| Chelkan | |
| Familycolor: | altaic |
| Also Known As: | Kuu-Kizhi, Chalkan |
| Fam1: | Turkic |
| Nativename: | куу, къуу, чалкъанду, шалкъанду |
| 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 by 648 Chelkans.
See main article: Chelkans. 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. The Chelkan, aside from knowing Chelkan, can also understand Tubalar and Kumandin, which comprise the Northern Altai language.
The word-final guttural phonemes of Chelkan are more stable then in literary Altai, for example Chelkan versus literary 'mountain'.[2]
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | voiceless | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | /pronounced as /link// | ||||
| voiced | pronounced as /ink/ | /g/ | |||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | /pronounced as /link// | |||||
| voiced | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | |||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||
| Vibrant | pronounced as /ink/ | ||||||||
Chelkan has vowel harmony.
| 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. However, only one textbook has been published, "" (Animals and Birds of Primeval Taiga), in 2004.
| 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 |