The Teleut language (the language of the Bachat Teleuts, Bachat Teleut language) is a language of a minor Turkic ethnic group of Teleuts. The ethnonym ‘Teleut’ (Teleŋit ~ Teleŋet – Teleŋut) is several thousand years old: it was a name for ethnically diverse groups of nomads from Central Asia.
The ethnic group itself, the core of which was made by Teleut family groups, had emerged by the early 20th century. But since 17th century, since the start of colonisation of Siberia, Teleuts along with other Turkic ethnic groups of South Siberia were called ‘Tatars’ by Russians. The name was internalised, so until the early 20th century Teleuts called themselves Tadar Kizhi, and their language — Tadar Tili, now used only by older people.
The language of Bachat Teleuts, one of the indigenous minor ethnic groups in Siberia, belongs to Turkic languages and is spoken in Kemerovo Oblast along the Bolshoi and Malyi Bachat rivers, in settlements of Bekovo and Shanda as well as in urban districts of Belovo and Novokuznetsk.