# The Sakha language/Printable version

The current, editable version of this book is available in Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection, at
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/The_Sakha_language

# Phonology and alphabet
## Consonants

Native phonemes :
| | | Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal |
| Nasal | Nasal | /m/ | /n/ | /ɲ/ | /ŋ/ | |
| Plosive | Voiceless | /p/ | /t/ | /c͡ç/ | /k/ | |
| Plosive | Voiced | /b/ | /d/ | /ɟ͡ʝ/ | /ɡ/ | |
| Fricative | Voiceless | | /s/ | | /x/ | /h/ |
| Fricative | Voiced | | | | /ɣ/ | |
| Approximants | Plain | | /l/ | /j/ | | |
| Approximants | Nasalized | | | /j̃/ | | |
| Flap | Flap | | /ɾ/ | | | |
| Letter | Letter | IPA pronunciation | Closest approximation |
| Latin | Cyrillic | IPA pronunciation | Closest approximation |
| Б б | B b | bird | /b/ (help·info) |
| В в | V v | vase | /v/ (help·info) |

### Morphology notes

In Sakha, there are numerous consonant assimilations that differ by suffixes. As in /Nouns, there are also articulation of the corresponding native consonants. The definitions include:
* Sonorants: In most cases, all sonorant consonants (й, р) except nasals. The suffix form's first letter usually has voiced consonants.
* Nasals: All nasal consonants (м, н, ҥ). The suffix form's first letter usually has м or н. However I found a Chinese-language source that the plural suffix -ЛАр, for example, have the assimilated form -ҥАр after -ҥ- (тииҥ → тииҥҥар), although in fact, the nasal velar variant is almost non-existent except the Baidu Baike page and its mirrors.

## References

* ↑ 雅库特语_百度百科
* ↑ The Sakha suffixes shown at the page are actually made-up, since it has non-existent genitive case.

# Nouns
## Non-possessed forms
### Plurals

Unlike Turkish and other many Turkic languages, Sakha has more irregular plurals than its sisters. For example, English has irregular plural forms man — men, person — people, or child — children. Regular plurals in Sakha are formed by the surface form -ЛАр. These are the assimilated forms of this suffix:
| Preceding letters | Back | Back | Front | Front |
| Preceding letters | Unrounded | Rounded | Unrounded | Rounded |
| а, э, и, ы, о, ө, у, ү, л | -лар | -лор | -лэр | -лөр |
| й, р | -дар | -дор | -дэр | -дөр |
| м, н, ҥ | -нар | -нор | -нэр | -нөр |
| к, п, с, т, х | -тар | -тор | -тэр | -төр |
In addition, there is also numerous irregular plurals in Sakha:
| Assimilating nouns | Distantly related nouns | Suppleted |
| эмээхсин — эмээхситтэр "old woman" оҕонньор — оҕонньоттор "old man" доҕор — доҕоттор "friend" хотун — хотуттар "respectable woman" тойон — тойоттар "chief, master" Also including some other kinship terms ending in -н or -р | кыыс — кыргыттар "girl, daughter" уол — уолаттар "son, young man" эр — эрэттэр "man, husband" | киһи — дьоннор "person" |

### Accusative

The accusative case are used as a direct object (I see the car) of a verb or certain prepositions of verbal origin. While the divisions of the surface form -(н)И are somewhat simple, but the treatment of stems of nouns ending in a consonant is rather complex.
| Preceding letters | Back | Back | Front | Front |
| Preceding letters | Unrounded | Rounded | Unrounded | Rounded |
| а, э, и, ы, о, ө, у, ү | -ны | -ну | -ни | -нү |
| к, л, м, н, ҥ, п, р, с, т, й, х | -ы | -у | -и | -ү |
Nouns ending in -с and -х usually change to -һ and -ҕ, respectively (nom. бас — acc. баһы "head"). However, nouns ending in -CVC (-C- = consonants, -V- = short close vowel) are elided to -CC- (also before other suffixes starting with a consonant) causing -һ and -ҕ devoices to -с and -х before other consonants.
In addition, there is also an accusative-collective case, used for denoting a completely-affected object (сирэйдэри "whole face"). Its formation is completely the same as accusative plural, but this case only exists in singular so there is no such forms like **сирэйдэрдэри.

## Samples
### Non-possessed

| | | ат "horse" | дьиэ "house" | ох "arrow" | үөр "herd" |
| Singular | Nominative | ат | дьиэ | ох | үөр |
| Singular | Accusative | аты | дьиэни | оҕу | үөрү |
| Singular | Collective | аттары | дьиэлэри | охтары | үөрдэри |
| Singular | Partitive | атта | дьиэтэ | охта | үөрдэ |
| Singular | Dative | акка | дьиэҕэ | охха | үөргэ |
| Singular | Ablative | аттан | дьиэттэн | охтон | үөртэн |
| Plural | Nominative | аттар | дьиэлэр | охтор | үөрдэр |
| Plural | Accusative | аттары | дьиэлэри | охтору | үөрдэри |
| Plural | Partitive | аттарда | дьиэлэрдэ | охтордо | үөрдэрдэ |
| Plural | Dative | аттарга | дьиэлэргэ | охторго | үөрдэргэ |
| Plural | Ablative | аттартан | дьиэлэртэн | охтортон | үөрдэртэн |

## References

* ↑ Грамматика якутского языка
* ↑ Do not confuse Кыргыттар with Кыргыыстар!
* ↑ The examples found are rare in nouns: таҕыс "go out" — тахсы "going out". Therefore, this was rather a verb.
* ↑ It was intended to be the accusative-collective case. However, I chose to shorten this case name to save space. Do not confuse with collective nouns. ;)