Northern Altai or Northern Altay is one of two Turkic

Turkic languages

The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...

 languages spoken in the Altay Republic of Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

 on the border of Mongolia

Mongolia

Mongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...

, the People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

, and Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

. Though traditionally considered one language, Southern Altai

Southern Altai language

Southern Altai is a Turkic language spoken in the Gorno-Altai Ao mountains of Russia on the border of Mongolia and the People's Republic of China. There is no mutual intelligibility with Northern Altai. Written Altai is based on Southern Altai, but is rejected by Northern Altai children. Dialects...

 is not fully mutually intelligible with the Northern varieties. Written Altai

Altay language

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...

 is based on Southern Altai, and is rejected by Northern Altai children.

Northern Altay is written in Cyrillic. In 2006, in the Altay kray

Altai Krai

Altai Krai is a federal subject of Russia . It borders with, clockwise from the south, Kazakhstan, Novosibirsk and Kemerovo Oblasts, and the Altai Republic. The krai's administrative center is the city of Barnaul...

, an alphabet was created for the Kumandy variety.

Demographics

According to data from the 2002 Russian Census

Russian Census (2002)

Russian Census of 2002 was the first census of the Russian Federation carried out on October 9 through October 16, 2002. It was carried out by the Russian Federal Service of State Statistics .-Resident population:...

, 65534 people in Russia stated that they have command of the Altay language. Only around 10% of them speak Northern Altay varieties, while the remaining speak Southern Altay varieties. Furthermore, according to some data, only 2% of Altays fluently speak the Altay language.

Varieties

Northern Altay consists of the following varieties:

• Kumandy (also Qubandy/Quwandy). 1862 Kumandys claim to know their national language, but 1044 people were registered as knowing Kumandy.
• Chalkan (also Kuu/Quu, Chalkandu/Shalkanduu, Lebedin). 466 Chalkans claim to speak their national language, and 539 people in all claim to know Chalkan.
• Tuba (also Tubalar). 408 Tubalars claim to know their national language, and 436 people in all reported knowing Tuba.

Also closely related to the northern varieties of Altay are Kondom Shor

Shor

Shor may refer to:* Shor , 1971 Hindi movie* Shor people, an indigenous ethnic group of southern Siberia* Shor language, one of the Turkic languages* Shor's algorithm, quantum algorithm for factoring a number N in O time and O space...

 and Lower Chulym

Chulym language

Chulym , also known as Chulim, Chulym-Turkic, Küerik, Chulym Tatar or Melets Tatar is the language of the Chulyms. The name the people use to refer to themselves, and also to their language, is Ös, literally ‘self’ or ‘own’...

 (which have -j- for proto-Turkic inter-vocalic *d), unlike Mras Shor

Shor

Shor may refer to:* Shor , 1971 Hindi movie* Shor people, an indigenous ethnic group of southern Siberia* Shor language, one of the Turkic languages* Shor's algorithm, quantum algorithm for factoring a number N in O time and O space...

 and Middle Chulym

Chulym language

Chulym , also known as Chulim, Chulym-Turkic, Küerik, Chulym Tatar or Melets Tatar is the language of the Chulyms. The name the people use to refer to themselves, and also to their language, is Ös, literally ‘self’ or ‘own’...

 (which have -z- for proto-Turkic inter-vocalic *d) and are closer to Khakas

Khakas

The Khakas, or Khakass , are a Turkic-speaking people, who live in Russia, in the republic of Khakassia in southern Siberia. They speak the Khakas language.The origin of the Khakas people is disputed...

.

Linguistic features

The following features refer to the outcome of commonly used Turkic isoglosses in Northern Altay.

• */ag/ — Proto-Turkic */ag/ is found in three variations throughout Northern Altay: /u/, /aw/, /aʁ/
• */eb/ — Proto-Turkic */eb/ is found as either /yj/ or /yg/, depending on the variety
• */VdV/ — With a few lexical exceptions (likely borrowings), proto-Turkic intervocalic */d/ results in /j/.