KHAKAS: a language of Russia (Asia)

The following is the entry for this language as it appeared in the 14th edition (2000).
It was superseded by the corresponding entry in the 15th edition (2005). See also the corresponding entry in the current edition of Ethnologue.

SIL code: KJH

ISO 639-2: tut

Population	64,800 mother tongue speakers (81%) out of an ethnic population of 80,000 in Russia (1993 UBS). Population total both countries 64,800.
Region	Khakassia, north of the Altai Mts., and a few north of the Oblast. Ababan is the capital. Also spoken in China.
Alternate names	KHAKHAS, KHAKHASS, ABAKAN TATAR, YENISEI TATAR
Dialects	SAGAI (SAGAJ), BELTIR, KACHA (KACA), KYZYL, SHOR, KAMASSIAN.
Classification	Altaic, Turkic, Northern.
Comments	Bilingualism in Russian. Cyrillic script. Animal husbandry: sheep, goats, cattle, horses; industrialists. Traditional religion, Russian Orthodox. Bible portions 1995.

Also spoken in:

China

Language name	KHAKAS
Population	10 fluent speakers out of 875 in ethnic group in China (1982 census).
Alternate names	KHAKHAS, KHAKHASS, ABAKAN TATAR, YENISEI TATAR
Dialects	SAGAI, BELTIR, KACHA, KYZYL, SHOR, KAMASSIAN.
Comments	Bilingualism in Mongolian, Chinese. Only about 10 very old people speak fluently, others use some words, but mainly Mongolian. The young people are monolingual in Chinese. It was counted as Kirghiz in the 1982 Chinese census. People came from the Altay Mts. in Russia in 1761. See main entry under Russia.