Khakas

Facts

  • Language: Khakas
  • Alternate names: Khakhas, Abakan Tatar, хакасский язык, Хакас тілі, Xakas tįlį, тадар тілі, Hakasça, Hakas Türkçesi, Yenisei Tatar, Sagaijer, South Siberian Turkic, Abaqan, Khakhass, Xakas, Kamacintzi, ハカス語, 하카스어, 哈卡斯语,
  • Language code: kjh
  • Language family: Turkic, Common Turkic, Central Siberian Turkic, South Siberian Turkic, Yenisei-East Siberian Turkic, Yenisey Turkic
  • Dialects: Fu-yü Gïrgïs, Xyzyl.
  • Number of speakers: 6,000
  • Vulnerability: Threatened
  • Script: Cyrillic script.

More information:

    Fewer young people speak Khakas than previous generations, but more children study it in school than 20 years ago. Traditional religion, Christian (Orthodox).

    "The Khakass language belongs to the Uighur-Oguz group in the eastern Hun branch of the Turkic languages. It has its genetic origin in the ancient Uighur language unity. The Khakass language is an aggregation of different tribal languages, and it has achieved its present form only during the 20th century. More colourful dialectal peculiarities have been levelled by the unified language. Former tribal languages constitute the dialects of the Khakass language. The internal Sagai dialect is spoken in the regions of Askyz and Tashtyp (the Beltyr subdialect forming a special group), the Katshin dialect in the regions of Ust-Abakan, Altai and Shirin, the Kyzyl dialect in the Saralin and Shirin regions, the Shor dialect (NB! not the language) in the Tashtyp region. The Sagai and the Kachin dialects have the greatest number of speakers and are the most widespread. " - The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire