Editing Altai Mountains (section)

== Etymology and modern names ==
''Altai'' is derived from underlying form *''altañ'' "gold, golden" (compare [[Old Turkic]] 𐰞𐱃𐰆𐰣 ''altun'' "gold, golden") with coda ''-ñ'' underlying the ''-n'' & ''-y'' correspondence among cognates in different Turkic languages & dialects (e.g. ''qōñ'' ~ ''qoy'' "sheep", ''Qitan'' ~ ''Qitay'' "Khitans", etc.), as well as in Mongolian. 

The mountains are called ''Altain nuruu'' ({{lang|khk-Cyrl|Алтайн нуруу}}) in [[Khalkha Mongolian]], ''altai-yin niruɣu'' in [[Chakhar Mongolian]], and ''Altay tuular'' ({{lang|alt|Алтай туулар}}) in the [[Altay language]]. They are also called {{lang|kk|Altaı taýlary}} or {{lang|kk-Arab|التاي تاۋلارى}} in [[Kazakh language|Kazakh]]; ''Altajskije gory'' ({{lang|ru|Алтайские горы}}) in [[Russian language|Russian]]; ''Altay Taghliri'' ({{ug-textonly|ىالتاي تاغلىرى}} or {{lang|ug-Cyrl|Алтай Тағлири}}) in [[Uyghur language|Uyghur]]; ''ā'ěrtài shānmài'' in [[Chinese language|Chinese]] ({{lang|zh|阿尔泰山脉}} [[simplified Chinese characters|simplified]], {{lang|zh|阿爾泰山脈}} [[traditional Chinese characters|traditional]], or {{lang|zh-Arab|اَعَرتَىْ شًامَىْ}} in [[Xiao'erjing]]); and ''Arteː shanmeː'' ({{lang|dng|Артэ Шанмэ}}) in [[Dungan language|Dungan]].