Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 10, 2026

Teleut language

Teleut is a moribund Turkic language spoken in the Altai Republic in Russia, spoken by Teleuts. It is sometimes considered a dialect of Southern Altai, but also as its own language. Since 2000, the Russian government has officially recognised it as a distinct language. It was the basis for the Altai literary language before 1917.

Last revised
Jun 10, 2026
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≈ 2 min
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Wikipedia ↗
Teleut
Телеңет тили
Native toRussia
RegionKemerovo Oblast
EthnicityTeleuts
Native speakers
1,570 (2020)1
Dialects
Cyrillic
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
Glottologtele1258
A map of the Altai languages, including Teleut (in pink).

Teleut is a moribund2 Turkic language spoken in the Altai Republic in Russia, spoken by Teleuts. It is sometimes considered a dialect of Southern Altai, but also as its own language.3 Since 2000, the Russian government has officially recognised it as a distinct language.4 It was the basis for the Altai literary language before 1917.

Classification

The language is classed in the Kipchak languages by Novgorodov et al (2018).5 It is considered to be a dialect of Southern Altai, with the Telengit dialect or language and the literary form of Altai. The language had contacts with Ket and Ob Ugric languages.

Phonology

Teleut has 8 vowels:

Teleut vowels6
Front Back
High i   y ɯ   u
Low e   ø a   o

Orthography

In the 1840s, missionaries devised various alphabets to write Teleut to create Church materials for the Teleuts.

A compilation of the orthographies is listed below:

Аа Бб Гг Дд Jj Ее Жж Зз Ii
Йй Кк, К̅ к̅ Лл Мм Нн Ҥҥ, Н̄ н̄ Oo Ӧӧ Пп
Рр Сс Тт Уу Ӱӱ Чч Шш Ыы

The current orthography of Teleut is as follows:7

А а Б б В в Г г Ғ ғ Д д Ј ј Е е Ё ё
Ж ж З з И и Й й К к Қ қ Л л М м Н н
Ң ң О о Ӧ ӧ П п Р р С с Т т У у Ӱ ӱ
Ф ф Х х Ц ц Ч ч Ш ш Щ щ ъ ь Ы ы
Э э Ю ю Я я

Notes and references

  1. "Росстат — Всероссийская перепись населения 2020". rosstat.gov.ru. Retrieved 2024-04-27.
  2. "Телеутский язык | Minority languages of Russia". minlang.iling-ran.ru. Retrieved 2024-11-20.
  3. "Телеутский язык — все самое интересное на ПостНауке". postnauka.org (in Russian). Retrieved 2025-02-23.
  4. "Постановление Правительства РФ от 24.03.2000 N 255 "О Едином перечне коренных малочисленных народов Российской Федерации" (с изменениями и дополнениями) | ГАРАНТ". base.garant.ru. Retrieved 2025-02-23.
  5. Novgorodov, Innokentiy N.; Gainutdinova, Albina F.; Ishkildina, Linara K.; Tokmashev, Denis M. (2018), Filchenko, Andrey; Anikina, Zhanna (eds.), "The Teleut Language is of the Kipchak Turkic Language Origin According to the Leipzig–Jakarta List", Linguistic and Cultural Studies: Traditions and Innovations, vol. 677, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 296–302, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-67843-6_35, ISBN 978-3-319-67842-9, retrieved 2024-04-09{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  6. "Языки народов Сибири — Языки и культуры — Телеутский язык". lingsib.iea.ras.ru. Retrieved 2025-02-23.
  7. Tokmashev, M. G.; Tokmashev, D. M. (2008). Telen︠g︡et tili =: Teleutskiĭ i︠a︡zyk (PDF). Kemerovo: Skif : Kuzbass. ISBN 978-5-85905-367-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)
Sources

Sources

  • (ru) Баскаков, Н.A., Диалект чернёвых татар (туба-кижи), Северные диалекты алтаиского (ойротского) языка, 2 volumes, Moscou, Nauka, 1965-1966.
See also

See also

External links