Chelkan language

Chelkan (also Chalkan, Chalqandu) is a Turkic language spoken in the Altai Republic in Russia.

The Chelkans
The Chelkans are sometimes called "Lebeds" (Лебедины, ), 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.

Internal classification
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.

Orthography
In 2008, an alphabet was created for the Chelkan language. In 2017-18, the alphabet was modified with the addition of the letter Њ њ.