L1. The Khakas language and other topics

Written and published by Linden Alexander Pentecost. Published on the 8th of August 2025. No AI was used in the creation of this article. This article was published in the UK and only on this website (www.clwaideac-na-cuinne.co.uk). The information in this article comes from my own research. This article contains no sub-sections; but, to outline in brief, it discusses the Khakas language, some of its history, vocabulary, etymologies, links with Mongolian, Khakas spiritual beliefs, jaw harps and other topics. There is also information about some of my other publications in this article, including towards the end, where this page's web address is also given for reference purposes. I also talk about a book I bought and why and how I came across the Khakas language. The writing in Italics above the photo talks includes 5 Khakas words also elsewhere in this article, but the italics text above the photo as a whole contains information not in the rest of the text. All Khakas words in this article were transcribed into IPA by myself to the best of my ability. This article contains 3221 words. This article also contains an image, between two sections of text in the article (also with italics text both above and below the image), which I did not take, as I have never been to Khakassia, but it is sourced from Wikimedia commons, copyright and other relevant information is available below the photo and there is a description above the photo.

 

Khakas is a Turkic language, spoken primarily in the wild, and sometimes mountainous republic of Khakassia in southern Siberia, in Russia. Khakas can be classified as a Southern Siberian Turkic language, its closest relative perhaps being Fuyu Kyrgyz (which is not a dialect of the Kyrgyz Turkic language, despite the similar name). The “Southern Siberian Turkic languages” are in a sense, to some degree, a more geographical grouping - Khakas can also be more accurately classified as a Yenisei Turkic language, or as being in the Yenisei branch of Southern Siberian Turkic languages - other Yenisei languages include Northern Altai, Western Uyghur, Kumandin, Shor, Tubalar, Chelkan, and of course Fuyu Kyrgyz. Languages such as Tuvan belong to the Sayan branch of Southern Siberian Turkic languages, although the speakers of Khakas do share ancestral connections with the Sayan Mountains region. This is a bit confusing to explain, because, in addition to other Yenisei Turkic language, there are the Kamas and Koibal dialects of Khakas (as well as other dialects) - but the names “Kamas” and “Koibal” originally pertained to the speakers of the Kamas Kamassian and Koibal Kamassian languages, both of which are Kamassian Samoyedic languages. So essentially, some speakers of Khakas have an ancestral link to the Sayan Mountains region, and many of their ancestors would have spoken in Kamas and Koibal rather than Khakas, but they later adopted the Khakas language fully. 

Note also that the Yenisei Turkic languages are unrelated to the Yenisseian languages, a family of languages once spoken in large areas of Siberia, but which today is nearly extinct, with Ket being the only (known) surviving member of this family, perhaps with less than 30 speakers today. I have discussed Yenisseian languages, their etymologies and connections to ancient history and other languages in other publications; and I hope to write about Ket in the future a little.

Khakas, in comparison though, has around 29,000 speakers, and is called by its native speakers хакас тілі, [xakas tələ] (Khakas language) or тадар тілі, [tadar tələ] (Tatar Language). The second name might seem a little confusing, in that there is also the Tatar Language, another Turkic language, in European Russia, which is not closely related to Khakas but is closer to languages like Kazakh in Kazakhstan. The Tatar language's relation to the concept of "Tartaria" is not something I really understand well, even if the concept and theory interests me a lot and I have touched upon it a little in my writings.

The Khakas people adopted Christianity, but their traditional practices of animism and forms of shamanism continue to this day. Like many other Siberian Turkic peoples, the Khakas play the "jaw harp", and practice forms of overtone singing that we might call “throat singing”, although in my mind the description of “throat singing” does not encapsulate its overtone qualities. They may do this in conjunction with playing a jaw harp, an ancient mouth instrument, the usage of which can be found all the way from China to Eastern Europe, but undoubtedly, speakers of Turkic languages are particularly renowned for their use of this instrument. The jaw harp goes back to at least the Neolithic as an instrument, to Northern China, and essentially in an area which Turkic languages are connected to today. Which makes me wonder, has the jaw harp been used by speakers of Turkic and pre-Turkic languages, for all time?

The exact period in which the Khakas people and their language arrived in Khakassia is debated. Whilst many linguists would probably look at the impressive kurgan mounds and megalithic structures in Khakassia, and call them “Indo-European”, - those who know my views on this subject, from reading some of my other publications, will know that I do not subscribe to this theory. These ancient structures in Khakassia are generally connected to the Scythian cultures and peoples, and this is I think a useful way of discussing them. But, as I have detailed elsewhere, I am not of the opinion that the Scythians were simply an Indo-European, Indo-Iranian people. I think it far more likely that the Scythians spoke several languages, with various degrees of similarity and closeness to Indo-European, Turkic and Uralic languages, as we know them today. This is not the popular view, but also I think makes far more sense, especially considering that there is no evidence of an Indo-European language having been natively spoken in Khakassia. I also think it entirely possible, likely even, that the prehistoric kurgans, standing stones and other megalithic structures in Khakassia, are connected in some way to the ancestors of the Khakas people today. 

Because I do not speak a Turkic language, the amount of information I can share about Khakas is somewhat limited; although by now I do have a working knowledge of Turkic languages. Khakas was actually the first Turkic language that I ever became interested in, back in the Mid (or late?) spring of 2011. Sometimes the landscapes in Khakassia do resemble somewhat some of the landscapes of Northern England in the springtime, which can appear somewhat steppe-like, with rolling hills and mountains. Also, we have wild horses and standing stones (and other megalithic structures) in Northern England - Khakassia also has wild (and tame) horses, and standing stones and other megalithic structures. In the spring of 2011 I bought a book, called Parlons Khakas Une langue de Sibérie, by Saodat Doniyorova, Djamila Arzikulova and Chodiyor Donyorov, and published by L’Harmattan. Whilst my French, is, needless to say, not perfect, I am able to read the book - for the most part. This is the book I first studied any Khakas from, and, properly speaking, any Turkish language from, for that matter. At the time I felt drawn to Siberian landscapes and cultures in particular, and over the past year and half, I have also been gravitating towards more focus upon them, and have published several things about them before this article in front of you. 2011, as I mention elsewhere, was also a special year for me, many things happened, some sad things too, but many beautiful and special things, and I feel that just as I was drawn to the landscapes of Northern England in their steppe-like appearance at this time, and to other places, like Finland, I was also drawn to the magic of Siberia. So it's nice that, over 14 years later I have finally wrote an entire article on Khakas. Note, although the more steppe-like landscapes of Khakassia draw me a lot, the upland, forested landscapes do a lot to - a picture of which I have included in this article.
I would like to share some Khakas nouns, to give sounds to the feel and history of the landscape of Khakassia. The word for a “lake” is кӧл, [køl], the word for “river”, is суғ, [suɣ] (this also means “water”), the word for “mountain” is тағ, [taɣ], the word for “tree” is ағас, [aɣas], the word for “stone” is тас, [tas], the word for “sand”, is хум, [xum], the word for “desert” is сӧл. [søl]. The word for “taiga” is тайға, [tajɣa]], which can also be another word for “mountain”. The word “taiga” in English is from Russian, but the Russian word likely came originally from the Khakas word тайға. Another interesting landscape-related noun is талай, [talaj] - “sea”, which is related to a Mongolian word for “sea”. Does this perhaps connect with the idea I have discussed elsewhere - that parts of central Asia may have had a “seas” in more recent history? In addition, the Gobi Desert was, in part, a sea, at one time - but this was tens of millions of years ago, apparently. There is also this fascinating idea that there is some kind of lost civilisation located beneath the Gobi Desert. What a fascinating place indeed. There is also evidence that parts of the landscape of Khakassia were once a sea long ago. This is not to mention for example that inland seas and salt lakes such as the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan were once, in many cases, parts of an older sea. Previously I have mainly discussed this topic in terms of the Tarim Basin in China, however. In addition: another word which I particularly like, is артас, [artas] - meaning “waterfall”. 

Photo below: a gorgeous mountain landscape in Khakassia, just as autumn is beginning to arrive. Landscapes like this invoke in me such an awe and feeling of spiritual wonder and magic, and I do feel that this beautiful photo gives a superb example of the nature of Khakassia, and helps to give context to some of the words and other things being discussed in this article. For example, in this article we can identify the word тағ - "mountain", with the mountains in the photo, the word суғ - "water", the word пулут - "cloud", and the word тигір - "sky, heaven". What beautiful words, speaking beautiful spiritual concepts, connected by essence to the land in which they are spoken. Other Khakas words in this article apart from the four aforementioned in this italics section may also be related, in a less direct way, to things in the image below. For example, I am not sure if the two Khakas tree names in this article relate to trees in the photo below, and am also not convinced that the forest in the photo below is Taiga forest, but maybe the word тайға (especially as it also means "mountain" in Khakas) and some others mentioned elsewhere in this article, are relevant to the photo below. The image was not taken by me, but was contributed to Wikimedia commons by Kuaukutsu, and I have re-used it here and have made some changes to the image. It is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. There is more copyright information below the photo including URLs to the original page and file of the image below, to add to what I have already said here. 

The photo above was taken/contributed by Wikimedia commons user Kuaukutsu. This image is published on Wikimedia commons under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license. I, Linden Alexander Pentecost, the author of this article (currently in front of you), made some edits to the image above for inclusion in the article currently in front of you. Further information about the image is below, please follow "click here" for links to the Page and File, the license is again summarised below the links:

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License: Kuaukutsu, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Anyway, here is some more vocabulary, but this time, concerning the landscape more in relation to ethereal things. This is I think particularly relevant, as the Khakas, and other Siberian Turkic peoples, whos beliefs connect to the Old Turkic Tengrism religion, have a particular focus on the divinity of the sky and horizon. So the word in Khakas for “sun” and also “day” is кӱн, [kyn]; and the word for “sky” and also for “heaven” is тигір, [tigɘr], which is itself etymologically related to the words “Tengri” and “Tengrism” in English, and perhaps to the Mandarin Chinese word 天, tiān - “sky”, which I have discussed before, and also how I love this Chinese word and the character to represent it and the sky. Another Khakas word pertaining to the sky, is кӱгӱрт, [kygyrt] - “thunder”, a word which possesses a nice example of symmetry and vowel harmony. The word for “cloud” is пулут, [pulut], a word which bares similarity to Finnish pilvi - cloud, and to many other words I have discussed. The word for “wind”, is чил, [t͡ʃil], and the word for “air” is кии, [kiː], related to Mongolian ᠬᠡᠢ, [xiː] - “air”. Somewhat related to the sky and to Tengrism is the Khakas word for “west”, which is кидер, [kider] - certainly the four directions do seem important in Tengrism and in ritual, positional relationships to the sky and landscape. 

The Khakas, like other indigenous people, have a spiritual and linguistic relationship to the animals and plants in their land too. One of my favourite Khakas words is пӱӱр, [pyːr], meaning “wolf”. Some other animal words are: адай, [ adaj] - “dog”, киик, [kiːk] - “roe deer”, and килескі, [kileskɘ] - “lizard”, which interestingly, shows similarity to other words I have discussed elsewhere. The word for “bear” is азығ, [azɯɣ], (brown bears are known in Khakassia and can be dangerous, but they are of course beautiful and sacred animals). The word for “fish”, on the other hand, is палых, [palɯx], whilst the word for a “burbot” (a kind of fish) is миндір, [mindɘr]. According to Wiktionary, миндір may have come into Khakas from a substrate language, interestingly. I am sure that there are other such words in Khakas too, but apart from миндір I am unable to confirm whether or not any of the others listed here are from a substrate language, this is not including of course those words with a connection to Mongolian or which are from Mongolian.

Note: that my most recent publication in Silly Linguistics, was an article titled: On non-Norse language in Iceland, and Icelandic magical staves - a mysterious symbolic language. The next article to be published will be titled: The Tundra Nenets language, and its origins, etymologies and the сихиртя - “Sihirtya” - which has not yet been published. For the next article after the aforementioned one, I plan to write about Mongolian, and a little on the mysteries of the Gobi desert, but in different details to here of course. In addition, some of my other articles published this year in Silly Linguistics have pertained to the Scythians, Scythian languages and to other Turkic languages (not Khakas). I also hope perhaps afterwards to write an article for Silly Linguistics about the Mator and some other Siberian languages I have not yet written about, which will also connect to Khakas in some way, especially considering that some of the Mator people ended up speaking Khakas. Mator is another Samoyedic language of Siberia, but this one sadly extinct - for now. (This predictability will not continue indefinitely with planning articles)

Khakassia is both a land of forested mountains and of more steppe-like upland landscapes, so it is appropriate to give a couple of words for  individual plant species. The word нымырт, [nɯmɯrt], with some nice vowel harmony visible, is the word for a “bird cherry tree”, тирек, [tirek] is the word for “poplar tree”. Trees are, not surprisingly, seen as sacred beings, and as important parts of the spiritual landscape, in Khakas culture. 

With the fact that “jaw harps” are made of metal, and the importance of different metals across the spirituality of Turkic and also Uralic peoples, I thought it would be interesting to talk about some Khakas words for “metals”. The Khakas word for “gold”, is алтын, [altɯn], the second syllable bares a similarity to for example words for “tin” in several European languages, and to other words pertaining to metals, both of which I have discussed in different publications. The word for “iron” in Khakas, is тимір, [timɘr], whilst the quite distinct word for “steel”, is молат, [molat]. This word молат, when the [l] and [t] sounds are reversed, bares a similarity to a Proto-Afro-Asiatic root-word and to various words in other languages, including to the English word “metal”. 

Like other Turkic languages, Khakas is an agglutinative language, although it doesn’t have nearly as many case suffixes as Finnish does, for example. I will give an example of declinations with the word суғ, [suɣ] - “water” or “river”. The forms given in this article are the nominative forms, apart from the following: суғ in the genitive case, is суғның, [suɣnɯŋ], the accusative form is суғны, [suɣnɯ], the dative form is суға, [suɣa], the locative form is суғда, [suɣda], the ablative form is суғдаң, [suɣdaŋ], the lative is суғзар, [suɣzar], and the instrumental form is суғнаң, [suɣnaŋ]. The normative plural form is суғлар, [suɣlar], I will not include the plural forms in the other noun cases.
The pronouns of Khakas also have the same cases, but I will only give their nominative forms. They are  мин, [min] - “I”, син, [sin] - “you singular”, ол, [ol] - “she, he or it”, піс [pɘs] - “we”, сірер, [sɘrer] - “you plural” and олар, [olar] - “they”. 

 

I hope that this article has been an interesting read, it is dedicated to the Khakas people and to their spiritual traditions, and to their land.

 

Note that yesterday I finally published my final version of the article on this website, titled: s1. Words for "snowflake" across different Gaelic dialects, and etymological comments & other topics. It might also be relevant for me to say here that I did plan on writing a Kindle book that talks about Kazakhstan's language, history and spiritual mysteries - but unfortunately I have temporarily lost access to my KDP seller account, even though my Kindle-only and print-only books sold there can still be bought. I will also mention that I planned to have written and published by now an article for Silly Linguistics about ancient hieroglyphs in North America, but have postponed it and am doing other articles (one of which is already published) in the meantime, instead - as I cannot currently locate an important resource for the future hieroglyphs in North America article. Note that my Silly Linguistics article about Nenets and the Sikhirtya has been submitted but not yet published, afterwards will come the Mongolian article and then the article about Mator and some other Siberian languages I have not discussed previously. For reference purposes, the URL of this page you are currently on, and this article titled: L1. The Khakas language and other topics, is: https://www.clwaideac-na-cuinne.co.uk/articles-on-other-languages-l1-to-l30/l1-the-khakas-language-and-other-topics .