Yurta language

Yurta
Yurto, Yurtan
Юртӹ чылме, Юртӹшла Yurtă cĕlme, Yurtăsyla
Multilingual roadway sign in Sautharian (top) and Yurta (bottom), it reads as "You are now entering the Yurta Autonomous Region"
Pronunciation	[ˈɪ̯urtʌ̹ ˈt͡ʃɨlme] [ɪ̯urˈtʌ̹ʃla]
Native to	Sauthar Yurta Region
Ethnicity	837,251 Yurta
Native speakers	789,420 (native) 1,057,675 (2nd language)  (2022)
Language family	Yurta
Writing system	Cyrillic (current) Latin (former)
Language codes
ISO 639-2	yrt
ISO 639-3	yrt

Yurta (natively known as: Юртӹ чылме, Yurtă cĕlme, IPA: [ˈɪ̯urtʌ̹ ˈt͡ʃɨlme]) is an isolate language spoken by the indiginous Yurta people of northern Sauthar, primarily in the Yurta autonomous region and adjacent areas, and the Yurta diaspora. Approximantly 1/7th of the Yurta population is monolingual due to them living in rural areas. There are 3 dialect groups of Yurta, northern, southern and island, only the norhtern and island variaeties are still spoken daily.

Usage

Yurta is the native language of the Yurta people and an official language of the Yurta autonomous region. It is spoken by approximately 1,829,000 people in Sauthar, of which only 789,420 natively, and another 18,000 in other countries. 94% of ethnic Yurta and 25% of the people of other ethnicities living in Sauthar claimed knowledge of the Yurta language during the 2022 census. It used to be concidered endangered due to the dominance of the Sautharian language, but after the establishment of the Yurta autonomous region, the language and culture has been promoted, and now it's spoken by a significant minority of the sautharian population as well. Yurta is tought at schools throughout the country.

History

Yurta is a language isolate and the original language spoken on the islands of Sauthar. It is believed the Yurta came to the islands around 2000 BCE on boats bringing the language with them. It's known that there used to be a sister langauge of what came to be modern Yurta spoken on the southeastern region of the main island but it is poorly documented with the only known mentions of it being in stone carvings and oral stories. The sister langauge, known as Kohtalvic, became extinct a few centuries after the arival of the Sautharians in the 9th century CE, while old-Yurta was continuesly pushed to the northern areas of the islands, where it is spoken today.

The language and culture of the Yurta were surpressed by the Sautharians untill the late 19th and mid 20th centuries when growing nationalism from the Yurta pressured the Sautharian government to grant them autonomy in what is now the Yurta autonomouis region. Yurta is now studied at schools throughout the country in attempts to promote the culture of the original inhabitants of the islands.

Phonology

Consonant

The consonants are the following (the corresponding Cyrillic letters are in brackets): The stops, sibilants and affricates are voiceless but natively they got voiced in intervocallic possitions and after other voiced consonants, geminate consonants did not undergo this lenition, but due to foreign influence from Sautharian, and teh fact that most second langauge speakers always pronounce them as voiceless, majority of the speakers nowadays pronounce them as always voiceless as well.

	Labial	Dental	Palatal	Velar
Plosive	p ⟨п⟩	t ⟨т⟩	c̟ ⟨ть⟩	k ⟨к⟩
Affricate			t͡ʃ ⟨ч⟩
Nasal	m ⟨м⟩	n ⟨н⟩	ɲ ⟨нь⟩
Fricative	v~ʋ~w ⟨в⟩	s ⟨с⟩	ʃ ⟨ш⟩	x ⟨х⟩
Approximant		l ⟨л⟩	j ⟨й,ь⟩
Rhotic		ɾ~r ⟨р⟩

Vowels

Yurta has a 6 vowel system, though the exact vowels vary by dialect. The vowels are the following (the corresponding Cyrillic letters are in brackets):

	Front	Central	back
Close	i ⟨и⟩	ɨ ⟨ы⟩	u ⟨у⟩
Mid	e ⟨е⟩		ʌ̹ ⟨ӹ⟩
Open		a ⟨а⟩

Writing system

Current

Yurta used to be written in a latin script but due to growing nationalism and the wish to further dissasociate themselves from the Sautharians, they addopted a variant of the Cyrillic script. There is a standard romanization that was implemented in resent years as well, but that is mainly used in unnoficial environments.

Official cyrillic script:

А а	Б б	В в	Г г	Д д	Е е	Ж ж	З з
И и	Й й	К к	Л л	М м	Н н	О о	П п
Р р	С с	Т т	У у	Ф ф	Х х	Ц ц	Ч ч
Ш ш	Щ щ	Ъ ъ	Ы ы	Ӹ ӹ	Ь ь	Ю ю	Я я

Two digraphs are also used: ть, нь (other consonants with a following ь are not phonemic)

Official Romanization:

A a	Ă ă	B b	C c	D d	E e	Ĕ ĕ	F f
G g	H h	I i	J j	K k	L l	M m	N n
O o	P p	Q q	R r	S s	T t	U u	V v
W w	X x	Y y	Z z

Three digraphs are also used: sy, ty, ny (other consonants with a following y are not phonemic)

• Charachters in gray are used only in foreign words and names.

1877-1953

The first written form of Yurta was devised in 1877 and was based on the sautharine latin script:

a ã b d e é f g h i j k l m n o õ p q r s sj t tj u ú ü ũ v z

In 1953, the alphabet was changed into the current cyrillic variant due to growing nationalism among the Yurta.

Numeral

The number system is decimal. The numbers from one to ten are:

• 1 – пьыр pyĕr
• 2 – йен yen
• 3 – веш vesy
• 4 – тӹве tăve
• 5 – пил pil
• 6 – ута uta
• 7 – чит cit
• 8 – сӹкӹ săkă
• 9 – йеч yec
• 10 – вӹн văn

The teens are formed by adding the word 'ten' in the locative case, and the corresponding single digit in front:

• 11 – пьырвӹнра pyĕrvănra
• 12 – йенвӹнра yenvănra
• 13 – вешвӹнра vesyvănra
• 14 – тӹвевӹнра tăvevănra
• 15 – пилвӹнра pilvănra
• 16 – утавӹнра utavănra
• 17 – читвӹнра citvănra
• 18 – сӹкӹвӹнра săkăvănra
• 19 – йечвӹнра yecvănra

The tens are formed the same way but the word 'ten' isn't in the locative case.

• 20 – йенвӹн pyĕrvăn
• 30 – вешвӹн vesyvăn
• 40 – тӹвевӹн tăvevăn
• 50 – пилвӹн pilvăn
• 60 – утавӹн utavăn
• 70 – читвӹн citvăn
• 80 – сӹкӹвӹн săkăvăn
• 90 – йечвӹн yecvăn

Further multiples of ten are:

• 100 – сен sen
• 1000 – якӹр yakăr

• Example: 834236 - сӹкӹсен якӹр вешвӹн ве тӹве якӹр йенсен вешвӹн ве ута săkăsen yakăr vesyvăn ve tăve yakăr yensen vesyvăn ve uta

Ordinal numerals are formed with the suffix -мĂш, e.g. пьырмыш 'first', йенмыш 'second', вешмыш 'third'.

Language Examples

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Пураша юр сӹпӹтша ве равӹша чимененше теш кӹкӹрнӹра ве пӹлӹнешер. Ӹнша расумрах ве тиветрех мишенше теш ве пьыр турукӹ таманра пӹрӹтанваньра.

Purasya yur săpătsya ve ravăsya cimenensye tesy kăkărnăra ve pălănesyer. Ănsya rasumrah ve tivetreh misyensye tesy ve pyĕr turukă tamanra părătanvanyra.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

See also

• Yurta Autonomous Region
• Cyrillic script