Yakut language

Yakut is a member of the Northeastern Common Turkic family of languages, which also includes Shor, Tuvan and Dolgan. Like most Turkic languages, Yakut has vowel harmony, is agglutinative and has no grammatical gender. Word order is usually subject–object–verb. Yakut has been influenced by Tungusic and Mongolian languages.{{sfn|Forsyth|1994|loc=p.56: "Their language...Turkic in its vocabulary and grammar, shows the influence of both Tungus and Mongolian."}}

Historically, Yakut left the community of Common Turkic speakers relatively early.{{sfn|Johanson|2021|pp=20,24}} Due to this, it diverges in many ways from other Turkic languages and mutual intelligibility between Yakut and other Turkic languages is low{{sfn|Stachowski|Menz|1998}} and many cognate words are hard to notice when heard. Nevertheless, Yakut contains many features which are important for the reconstruction of Proto-Turkic, such as the preservation of long vowels.{{sfn|Johanson|2021|p=19}} Despite all the aberrant features of Sakha (i.e. Yakut), it is still considered to belong to Common Turkic (in contrast to Chuvash). A relatively few scholars (W. Radlov and others) expressed the view that Sakha (i.e. Yakut) is not Turkic.

Yakut is spoken mainly in the Sakha Republic. It is also used by ethnic Yakuts in Khabarovsk Region and a small diaspora in other parts of the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, Turkey and other parts of the world. Dolgan, a close relative of Yakut, which formerly was considered by some a dialect of Yakut,{{sfn|Antonov|1997}} is spoken by Dolgans in Krasnoyarsk Region. Yakut is widely used as a lingua franca by other ethnic minorities in the Sakha Republic – more Dolgans, Evenks, Evens and Yukagirs speak Yakut rather than their own languages. About 8% of the people of other ethnicities than Yakut living in Sakha claimed knowledge of the Yakut language during the 2002 census.Russian Census 2002. [http://www.perepis2002.ru/ct/doc/TOM_04_06.xls 6. Владение языками (кроме русского) населением отдельных национальностей по республикам, автономной области и автономным округам Российской Федерации] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061104083616/http://www.perepis2002.ru/ct/doc/TOM_04_06.xls |date=2006-11-04 }} (Knowledge of languages other than Russian by the population of republics, autonomous oblast and autonomous districts) {{in lang|ru}}

{{See also|#Orthography}}

Yakut has the following consonants phonemes,{{sfn|Pakendorf|Stapert|2020}} where the IPA value is provided in slashes '//' and the native script value is provided in bold followed by the romanization in parentheses.

• {{IPA|/n, t, d/}} are laminal denti-alveolar {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|n̪}}, {{IPAplink|t̪}}, {{IPAplink|d̪}}]}}, whereas {{IPA|/s, l, ɾ/}} are alveolar {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|s}}, {{IPAplink|l}}, {{IPAplink|ɾ}}]}}.
• The nasal glide {{IPA|/ȷ̃/}} is not distinguished from {{IPA|/j/}} in the orthography, where both are written as {{angbr|й}}. Thus айыы can be ayïï {{IPA |[ajɯː]}} 'deed, creation, work' or aỹïï {{IPA |[aȷ̃ɯː]}} 'sin, transgression'.{{sfn|Krueger|1962|p=67}} The nasal glide {{IPA|/ȷ̃/}} has a very restricted distribution, appearing in very few words.{{sfn|Pakendorf|Stapert|2020|p=432}}
• {{IPA|/ɾ/}} is pronounced as a flap {{IPAblink|ɾ}} between vowels, e.g. орон (oron) {{IPA|[oɾon]}} 'place', and as a trill {{IPAblink|r}} at the end of words, e.g. тур (tur) {{IPA|[tur]}} 'stand'.{{sfn|Krueger|1962|pp=68-9}}{{sfn|Kharitonov|1947|p=63}}
• {{IPA|/ɾ/}} does not occur at the beginning of words in native Yakut words; borrowed Russian words with onset {{IPA|/ɾ/}} are usually rendered with an epenthetic vowel, e.g. Russian рама (rama) > Yakut араама (araama) 'frame'.

Yakut is in many ways phonologically unique among the Turkic languages. Yakut and the closely related Dolgan language are the only Turkic languages without postalveolar sibilants. Additionally, no known Turkic languages other than Yakut and Khorasani Turkic have the palatal nasal {{IPAslink|ɲ}}.

Consonants at morpheme boundaries undergo extensive assimilation, both progressive and regressive.{{sfn|Kharitonov|1947|p=64}}{{sfn|Stachowski|Menz|1998|p=420}} All suffixes possess numerous allomorphs. For suffixes which begin with a consonant, the surface form of the consonant is conditioned on the stem-final segment. There are four such archiphonemic consonants: G, B, T, and L. Examples of each are provided in the following table for the suffixes -GIt (second-person plural possessive suffix, oɣoɣut 'your [pl.] child'), -BIt (first-person plural possessive suffix, oɣobut, 'our child'), -TA (partitive case suffix, {{Transliteration|sah|tiiste}} 'some teeth'), -LArA (third-person plural possessive suffix, oɣoloro 'their child'). Note that the alternation in the vowels is governed by vowel harmony (see the main article and the below section).

{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

There is an additional regular morphophonological pattern for {{IPAblink|t}}-final stems: they assimilate in place of articulation with an immediately following labial or velar. For example at 'horse' > akkït 'your [pl.] horse', > appït 'our horse'.

Yakut initial s- corresponds to initial h- in Dolgan and played an important operative rule in the development of proto-Yakut, ultimately resulting in initial Ø- < *h- < *s- (example: Dolgan huoq and Yakut suox, both meaning "not").{{Clarify|date=March 2022|Historical debuccalization is the same in both, the synchronic patterns in the reflex to PT *y (>s) are what differs between Dolgan and Yakut}} The historical change of *s > h, known as debuccalization, is a common sound-change across the world's languages, being characteristic of such language groups as Greek and Indo-Iranian in their development from Proto-Indo-European, as well as such Turkic languages as Bashkir, e.g. höt 'milk' < *süt.[http://www.livingtongues.org/docs/yakut_historical_phonology.pdf Ubrjatova, E. I. 1960 Opyt sravnitel'nogo izuc˙enija fonetic˙eskix osobennostej naselenija nekotoryx rajonov Jakutskoj ASSR. Moscow. 1985. Jazyk noril'skix dolgan. Novosibirsk: "Nauka" SO. In Tungusic Languages 2 (2): 1–32. Historical Aspects of Yakut (Saxa) Phonology. Gregory D. S. Anderson. University of Chicago.]

Debuccalization is also an active phonological process in modern Yakut. Intervocalically the phoneme {{IPAslink|s}} becomes {{IPAblink|h}}. For example the /s/ in кыыс (kïïs) 'girl' becomes [h] between vowels:{{sfn|Johanson|2021|p=36}}

{{interlinear|lang=sah|number=a.

| kïïs > kïïh-ïm

| girl > girl-POSS.1SG

| 'girl; daughter' > 'my daughter'

}}

Yakut has twenty phonemic vowels: eight short vowels, eight long vowels,{{refn|group=lower-alpha|The long vowel phonemes /eː/, /ɔː/, and /øː/ appear in very few words and are thus considered marginal phonemes.{{sfn|Johanson|2021|p=283}}}} and four diphthongs. The following table gives broad transcriptions for each vowel phoneme,{{refn|group=lower-alpha|Note that these vowels are extremely broad. Narrower transcriptions{{sfnm|1a1=Pakendorf|1a2=Stapert|1y=2020|1p=433|2a1=Anderson|2y=1998}} transcribe the high back non-front vowel ы as central {{IPAslink|ɨ}}. The front non-high unrounded open vowel in э, ээ, and иэ are more accurately {{IPA|[ɛ]}}, {{IPA|[ɛː]}}, {{IPA|[iɛ]}}, respectively.}} as well as the native script bold and romanization in italics:

{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

Like other Turkic languages, a characteristic feature of Yakut is progressive vowel harmony. Most root words obey vowel harmony, for example in кэлин (kelin) 'back', all the vowels are front and unrounded. Yakut's vowel harmony in suffixes is the most complex system in the Turkic family.{{sfn|Johanson|2021|p=315}} Vowel harmony is an assimilation process where vowels in one syllable take on certain features of vowels in the preceding syllable. In Yakut, subsequent vowels all take on frontness and all non-low vowels take on lip rounding of preceding syllables' vowels.{{sfnm|Krueger|1962|1pp=48-9|2a1=Stachowski|2a2=Menz|2y=1998|2p=419}} There are two main rules of vowel harmony:

1. Frontness/backness harmony:
2. Front vowels are always followed by front vowels.
3. Back vowels are always followed by back vowels.
4. Rounding harmony:
5. Unrounded vowels are always followed by unrounded vowels.
6. Close rounded vowels always occur after close rounded vowels.
7. Open unrounded vowels do not assimilate in rounding with close rounded vowels.

The quality of the diphthongs /ie, ïa, uo, üö/ for the purposes of vowel harmony is determined by the first segment in the diphthong. Taken together, these rules mean that the pattern of subsequent syllables in Yakut is entirely predictable, and all words will follow the following pattern:{{sfn|Johanson|2021|p=316}} Like the consonant assimilation rules above, suffixes display numerous allomorphs determined by the stem they attach to. There are two archiphoneme vowels I (an underlyingly high vowel) and A (an underlyingly low vowel).

Examples of I can be seen in the first-person singular possessive agreement suffix -(I)m:{{refn|-(I)m indicates that this suffix appears as -m in vowel-final words (e.g. oɣo 'child' > oɣom 'my child'.}} as in (a):

The underlyingly low vowel phoneme A is represented through the third-person singular agreement suffix -(t)A{{refn|Consonants in parentheses indicate that the suffix loses the consonant in consonant-final words, e.g. uol 'son' > uola 'his/her son.'}} in (b):

{{Main|Yakut scripts}}

After three earlier phases of development, Yakut is currently written using the Cyrillic script: the modern Yakut alphabet, established in 1939 by the Soviet Union, consists of all the Russian characters with five additional letters for phonemes not present in Russian: Ҕҕ, Ҥҥ, Өө, Һһ, Үү, as follows:

Long vowels are represented through the doubling of vowels, e.g. үүт (üüt) {{IPAslink|yːt}} 'milk', a practice that many scholars follow in romanizations of the language.{{sfn|Krueger|1962}}{{sfn|Vinokurova|2005}}{{sfn|Petrova|2011}}

The full Yakut alphabet contains letters for consonant phonemes not present in native words (and thus not indicated in the phonology tables above): the letters В {{IPAslink|v}}, Е /{{IPA|(j)e}}/, Ё /{{IPA|jo}}|/, Ж {{IPAslink|ʒ}}, З {{IPAslink|z}}, Ф {{IPAslink|f}}, Ц {{IPAslink|t͡s}}, Ш {{IPAslink|ʃ}}, Щ {{IPAslink|ɕː}}, Ъ, Ю /{{IPA|ju}}/, Я /{{IPA|ja}}/ are used exclusively in Russian loanwords. In addition, in native Yakut words, the soft sign {{angbr|Ь}} is used exclusively in the digraphs {{angbr|дь}} and {{angbr|нь}}.

There are numerous conventions for the Romanization of Yakut. Bibliographic sources and libraries typically use the ALA-LC Romanization tables for non-Slavic languages in Cyrillic script.{{cite web |title=Non-Slavic languages (in Cyrillic Script) |website=Library of Congress |url=https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/nonslav.pdf |access-date=31 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211103195111/https://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/nonslav.pdf|archive-date=November 3, 2021}} Linguists often employ Turkological standards for transliteration,{{harvnb|Krueger|1962}}; {{harvnb|Stachowski|Menz|1998}}; {{harvnb|Johanson|2021}}; {{harvnb|Menz|Monastyrev|2022}} or a mixture of Turkological standards and the IPA.{{sfn|Anderson|1998}} In addition, others employ Turkish orthography.{{sfn|Kirişçioğlu|1999}} Comparison of some of these systems can be seen in the following:

{{fs interlinear|lang=sah|number=(a)

| дьон

| /d͡ʒon/

| people

| 'people'{{cite web|url=https://sakhatyla.ru/translate?q=%D0%B4%D1%8C%D0%BE%D0%BD | title=дьон | author= | website=sakhatyla.ru | access-date=April 2, 2022 }}}}

{{fs interlinear|lang=sah|number=(b)

| айыы

| /ajɯː/

| creation

| 'creation'{{cite web| url= https://sakhatyla.ru/translate?q=%D0%B0%D0%B9%D1%8B%D1%8B| title=айыы| website=sakhatyla.ru| access-date=April 2, 2022}}}}

{{fs interlinear|lang=sah|number=(c)

| бу ыт аттааҕар түргэнник сүүрэр

| /bu ɯt at.taːɣar tyrgɛn.nɪk syːrɛr/

| DEM dog horse-COMP fast-ADV run-PRES

| 'This dog runs faster than a horse'{{sfn|Krueger|1962|p=89}}}}

{{fs interlinear|lang=sah|number=(d)

| эһэ бөрөтөөҕөр күүстээх

| /ɛhɛ bøɾøtøːɣør kyːstɛːχ/

| bear wolf-COMP strong-have

| 'A bear is stronger than a wolf'{{sfn|Krueger|1962|p=89}}}}

The typical word order can be summarized as subject – adverb – object – verb; possessor – possessed; adjective – noun.

Personal pronouns in Yakut distinguish between first, second, and third persons and singular and plural number.

{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

Although nouns have no gender, the pronoun system distinguishes between human and non-human in the third person, using {{lang|sah|кини}} ({{Transliteration|sah|kini}}, 'he/she') to refer to human beings and {{lang|sah|ол}} ({{Transliteration|sah|ol}}, 'it') to refer to all other things.{{cite book | author=Kirişçioğlu, M. Fatih | title=Saha (Yakut) Türkçesi Grameri | location=Ankara | publisher=Türk Dil Kurumu | year=1999 |isbn=975-16-0587-3}}

Nouns have plural and singular forms. The plural is formed with the suffix /-LAr/, which may surface as -лар (-lar), -лэр (-ler), -лөр (-lör), -лор (-lor), -тар (-tar), -тэр (-ter), -төр (-tör), -тор (-tor), -дар (-dar), -дэр (-der), -дөр (-dör), -дор (-dor), -нар (-nar), -нэр (-ner), -нөр (-nör), or {{nowrap|-нор}} ({{nowrap|-nor}}), depending on the preceding consonants and vowels. The plural is used only when referring to a number of things collectively, not when specifying an amount. Nouns have no gender.

{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

There is a parallel construction with plural suffix {{nowrap|-ттАр}}, which can even be added to adjectives e.g.

• {{lang|sah|уол}} ({{Transliteration|sah|uol}}) 'boy; son' > {{lang|sah|уолаттар}} ({{Transliteration|sah|uolattar}}),
• {{lang|sah|эр}} 'man' > {{lang|sah|эрэттэр}} or folkloric {{lang|sah|эрэн}} (cf. Uzbek folkloric {{lang|uz|eran}})
• {{lang|sah|хотун}} 'noblewoman' > {{lang|sah|хотуттар}} or хотут
• {{lang|sah|тойон}} 'commander' > {{lang|sah|тойоттор}} or {{lang|sah|тойот}}
• {{lang|sah|оҕонньор}} 'old man, husband' > оҕонньоттор
• кэм 'time' > кэммит
• дьон 'people' > дьоммут
• ойун 'shaman' > ойууттар
• доҕор 'friend' > доҕоттор
• күөл 'lake' > күөлэттэр
• хоһуун 'hard-working' > хоһууттар
• буур 'male' (of deer and elk) > буураттар ('male deers')
• {{lang|sah|кыыс}} ({{Transliteration|sah|kïïs}}) 'girl; daughter' > {{lang|sah|кыргыттар}} ({{Transliteration|sah|kïrgïttar}}) (standard, suppletive) or кыыстар (dialectal, regular).

The word кыргыттар, disregarding the composite {{nowrap|-(ы)ттар}} plural suffix, has cognates in numerous Turkic languages, such as Uzbek ({{lang|uz|qirqin}} 'bondwoman'), Bashkir, Tatar, Kyrgyz (кыз-кыркын 'girls'), Chuvash ({{lang|cv|хӑрхӑм}}), Turkmen (gyrnak) and extinct Qarakhanid, Khwarezmian and Chaghatay.

Only Sakha (Yakut) has a rich case system that differs markedly from all the other Siberian Turkic languages. It has retained the ancient comitative case from Old Turkic (due to strong influence from Mongolian) while in other Turkic languages, the old comitative has become an instrumental case. However, in Sakha language the Old Turkic locative case has come to denote partitive case, thus leaving no case form for the function of locative. Instead, locative, dative and allative cases are realized through Common Turkic dative suffix: {{interlinear|lang=sah|indent=2|Норуокка "хайа хаппыыстата" диэн аатынан биллэр хайаҕа үүнэр үүнээйи.|A plant known among locals as "mountain cabbage" that grows on a mountain.}} where -ҕа is dative and хайаҕа literally means "to the mountain". Furthermore, (in addition to locative,) genitive and equative cases are lost as well. Yakut has eight grammatical cases: nominative (unmarked), accusative -(n)I, dative -GA, partitive -TA, ablative -(t)tan, instrumental -(I)nAn, comitative -LIIn, and comparative -TAAɣAr.{{harvnb|Krueger|1962}}; {{harvnb|Stachowski|Menz|1998}}; {{harvnb|Vinokurova|2005}} Examples of these are shown in the following table for a vowel-final stem {{Transliteration|sah|eye}} (of Mongolian origin) 'peace' and a consonant-final stem {{Transliteration|sah|uot}} 'fire':

{{reflist|group=lower-alpha}}

The partitive object case indicates that just a part of an object is affected, e.g.:

{{Interlinear|lang=sah|indent=2

| Uː-ta is!

| water-PTV drink-IMP.2SG

| Drink some water!

}}

The corresponding expression below with the object in the accusative denotes wholeness:

{{Interlinear|lang=sah|indent=2

| Uː-nu is!

| water-ACC. drink-IMP.2SG

| Drink [all] the water!

}}

The partitive is only used in imperative or necessitative expressions, e.g.

{{Interlinear|lang=sah|indent=2

| Uː-ta a-γal-ϊaχ-χa naːda.

| water-PT bring-PRO-DAT necessary.

| One has to bring some water.

}}

Note the word naːda is borrowed from Russian надо (must).

A notable detail about Yakut case is the absence of the genitive,{{sfnm|1a1=Krueger|1y=1962|2a1=Stachowski|2a2=Menz|2y=1998|3a1=Baker|3a2=Vinokurova|3y=2010|4a1=Johanson|4y=2021}} a feature which some argue is due to historical contact with Evenki (a Tungusic language), the language with which Sakha (i.e. Yakut) was in most intensive contact.{{sfn|Pakendorf|2007}} Possessors are unmarked, with the possessive relationship only being realized on the possessed noun itself either through the possessive suffix{{sfn|Baker|Vinokurova|2010}} (if the subject is a pronoun) or through partitive case suffix (if the subject is any other nominal). For example, in (a) the first-person pronoun subjects are not marked for genitive case; neither do full nominal subjects (possessors) receive any marking, as shown in (b):

{{Interlinear|lang=sah|number=a.

|min oɣo-m / bihigi oɣo-but

|1SG.NOM child-POSS.1SG / 1PL.NOM child-POSS.1PL

| 'my son' / 'our child'

}}

{{Interlinear|lang=sah|number=b.

| Masha aɣa-ta

| Masha.NOM father-PTV.3SG

| 'Masha's father'

}}

Note the change in shape of the dative suffix when used with and without pronominal suffixes:

"Хоско киирдэ" - (He/She) entered a/the room.

"Хоһугар киирдэ" - (He/She) entered his/her room.

{{nowrap|-ко}} and {{nowrap|-гар}} are both dative suffixes (and -у serves to denote "his/her").

E. I. Korkina (1970) enumerates following tenses: present-future tense, future tense and eight forms of past tense (including imperfect).
Sakha imperfect has two forms: analytic and synthetic. Both forms are based on the aorist suffix {{nowrap|-Ar}}, common to all Turkic languages. The synthetic form, despite expressing a past aspect, lacks the Common Turkic past suffix, which is very unusual for a Turkic language. This is considered by some to be another influence from Even, a Tungusic language. Example:

{{interlinear|indent=2|Биһиги иннибитинэ бу кыбартыыраҕа оҕолоох ыал олорбуттар.|Before us, a family with children used to live here.}}

Sakha, under Evenki/Even contact influence, has developed a distinction in imperative: immediate imperative ("do now!") and future/remote imperative ("do later!").{{ref|cite web|url=https://hal.univ-lyon2.fr/hal-02889684v1/document |title=Sakha and Dolgan, the North Siberian Turkic languages|page=24}}

Immediate imperative example:

{{interlinear|lang=sah|indent=2| Николай Атласов алаадьыны буһарыы туһунан кэпсиирин истиҥ|Listen to Nikolay Atlasov’s talk about preparing oladyi.}}

Common Turkic has denominal suffix {{nowrap|-LA}}, used to create verbs from nouns (i.e. Uzbek tishla= 'to bite' from tish 'tooth'). The suffix is also present in Sakha (in various shapes, due to vowel harmony), but Sakha takes it a step further: theoretically verbs can be created from any noun by attaching to that noun the denominal suffix:

{{interlinear|lang=sah|indent=2|Арай биирдэ, теннистии туран, хараҕым ааһан иһэр кыыска хатана түспүтэ.|Once upon a time, while playing tennis, my eyes caught a sight of a girl passing by.}}

where the word for “playing tennis” (теннистии) is derived from теннистээ, “to play tennis”, created by attaching the suffix {{nowrap|-тээ}}.

Sakha converbs end in -(A)n as opposed to Common Turkic -(I)B. They express simultaneous and sequential action and are also used with auxiliary verbs, preceding them:

{{interlinear|lang=sah|indent=2|Күлүгүн кытта охсуһан таҕыстыҥ|You continuously fought with his shadow.}}

Simultaneous and sequential actions are expressed through the converbial suffix {{nowrap|-а(н)}}:

{{interlinear|lang=sah|indent=2|Самаан сайын бүтэн, айылҕа барахсан уһун улук уутугар оҥостордуу от-мас хагдарыйан күөх солко симэҕин ыһыктар күһүҥҥү тымныы салгыннаах, сиппэрэҥ күннэр тураллар|Summer having past, very cold and sleety days of autumn arise wherein the mother nature dresses in robe made green by plants growing in shallow waters.}}

{{interlinear|lang=sah|indent=2|Кэлэн иһэллэр, итириктэр|After coming, they would drink (and) get drunk.}}

The Sakha yes–no question marker is enclitic duo or du:, whereas almost all other Turkic languages use markers of the type -mi, compare:

{{fs interlinear|lang=sah|indent=2

| Күөрэгэй ырыатын истэҕин дуо?

| kyœregej ïrïa-tï-n ist-e-ɣin {{=}}duo?

| lark-NOM song-3SG.POSS-ACC hear-PRS-2SG {{=}}Q

| Do you hear the song of larks?

}}

and the same sentence in Uzbek (note the question suffix -mi in contrast to Sakha):

{{interlinear|lang=uzb|indent=2

| To’rg’ay jirini eshit(a)yapsanmi?

}}

Question words in Yakut remain in-situ; they do not move to the front of the sentence. Sample question words include: {{lang|sah|туох}} ({{Transliteration|sah|tuox}}) 'what', {{lang|sah|ким}} ({{Transliteration|sah|kim}}) 'who', {{lang|sah|хайдах}} ({{Transliteration|sah|xajdax}}) 'how', {{lang|sah|хас}} ({{Transliteration|sah|xas}}) 'how much; how many', {{lang|sah|ханна}} ({{Transliteration|sah|xanna}}) 'where', and {{lang|sah|ханнык}} ({{Transliteration|sah|xannïk}}) 'which'.

Ordinals are formed by appending {{nowrap|-үс}} to numerals:

{{interlinear|indent=2|Казань - дойдубут үһүс тэбэр сүрэҕэ|Qazan - the third beating heart of our country}}

Together with having a considerable number of Russian loanwords, Sakha language features Russisms in colloquial speech. Example:

{{interlinear|indent=2|lang=sah|Курууса жарылабын.|I am frying a chicken}}

Both words in the sentence above are loans from Russian: "Курууса" - (курица "kuritsa"), 'chicken"; "жарылабын" - cf. "жарить", 'to fry'.

{{more citations needed section|date=November 2024}}

The Yakut lexicon includes loans from Russian, Mongolic, Evenki, and number of words from other languages or of unknown origin. The Mongolic loans do not appear to be traceable to any specific Mongolic language, but a few have been traced to Buryat and Khalkha Mongolian. They are widely dispersed through various categories of words with words relating to the home and law having the most Mongolic loans. Russian loans on the contrary are much more widespread but less evenly dispersed though various types of words. Words relating to the modern world, clothing, and the home have the most Russian influence.{{Cite book |last1=Haspelmath |first1=Martin |title=Loanwords in the worlds languages A comprehensive handbook |last2=Tadmor |first2=Uri |date=2009 |publisher=De Gruyter Mouton |isbn=978-3-11-021843-5 |pages=506–508 |language=en}}

The Yakut have a tradition of oral epic in their language called Олоҥхо ("Olonkho"), traditionally performed by skilled performers. The subject matter is based on Yakut mythology and legends. Versions of many Olonkho poems have been written down and translated since the 19th century, but only a very few older performers of the oral Olonkho tradition are still alive. They have begun a program to teach young people to sing this in their language and revive it, though in a modified form.Robin Harris. 2012. Sitting "under the mouth": decline and revitalization in the Sakha epic tradition "Olonkho". Doctoral dissertation, University of Georgia.

The first printing in Yakut was a part of a book by Nicolaas Witsen published in 1692 in Amsterdam.{{cite web|url=http://www.sakhamemory.ru/ShowArticle.aspx?ArticleID=6&CategoryID=54|title=Предпосылки возникновения якутской книги|publisher=Память Якутии|access-date=2014-10-29}}

In 2005, Marianne Beerle-Moor, director of the Institute for Bible Translation, Russia/CIS, was awarded the Order of Civil Valour by the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) for the translation of the New Testament into Yakut.{{cite web |title=People |url=http://ibtrussia.org/en/persons |publisher=Institute for Bible Translation, Russia/CIS |access-date=5 October 2016}}

Probably the first-ever Islamic book in Sakha language, "Билсиҥ: Ислам" ("Get to know: Islam"), written by a Sakha convert born in the village of Asyma, was published in 2012.{{cite web|url=https://dumrf.ru/common/regnews/4355?ysclid=lt1uci4ram439953413 | title=В Якутии издали книгу об исламе на языке саха }} This short book (52 pages) is intended to be a condensed introduction to the fundamentals of Islam in Sakha. The author occasionally employs native terms (which are also used in Olonkho corpus) to render some Islamic concepts, such as the jinn.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

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{{Portal|Russia|Languages}}

• Yakuts
• Dolgan language
• Semyon Novgorodov – the inventor of the first IPA-based Yakut alphabet

{{reflist}}

• {{Cite journal |last=Anderson |first=Gregory D. S. |year=1998 |title=Historical Aspects of Yakut (Saxa) Phonology |journal=Turkic Languages |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=1–32}}
• {{Cite book |last=Antonov |first=N. K. |title=Yazyki mira (seriya knig) |publisher=Indrik (izdatelstvo) |year=1997 |isbn=5-85759-061-2 |editor-last=Tenshev |editor-first=E. R. |pages=513–524 |language=ru}}
• {{Cite journal |last1=Baker |first1=Mark C |last2=Vinokurova |first2=Nadya |year=2010 |title=Two modalities of case assignment: case in Sakha |journal=Natural Language and Linguistic Theory |volume=28 |issue=3 |pages=593–642|doi=10.1007/s11049-010-9105-1 |s2cid=18614663 }}
• {{Cite book |last=Forsyth |first=James |title=A History of the Peoples of Siberia: Russia's North Asian Colony 1581-1990 |date=1994 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521477710}}
• {{Cite book |last=Johanson |first=Lars |title=Turkic |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2021 |location=Cambridge |pages=20, 24}}
• {{Cite book |last=Kharitonov |first=L. N. |title=Samouchitel' jakutskogo jazyka |publisher=Jakutskoe knizhnoe izdatel'stvo |year=1947 |language=ru}}
• {{Cite book |last=Kirişçioğlu |first=M. Fatih |title=Saha (Yakut) Türkçesi Grameri |publisher=Türk Dil Kurumu |year=1999 |isbn=975-16-0587-3 |location=Ankara |language=tr}}
• {{Cite book |last=Krueger |first=John R. |title=Yakut Manual |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=1962 |location=Bloomington}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Menz |first1=Astrid |title=The Turkic Languages |edition=Second |last2=Monastyrev |first2=Vladimir |publisher=Routledge |year=2022 |isbn=978-0-415-73856-9 |editor-last=Johanson |editor-first=Lars |pages=444–59 |chapter=Yakut |doi=10.4324/9781003243809 |editor-last2=Csató |editor-first2=Éva Á. |s2cid=243795171}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Robbeets |first1=Martine |title=The Oxford Guide to the Transeurasian Languages |last2=Savalyev |first2=Alexander |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2020 |editor-last=Robbeets |editor-first=Martine |pages=lii-lxxxii |chapter=Romanization Conventions |editor-last2=Savalyev |editor-first2=Alexander}}
• {{Cite thesis |last=Pakendorf |first=Brigitte |author-link=Brigitte Pakendorf|title=Contact in the prehistory of the Sakha (Yakuts): Linguistic and genetic perspectives |publisher=Universiteit Leiden |year=2007}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Pakendorf |first1=Brigitte |title=The Oxford Guide to the Transeurasian Languages |last2=Stapert |first2=Eugénie |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2020 |isbn=978-0-19-880462-8 |editor-last=Robbeets |editor-first=Martine |pages=430–45 |chapter=Sakha and Dolgan, the North Siberian Turkic Languages |doi=10.1093/oso/9780198804628.003.0027 |editor-last2=Savalyev |editor-first2=Alexander}}
• {{Cite thesis |last=Petrova |first=Nyurguyana |title=Lexicon and Clause-Linkage Properties of the Converbal Constructions in Sakha (Yakut) |publisher=University of Buffalo |year=2011}}
• {{Cite book |last1=Stachowski |first1=Marek |title=The Turkic Languages |last2=Menz |first2=Astrid |publisher=Routledge |year=1998 |editor-last=Johanson |editor-first=Lars |chapter=Yakut |editor-last2=Csató |editor-first2=Éva Á.}}

• {{Cite book |title=Grammatika sovremennogo jakutskogo literaturnogo jazyka |publisher=Nauka |year=1980 |editor-last=Ubryatova |editor-first=E.I. |location=Moscow}}
• {{Cite thesis |last=Vinokurova |first=Nadezhda |title=Lexical Categories and Argument Structure: A study with reference to Sakha |publisher=Universiteit Utrecht |year=2005}}

{{Sister project links |auto=1

|wikt=Category:Yakut language

|commons=Category:Sakha language

|b=The Sakha language

|voy=Sakha phrasebook

|d=Q34299

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|q=sah:

|iw=sah

}}

{{incubator|sah|wiktionary}}

{{incubator|sah|wikinews}}

• [http://wold.clld.org/vocabulary/19 Yakut Vocabulary List] (from the World Loanword Database)
• [http://sakha.yakut.iakoute.free.fr/index_uk.php Yakut thematic vocabulary lists]
• [http://www.languagesgulper.com/eng/Yakut.html]
• {{cite web| url=http://www.uni-bonn.de/~uzsylm/mongol/mongol_sakha.html| title=Comparison of Yakut and Mongolian vocabulary|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080205230834/https://www.uni-bonn.de/~uzsylm/mongol/mongol_sakha.html| archive-date=February 5, 2008}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080105123729/http://www.uni-bonn.de/~uzsylm/sakha/bib/ Yakut texts with Russian translations] in the Internet Archive – heroic poetry, fairy tales, legends, proverbs, etc.
• [http://sakhalyy.helios-nw.ru/ Sakhalyy suruk] – Yakut Unicode fonts and Keyboard Layouts for PC
• [http://sakhatyla.ru Sakhatyla.ru] – On-line Yakut–Russian, Russian–Yakut dictionary
• [https://turkic.elegantlexicon.com/Sakha%20dictionary.pdf Yakut–English Dictionary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220402213809/https://turkic.elegantlexicon.com/Sakha%20dictionary.pdf| date=April 2, 2022}}
• [https://www.translitteration.com/transliteration/en/yakut/bgn-pcgn/ BGN/PCGN romanization tool for Yakut]
• [http://doydu.sakhaopenworld.org/modules/debaser/genre.php?genreid=13 Sakha Open World] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060619045928/http://doydu.sakhaopenworld.org/modules/debaser/genre.php?genreid=13 |date=2006-06-19 }} – MP3's of Sakha Radio

• [http://doydu.sakhaopenworld.org/ Sakha Open World – Орто Дойду] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170922080409/http://doydu.sakhaopenworld.org/ |date=2017-09-22 }} – A platform to promote the Yakut Language on the web; News, Lyrics, Music, Fonts, Forum, VideoNews (in Yakut, Unicode)
• [http://www.baayaga.narod.ru Baayaga village website] – news and stories about and by the people of Baayaga (in Yakut)
• [http://www.kyym.ru Kyym.ru] – site of Yakut newspaper
• [https://www.youtube.com/c/NVKSAKHA НВК Саха (NVK Sakha)] Yakut language news channel on YouTube

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Category:Agglutinative languages

Category:Siberian Turkic languages

Category:Vowel-harmony languages

Category:Indigenous languages of Siberia

Category:Turkic languages

Category:Subject–object–verb languages