Chelkan (also Chalkan, Chalqandu) is a Turkic language spoken in the Altai Republic in Russia by 648 Chelkans.

The Chelkans are sometimes called "Lebeds" (Russian: Лебедины, Lebediny), of the name of the river which runs through the Altai Republic, or Qu'Kiji. In the 2002 Russian census, their population rose to 855 people.

Chelkan is classified in the Siberian Turkic languages. It is considered to be a dialect of Northern Altai. The Chelkan, aside from knowing Chelkan, can also understand Tubalar and Kumandin, which comprise the Northern Altai language.

The word-final guttural phonemes of Chelkan are more stable then in literary Altai, for example Chelkan таг versus literary туу 'mountain'.^[2]

Chelkan has vowel harmony.^[2]

In 2008, an alphabet was created for the Chelkan language. However, only one textbook has been published, "Аба-jыштың-аң-куштары" (Animals and Birds of Primeval Taiga), in 2004.^[2]

In 2017-18, the alphabet was modified with the addition of the letter Њ њ.

• (ru) Баскаков, Н.A., Диалект чернёвых татар (туба-кижи), Северные диалекты алтаиского (ойротского) языка, 2 volumes, Moscou, Nauka, 1965–1966.

• Ethnologue: Languages of the World (unknown ed.). SIL International.^{[This citation is dated, and should be substituted with a specific edition of Ethnologue]}, which is incorrect about Northern Altai dialects, for which it gives names of southern dialects as alternative names.