| Chelkan | |
| Familycolor: | altaic |
| Also Known As: | Kuu-Kizhi, Chalkan |
| Fam1: | Turkic |
| Nativename: | куу, чалканду |
| Speakers: | 648 |
| Date: | 2021 |
| Ref: | [1] |
| States: | Russia |
| Region: | Altai Republic |
| Fam2: | Siberian Turkic |
| Fam3: | Southern Siberian |
| Fam4: | Northern Altai |
| Script: | Cyrillic script |
| Map: | File:Altay.svg |
| Mapcaption: | A map of the Altai languages, including Chelkan (in red). |
| Ethnicity: | Chelkans |
| Glotto: | chel1242 |
Chelkan (also Chalkan, Chalqandu) is a Turkic language spoken in the Altai Republic in Russia.
The Chelkans are sometimes called "Lebeds", of the name of the river which runs through the Altai Republic, or Qu'Kiji. In the 2002 Russian census, their population rose to 855 people.
Chelkan is classified in the Siberian Turkic languages. It is considered to be a dialect of Northern Altai. Chelkan, aside from knowing Chelkan, can also understand Tubalar and Kumandin.
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | /pronounced as /link// | ||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | /g/ | |||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | /pronounced as /link// | |||||
| voiced | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Vibrant | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
| Front | Back | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | rounded | unrounded | rounded | ||||||
| short | long | short | long | short | long | short | long | ||
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
| Mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
In 2008, an alphabet was created for the Chelkan language.
| А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Ӷ ӷ | Д д | Ј ј | Е е | Ё ё | Ж ж |
| З з | И и | Й й | К к | 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 ъ | Ы ы | Ь ь | Э э | Ю ю | Я я |
| 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 | Ҥ ҥ | Њ њ | |
| 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 ъ | Ы ы | Ь ь | Э э | Ю ю | Я я |