an alphabet was created for the Chelkan language. However, only one textbook has been published, "Аба-jыштың-аң-куштары" (Animals and Birds of Primeval Taiga), in 2004.

А а	Б б	В в	Г г	Ӷ ӷ	Д д	Ј ј	Е е	Ё ё	Ж ж
З з	И и	Й й	К к	Л л	М м	Н н	Ң ң	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	Ю ю	Я я

In 2017-18, the alphabet was modified with the addition of the letter Њ њ.

А а	Б б	В в	Г г	Ғ ғ	Д д	Ј ј	Е е	Ё ё	Ж ж
З з	И и	Й й	К к	Қ қ	Л л	М м	Н н	Ҥ ҥ	Њ њ
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	Ю ю	Я я

Sources

• (ru) Баскаков, Н.A., Диалект чернёвых татар (туба-кижи), Северные диалекты алтаиского (ойротского) языка, 2 volumes, Moscou, Nauka, 1965–1966.

External links

• Ethnologue: Languages of the World (unknown ed.). SIL International., which is incorrect about Northern Altai dialects, for which it gives names of southern dialects as alternative names.