SOME USEFUL PHRASES IN SAKHA FIVE REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD SAKHA Дорообо. Аатым Дьоон. LEARN MORE ABOUT SAKHA [doroːbo. aːtɯm ɟoːn.] /Doroobo. Aatim Dyoon./ AND THEIR LANGUAGE Hi. My name is John. 1. The Yakut population is estimated to be about 500,000, and can be found mostly in Russia, Аатыҥ кимий? specifically in the Sakha Republic, also known [aːtɯŋ kimiː?] as Yakutia. /Aating kimiy?/ What is your name? 2. A member of the Northern Turkic language group, Sakha shares many structural similarities Эн дьыалаҥ хайдаҕый? to other Altaic languages (such as agglutinative, [en ɟɯalaŋ xaɪdaɣɯɪ.] SOV structure, vowel harmony, etc.). Sakha is /En dyialang khaidaghiy?/ most closely related to Shor, Dolgan, and Tuvan, How are you doing? other Turkic languages spoken in Russia. Махтал, үчүгэй. Оттон эн? 3. The Sakha Republic is the largest of the [maxtal, uʧugeɪ. otːon en?] 10 autonomous republics in the Russian /Makh-tal, uchugey. Otton en?/ Federation. Covering nearly 1.2 million square I’m fine, thanks. And you? miles, it is only slightly smaller than the whole Эһиги хантан сылдьаҕыт? country of India. [ehigi xantan sɯlɟaɣɯt?] /Ehigi khantan sil-dya-ghit?/ 4. Oymyakon, in the Sakha Republic, has the Where are you from? lowest recorded temperature in history at -90 degrees F on February 6, 1933, and averages Мин Индианаттан сылдьабын. -58 degrees F during the winter. [min indianatːan sɯlɟabɯn.] /Min Indianattan sil-dya-bin./ 5. The Yakutian horse comes from the Sakha I’m from Indiana. Republic. It is a small, sturdy hour with a thick mane and heavy coat, which makes it very Уборнай ханна баар? adaptable for living in the extreme cold climate [ubornaɪ xanːa baːr?] of the area. /Ubornay khanna baar?/ Where is the bathroom? ABOUT US The Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region Эйиэхэ улахан баhыыба биэрнэм. (CeLCAR) at Indiana University develops materials for [eɪjiexe ulaxan bahɯːba biernem.] learning and teaching a wide variety of Central Asian /Eyiekhe ulakhan bahiiba biernem./ languages. Thank you very much. For more information, go to celcar.indiana.edu.

Көрсүһүөххэ диэри. 238 Eigenmann Hall, 1900 East 10th Street, [køɾsyhyøxːe dieri.] Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47406 /Korsuhuokh-khe dieri./ Phone: (812) 856-1230 Center for Languages of the Good bye. E-mail : [email protected] Website: https://celcar.indiana.edu Central Asian Region (CeLCAR) WHO ARE THE YAKUTS AND spoken across areas of Asia and Eastern Europe, and are named after the Altai Mountains WHAT IS YAKUT CULTURE LIKE? WHERE DO THEY LIVE? in Central Asia. More specifically, Sakha The Yakut people are historically hunters and Yakuts, are a Turkic belongs to the Northern branch of the Turkic fisherman in addition to raising livestock, people living in language family, which also includes Shor and mainly horse, cattle, and reindeer. In fact, their Russia. Historically, Dolgan, spoken in Russia, and Tuvan, spoken reliance the Yakuts occupied in Russia, Mongolia, and China. Yakut has on raising the middle Lena two main dialects: Central (comprised of the livestock River area in Aldan, Eastern, and Western Lena varieties) directly Siberian, but and the Peripheral dialect (comprised of the influences over the last few northeastern and northwestern varieties). Sakha cuisine which is rich centuries they have expanded Similar to other Altaic languages, Sakha uses throughout the Sakha Republic located in the in meat dishes, a subject-object-verb word order and is an including far northeast area of Russia. Geographically, agglutinative language, where one root word the Sakha Republic, also commonly referred oyogos (young has multiple suffixes added to indicate discrete khan to as Yakutia, is located on the Laptev and horse ribs), (white blood sausage), boiled grammatical functions. And like many other intensities, sliced liver, and boiled tongue. East Siberian Seas and shares borders with the Central Asian Additionally, due to its location on the Laptev Chukotka, Magadan Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai, languages, Sakha and East Siberian Seas and its landscape filled Amur Oblast, Zabaykalsky Krai, Irkutsk Oblast, features vowel with copious rivers and lakes, Yakuts cuisine and Krasnoyarsk Krai. It is the largest yet most harmony, wherein also incorporates a lot of seafood. And like sparsely populated of Russia’s districts. the vowel quality of many Central Asian cultures, Yakuts also enjoy Today, the Yakut population is estimated to be a vowel in a word drinking kumis, a fermented milk drink made about 500,000 with approximately 95% living directly affects the from horse or reindeer milk. In fact, Yakuts even in Russia (mostly in Yakutia, but also in the vowel quality of the have a popular dessert called kuerchekh made Amur, Magadan, Sakhalin, Taimyr, and Evenki other vowels within from kumis and berries. regions), with the other 5% of the population the word. The traditional religion of Yakuts is a form distributed among the United States, Canada, of Shamanism focusing on the existence Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. WHAT ALPHABET DO THE YAKUTS USE? of supernatural good and evil spirits in the universe. However, today, many Yakuts have Yakut was first written in the 17th century using converted to Russian Orthodox Christianity. WHAT KIND OF LANGUAGE IS SAKHA? a modified version of the Cyrillic alphabet. For a short period in the early 19th century, Yakuts Furthermore, like many Turkic peoples, Yakuts Sakha belongs to have relied on storytelling through epic poems the Altaic group of adopted a modified Latin alphabet. However, they switched back to using a Cyrillic based to preserve their history. The most famous of languages, which the Yakuts is the Olonkho, which has over includes languages alphabet in 1939 under the Soviet Union. This modern alphabet, known as the Sakha alphabet, 36,000 verses and such as Turkish, tells the story of the Mongolian, and consists of the usual Russian Cyrillic characters numerous legends, arguably Korean but with the addition of five letters:Ҕҕ , Ҥҥ, warriors, deities, and Japanese. Altaic Өө, Һһ, and Үү. sprits, and animals languages have Although 12 of the letters of the alphabet are in their history. historically been used only in Russian loanwords.