Kumandin language

Kumandin
къуманды, къубанды, къуўанды, къувандыг
Native to	Russia
Region	Altai Republic, Altai Krai
Ethnicity	Kumandins
Native speakers	654 (2021)[1]
Language family	Turkic Common Turkic Siberian Turkic South Siberian Yenisei Turkic Northern Altai Kumandin
Writing system	Cyrillic, Latin (formerly)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Linguist List	alt_qum Qumanda
Glottolog	kuma1284
ELP	Kumandin
A map of the Altai languages, including Kumandin (in blue).

The Kumandin language is a Turkic language spoken in the Altai Republic in Russia, spoken by the Kumandins, who name themselves "Kumandi-Kiji". It was formerly counted as a dialect of Altai, but it is more modernly seen as a separate language, with differing curricula from it and Chelkan, which also comprises the Northern Altai language.

Classification

Kumandin is classed in the Siberian Turkic branch of the Turkic languages. It is considered as a dialect of Northern Altai. The Kumandin subgroup of the Altai can understand Tubalar and Chelkan, aside from Kumandin.^[2]

Phonology

Consonants

^[3]

		Labial	Dental/Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		/m/	/n/		/ɲ/	/ŋ/
Stop	plain	/p/	/t/			/k/
	long	/pː/	/tː/			/kː/
Fricative	voiceless		/s/	/ʃ/
	voiced					/ɣ/
Affricate				/t͡ʃ/
Approximant			/l/		/j/
Trill			/r/

Vowels

^[3]

	Front		Back
	unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded
High	/i/, /iː/	/y/, /yː/	/ɯ/, /ɯː/	/u/, /uː/
Low	/ɛ/, /ɛː/	/œ/, /œː/	/ɑ/, /ɑː/	/ɒ/, /ɒː/

Orthography

During the Latinisation period in the Soviet Union, a Latin-based script was developed for the Kumandin language. It was used from 1932 to 1939, when teaching in Kumandin was stopped.^[4]

A a	B ʙ	C c	D d	E e	F f	G g	I i
J j	K k	L l	M m	N n	Ꞑ ꞑ	O o	Ɵ ɵ
P p	R r	S s	Ş ş	T t	U u	V v	X x
Y y	Z z	Ƶ ƶ	Ь ь

In recent years, the Kumandin language is being written again. The orthography below was created in 2005, when it was published for use by children.

А а	Б б	В в	Г г	Ғ ғ	Д д	Е е	Ё ё
Ж ж	З з	И и	Й й	К к	Л л	М м	Н н
Ҥ ҥ	Нь нь	О о	Ö ö	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 ъ	Ы ы	Ь ь	Э э	Ю ю	Я я

Grammar

Pronouns

The pronouns of Kumandin are as follows:^[5]

Personal pronouns in Qumandin

	Singular	Plural
1st person	мен men мен men I	пис pis пис pis we
2nd person	сен sen сен sen you (singular)	снер sner снер sner you (plural, formal)
3rd person	ол ol ол ol he/she/it	анар anar анар anar they

Notes and references

1. Том 5. «Национальный состав и владение языками». Таблица 7. Население наиболее многочисленных национальностей по родному языку
2. Baskakov, 1966, p. 7.
3. "Кумандинский | Малые языки России". minlang.iling-ran.ru. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
4. "Куманды буквар – Российская Национальная Библиотека – Vivaldi". vivaldi.nlr.ru. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
5. Сатлаев, Ф.А. (n.d.). Учитесь говорить по-кумандински, русско-кумандинский разговорник (in Russian). ?: Горно-Алтайская типография.

Sources

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

External links

• Ethnologue: Languages of the World (unknown ed.). SIL International.^{[This citation is dated, and should be substituted with a specific edition of Ethnologue]}, which is incorrect about Northern Altai dialects, for which it gives names of southern dialects as alternative names.
• (ru) Kumandin on the Russian UNESCO website for Siberian languages Archived 2009-09-07 at the Wayback Machine