Secondary vowel longitude
in the sub-dialects of Telengit dialect of the Altai language

Telengit dialect is one of the southern dialects of the Altai language, with the native speakers
living in the South-Eastern part of the Altai Mountains, mostly in the Kosh-Agach and Ulagan districts of the Altai Republic. There are two sub-dialects in the Telengit dialect: Kosh-Agach
and Ulagan, named after the administrative districts. The research materials are the linguistic
data collected by the author in the areas of compact residence of Telengits. The paper aims at
describing secondary vowel longitude in the sub-dialects of the Telengit dialect of the Altai
language in a comparative aspect. Research objectives were identifying the secondary long
vowels, describing the phonetic processes that produce this type of longitude, and comparing
this phonetic phenomenon with similar processes in the Northern dialects of the Altai lan-
guage and other Turkic languages of southern Siberia. Long vowels in the Telengit sub-
dialects have a secondary origin, i.e., they are the result of phonetic development. The main
ways of longitude formation in the Telengit sub-dialects are compensation of the fallen final
consonant of the word form, the contraction of two vowels in one syllable due to the loss of
the intervocalic consonant, and the fusion of vowels at the junction of morphemes. The secondary longitude formed due to the dropped auslaut consonant replacement is characteristic of
the Altai southern dialects, including the Telengit sub-dialects. The longitude formed by the
intervocalic consonant loss and the morpheme junction is characteristic of the entire South
Siberian area of the Turkic languages.