Endangered Languages Project - Southern Altai

Southern Altai

^{[aka Altai Kalmuck, Oirot, южноалтайский язык]}

Classification: Turkic

·

threatened

ALSO KNOWN AS		Altai Kalmuck, Oirot, южноалтайский язык, алтай тили, Oyrot, Altai
CLASSIFICATION		Turkic, South Siberian
CODE AUTHORITY		ISO 639-3
LANGUAGE CODE		alt
VARIANTS & DIALECTS		Telengit Teleut Tuba Qumanda Qü Talangit Altai Proper
DOWNLOAD		As csv
MORE RESOURCES		OLAC search
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS		The Altay language is divided into two large groups: the southern group consists of the languages of the Altay, Teleuts and Telengits, the northern group of the Kumandin and Chelkan languages. The northern dialects of Altay belong to the eastern branch of the Uighur-Oguz group, the southern dialects to the Kirgiz-Kipchak group. The linguistic differences between the northern and the southern dialectal groups are so big that they seriously hamper mutual comprehension. The northern dialects of Altay are close to the Kondoma dialect of the Shor language. (The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire)

Compare Sources (7)

Information from: “Red Book on Endangered Languages: Northeast Asia” . Juha Janhunen; Tapani Salminen (2000)

Threatened

80 percent certain, based on the evidence available
<20,000
Native speakers worldwide
Ethnic population
40,000

DATE OF INFO: 1993

SPEAKER NUMBER TRENDS
TRANSMISSION
OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY
LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS: Under increasing interference from Russian, the universal second language of the speakers; triggered by both social and ecological problems, there is, however, a current rise of nationalism, which may improve the position of the native language

PLACES: Russia

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: in the central and southwestern river valleys of the Altai region (Russian Altai), mainly within the Altai (Gorno-Altai) Republic, southern Siberia

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
20,000
Native speakers worldwide

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
53,220
Native speakers worldwide
Ethnic population
60,000
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
Source: According to the 1959 census the Altaics numbered either 44,654 or 45,300 (according to different sources), 88.7 %% of whom were native speakers. According to the 1979 census data the total number of Altaics was approximately 60,000 of whom 50,203 lived in the autonomous region.

DATE OF INFO: 1979

Scripts (Writing system): Cyrillic alphabet

Threatened

80 percent certain, based on the evidence available
61,000
Native speakers worldwide
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
Combined figure of both Southern and Northern Altay.

DATE OF INFO: 1989

SPEAKER NUMBER TRENDS
TRANSMISSION
LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS: There is currently a rise of nationalism,
which may improve the position of the native language. The speakers of Teleut, in particular, have recently shown interest in national renaissance, which might lead to the revigoration of the native language.

PLACES: Siberia

LOCATION DESCRIPTION: Spoken in the central and southwestern river valleys of the Altay area in southern Siberia.

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
20,000
Native speakers worldwide
Ethnic population
67,239
MORE ON SPEAKER NUMBERS
Data for the number of native speakers comes from (1993 J. Janhunen). Data for the ethnic population includes "Northern Altai [atv] but excluding 2,399 Talangits and 2,650 Teleuts, 2002 census."

PLACES: Russia;

Vulnerable

20 percent certain, based on the evidence available
50,000
Native speakers worldwide

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Compare Sources (2)

Information from: “The World Atlas of Language Structures” . Bernard Comrie and David Gil and Martin Haspelmath and Matthew S. Dryer · Oxford University Press