Telengit language

Telengit is a Turkic language spoken in the Altai Republic in Russia by the Telengits. It is widespread in the Kosh-Agach and Ulagan districts of the Altai Republic.

The Telengit are also known as the Telengit-kiji or Chui-kiji.

Internal classification
It is classified as a Siberian Turkic language. It is considered to be a dialect of the Southern Altai language, along with the Teleut and the literary varieties.

Dialects
The Telengit language can be divided into two main dialects, the Telengit-Teles and Chui dialects.

Linguistic characteristics
The Telengit language differs from the literary form of the Altai language in phonetics and morphology.

Instead of the initial [ш], [ч] is used. For example, Telengit "чирдек", ширдек, felt carpet. Also, in the roots of words, [ш] is used instead of [ч] (Telengit "тепчи", тепши, bowl).

The sounds [ф], [в], [ш], [ж], [щ], [ц] are not native Telengite and are found mainly in borrowings from the Russian language.

Alphabet
An alphabet for the Ulagan dialect was proposed in 2016.

Another variant of the alphabet, similar to the Altai: