Tubalar language

The Tuba-Kiji, Tubalar or Tuba language is a Turkic language spoken in the Altai Republic in Russia, by the Tuba-Kiji, who are sometimes called "Black Tatars" (Russian: чернёвых татар) or Tubalars.

Tubalar
Туба, Тума
Native to	Russia
Region	Altai Republic, Altai Krai
Ethnicity	Tubalars
Native speakers	930 (2020)[1]
Language family	Turkic Common Turkic Kipchak/Siberian Turkic Kyrgyz-Kipchak/South Siberian Yenisei Turkic Northern Altai Tubalar
Writing system	Cyrillic
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	tuba1280
A map of the Altai languages, including Tubalar (in green).

Classification

The language is classified in the Siberian Turkic languages. It is considered to be a Northern Altai dialect.^[2] However, this classification is disputed, and it may be a Kipchak language. The Tubalars, aside from knowing Tubalar, also can understand Chelkan and Kumandin.

Orthography

In 2010, a Russian-Tubalar phrasebook was published, with the following orthography:^[3]

А а	Б б	В в	Г г	Ғ ғ	Д д	Ј ј	Е е	Ё ё	Ж ж	Җ җ	З з
И и	Й й	К к	Қ қ	Л л	Љ љ	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	Ҷ ҷ	Ш ш
Щ щ	Ъ ъ	Ы ы	Ь ь	Э э	Ю ю	Я я