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

The Chui dialect can be subdivided in to the following subdialects:

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

The Telengit language differs from the literary form of the Altai language in phonetics and morphology.
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.

But the alphabet used is similar to that used in the Altaic language.: