The Chelkans are sometimes called "Lebeds" (Russian: Лебедины, Lebediny), of the name of the river which runs through the Altai Republic, or Qu'Kiji.

Chelkan is classified in the Siberian Turkic languages.

The word-final guttural phonemes of Chelkan are more stable then in literary Altai, for example Chelkan таг versus literary туу 'mountain'.

However, only one textbook has been published, "Аба-jыштың-аң-куштары" (Animals and Birds of Primeval Taiga), in 2004.

This article about a Turkic language or related topic is a stub.