ALTAI, SOUTHERN (Russia, Asia)

Family
Siberian-Turkish

Country
Russia, Asia

Language code
ALT

Continent
Asia

Alternate language names
OIROT, OYROT, ALTAI

Dialect names
ALTAI PROPER (ALTAI-KIZHI, ALTAJ KIZI, MAI-NA-KIZHI, SOUTHERN ALTAI), TALANGIT (TALANGIT-TOLOS, CHUY)

Genetic affiliation
Altaic, Turkic, Northern

Geographical region
Gorno-Altai AO mountains, bordering on Mongolia and China

Population
51,600 mother tongue speakers (86%) out of an ethnic population of 60,000, including Northern Altai (1979 census)

Bilingual in
Russian

Printings of whole books of Bible
1910

Status
Work in progress

Remarks
Has literary status. Cyrillic alphabet. Northern Altai and Southern Altai are not inherently intelli- gible, although there is a dialect continuum between them. Written Altai is based on Southern Altai, but is rejected by Northern Altai children. Teleut is considered a separate language outside the A.O. Different from Oirat (Kalmyk-Oirat), a Mongolian language. Russian is used as the second language by all except older people as a contact language, for litera- ture, and urban professional and cultural life. Altai is used in the familiar sphere and with speakers of other Turkic varieties

Religion
Secularist

Total speakers
51,600