Institute of Linguistic Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences 

Д. Tokmashev, A. Dybo, V. Maltseva, A. Sheimovich

The Teleut Language

I. Sociolinguistic data 

1. The names of the language 

The Teleut language (the language of the Bachat Teleuts, Bachat Teleut language) is a language of a minor Turkic ethnic group of Teleuts. The ethnonym ‘Teleut’ (Teleŋit ~ Teleŋet – Teleŋut) is several thousand years old: it was a name for ethnically diverse groups of nomads from Central Asia. The ethnic group itself, the core of which was made by Teleut family groups, had emerged by the early 20 th century. But since 17 th century, since the start of colonisation of Siberia, Teleuts along with other Turkic ethnic groups of South Siberia were called ‘Tatars’ by Russians. The name was internalised, so until the early 20 th century Teleuts called themselves Tadar Kizhi , and their language — Tadar Tili, now used only by older people. Recently, Bachat Teleuts have been calling themselves Payattar – ‘residents by the River Bachat’, residents of the former village of Teleuta within the city of Novokuznetsk call themselves Tomdor – ‘resident by the River Tom’. The endonym common for both groups is Teleŋet, and they started calling themselves Teleut , having borrowed the name from Russian. 

Up to 2000 most researcher thought Teleut a southern dialect of Altaian. Now it is recognised as a separate language of an indigenous minor ethnic group in the RF. 

2. General characteristics

2.1. Number of speakers and of the corresponding ethnic group. 

The number of Teleut speakers is 975 people. The number of speakers in historical settlements according to the 2010 Census is 938 people. The size of the ethnic group (according to the 2010 Census) is 2,643 people. 

The number of Teleut speakers is decreasing every year. As the on-site research shows, the data of the census are inflated. 

2.2. Age of speakers.  

Only middle-aged and older people can speak Teleut. Teleut is mainly used in family environments in communication between the older and middle-aged generations, less frequently when talking to children. The younger generation of Teleuts fully or partially understand their older relatives speaking Teleut, but their first language is Russian. 

2.3. Sociolinguistic characteristics 

2.3.1. General characteristics 

The language of Bachat Teleuts, one of the indigenous minor ethnic groups in Siberia, belongs to Turkic languages and is spoken in Kemerovo Oblast along the Bolshoi and Malyi Bachat rivers, in settlements of Bekovo and Shanda as well as in urban districts of Belovo and Novokuznetsk. In the 19 th century ‘Teleut patois’ spoken in the mountains of Altai (by Tau-Teleuts) and in the forest-steppe zones between the Ob and Tom (by Steppe and Bachat Teleuts), used by the members of the Altai ecclesiastical mission as a contact vernacular for writing theological, academic and educational books. In its structure and origin, the language of modern Teleuts of Kemerevo Oblast is the closest to the ‘Altai Teleut Dialect’ used until 1922 in the Altai, the language of the well-known Grammar of the Altai Language (1869). Nonetheless, a territorial distance between Bachat Teleuts and speakers of other South Altai idioms (Telengit and Altai-Kizhi) and probable cultural and ethnogenetic contacts with speakers of Turkic languages of a different classificatory type – Shors, North Altaians, Siberian Tatars along with the presumably non-Turkic origin of certain Teleut groups – all of these factors might have caused the divergent character of Teleut in comparison with the South Altai languages. 

2.3.2. Vitality status 

Teleut’s vitality status can be classified as 2B: Interrupting. The language transmission between generations can be seen with only some families in the countryside, everyday communication in Teleut between older and middle-aged people is still preserved. 

The prestige of knowing the native language fell low towards the end of the Soviet era. The decrease in numbers of Teleut speakers does not happen only due to deaths of Teleuts who can speak the language best. Due to population migrating from the countryside to district centres, towns, cities or other regions, people just stop communicating in Teleut and gradually forget the ethnic language. For instance, many informants speaking the language stop being competent speakers (at least stop being able to come up with cohesive texts) within 3 to 5 years of living outside their language environment. That is why Teleut is turning into a language of folklore festivals and other mass cultural events. Linguists consider such a situation - when a language can be heard off the stage in songs, but neither singers nor listeners often do not understand what they sing about – to be a sign of a dying language. But at the same time, one has to appreciate the efforts of several activists, members of Teleut intelligentsia, who created a line of textbooks The Native (Teleut) Language and Literary Reading in the Native (Teleut) Language , regularly publish literary works in Teleut, popularise the native language among children and young people, resorting to media and social networks as well. 

2.3.3. Use in various fields 

2.4. Information about a writing system 

Teleut is a language with a revived writing system. 

In the middle of the second millennium (c.e.) Teleuts were under the dominion of Dzungar Khanate, and it appears that up to the 20 th century some Teleuts knew Mongol Oirat alphabet and used it for writing in their own language. There is oral evidence that the Mongol vertical writing system functioned as an everyday writing for Teleuts, as testified by the descendants of the Teleuts who were conscripted during the First World War in 1914 and who wrote home using this writing system. 

At the same time, in the 19 th century, along with the Altai Kizhi language (of the Altaian) Teleut made the basis of the Altai writing system developed on the basis on Cyrillic alphabet in the 1840s. by representatives of the Altai Ecclesiastic Mission N.I.Ilminsky, V.I.Verbitsky, S.Landyshev, M.Glukharev-Nevsky. The Mission developed an alphabet which included all the letters of the pre-revolutionary Russian alphabet and added diacritics and special graphemes for conveying specific sounds. The writer, translator and missionary Mikhail Chevalkov, Bachat Teleut by origin, became the founder of Altai literature – he authored the autobiographical story The Life of Chevalkov ( Chöbölköptӱŋ jӱrӱmи or Чöбöлкöптӱӊ jӱрӱми) in the Teleut dialect. There were a number of books in Moscow, St.Petersburg, Kazan, Biysk and Tomsk in it: The Grammar of the Altai Language (1869), Altai Primer (1882), The Books of the Apostles (1900), The Gospel according to St.Matthew, St.Mark, St.Lucas and St.John (1910). 

But in 1922, Altai was chosen as a basis of the literary language while Teleut lost the status of written literary language for many decades. In the1990s, there appeared books in Teleut proper on the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet, but without any standardised spelling. These years saw the publication of Teleut-Russian and Russian-Teleut dictionaries by L.T.Ryumina-Syrkasheva, the collection of Teleut Folklore, Teleŋet Tili, Teleut for Russians textbook and Tuugan S ös. Native Word reader. 

By the mid-2002s the new Teleut spelling standard had emerged. Currently, the Teluet writing system uses Cyrillic symbols with six additional graphemes for specific sounds. The artificial character of character of the alphabet (it was created for educational reasons) and lack of experience of using Teleut in reading and writing led to the speakers arbitrarily write down Teleut speech with Russian symbols by ear. Teleuts find it far easier to understand Teleut texts written in Russian alphabet without any additional graphemes.  

3. Geographic characteristics. 

3.1. Subjects of the Russian Federation with compact population of native speakers

Kemerovo Oblast, Altai Republic, Altai Krai. 

3.2. Total number of traditional native settlements

Approximately 20 settlements 

3.3. List of settlements 

The largest group of Teleuts – Bachat (endonym Payat Kizhi) – live compactly in the following districts of Kemerovo Oblast: Belovski along the Rivers Bolshoi and Malyi Bachat (settlements of Chelukhoevo, Bekovo, Verkhovskaya, Shanda, Cherta, Kamenka, Ulus, Razyezd 14 km, Novobachaty, Bolshoi Ulus (Zarechnoye), microraion Teleut and in the city of Belovo) and Guryevski (the city of Guryevsk and villages around) Since the late 19 th century, the size of Bachat Teleut group has not changed and makes up around 2,500 people. 

A minor group of Teleuts, Tomsk Teleuts, live alongside Shors in the settlement of Teleuty of Zavodski District and Microraion Novoilyinka of Novoilyinski District of Novokuznetsk City, Kemerovo Oblast. In Teleut, Teleuty is called Tomdor (Tom people). 

Currently, Teleuts living in Altai Republic in the settlements of Ulus-Cherga, Myyuta in Shebalinski District along the River Katun and its tributary River Sema (the Altai group) and the group living in Altai Krai in the settlement of Krutoye, city of Zarinsk, and the settlements of Ulus, Taraba and Yasashnoye, Kytmanovski District (Chumysh or Karaba group) are largely assimilated by neighbouring ethnic groups: in Altai Republic by Altai Kizhi, in Altai Krai by Russians, Altaians and Volga Tatars, in Zavodskoi District of Novokuznetsk by Shors and Russians. 

4. Historical dynamics 

During most Soviet censuses Teleuts were recorded as Altaians, so their exact numbers are not known. 

Number of language speakers and the corresponding ethnic group according to the data of various censuses (starting with 1897 Census) 

II. Linguistic data 

1. Position in the genealogical classification of world languages 

Altai macrofamily (hypothetical) > Turkic family > Central East group > South Altai subgroup > Teleut 

2. Dialect situation 

Teleut does not have dialects. Arguably, two subdialects can be singled out – Bachat spoken by Bachat Teleuts and Tom spoken by Tom Teleuts of Kemerovo Oblast. There are slight phonetic and lexical differences between these subdialects. The issue of classifying the idiom of Chumysh Teleuts has not been solved yet, as this subdialect has not been properly studied yet. The language of Kalmaks is close to Teleut. That is a subethnic group of Siberian Tatars, descendants of Iskitim Teleut group, who lived along the River Iskitim, the right-hand tributary of the River Tom around the present-day City of Kemerovo, who got assimilated with Bukhara Uzbeks and Tom Tatars. Their language combines features of Volga Tatars, Siberian Tatars and Teleuts.