Altay language

From Free net encyclopedia

{{language |name=Altay |nativename=Алтай тили Altaj tili |states=Russia, Mongolia, China |region=Altai Republic |speakers=71,600 |familycolor=Altaic |fam1=Altaic (disputed) |fam2=Turkic |fam3=Northern Turkic |nation=Altai Republic |iso2=tut |lc1=atv|ld1=Northern Altay|ll1=none |lc2=alt|ld2=Southern Altay|ll2=none}}

Altay is a language of the Turkic group of languages. It is an official language of Altai Republic, Russia. The language was called Oyrot prior to 1948. There were ca. 52,000 people speaking this language in 1989. Two dialects of the Altay language are northern (with the Tuba, Kumandy, and Chalkan varieties named after the main tribes) and southern (with the Altai proper and Telengit varieties).

The language was written with the Latin alphabet from 1928-1938, but has used the Cyrillic alphabet (with the addition of 4 extra letters: Јј, Ҥҥ, Ӧӧ, Ӱӱ) since 1938.

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