Tuvan (Tuvan: Тыва дыл Tyva dyl), also known as Tuvinian, Tyvan, or Tuvin, is one of the Turkic languages. It is spoken by around 200,000 people in the Republic of Tuva in south-central Siberia in Russia. The language borrows a great number of roots from the Mongolian language and more recently from the Russian language. There are small diaspora groups of Tuvan people that speak distinct dialects of Tuvan in the People's Republic of China and in Mongolia. Tyva Republic IPA: (Russian: IPA: ; Tuvan: ), or Tuva (), is a federal subject of Russia (a republic). ... Current distribution of Human Language Families A language family is a group of related languages said to have descended from a common proto-language. ... Altaic is a proposed language family which includes 66 languages [1] spoken by about 348 million people, mostly in and around Central Asia and northeast Asia. ... Altaic is a proposed language family which includes 66 languages [1] spoken by about 348 million people, mostly in and around Central Asia and northeast Asia. ... The Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken across a vast area from Eastern Europe to Siberia and Western China with an estimated 140 million native speakers and tens of millions of second-language speakers. ... Tyva Republic IPA: (Russian: IPA: ; Tuvan: ), or Tuva (), is a federal subject of Russia (a republic). ... Russia is a federation which consists of 89 subjects (Russian: субъект(ы); English transliteration: subyekty, sing. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages. ... ISO 639-3 is an international standard for language codes. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of the sounds of human speech. ... Unicode is an industry standard designed to allow text and symbols from all of the writing systems of the world to be consistently represented and manipulated by computers. ... The Turkic languages constitute a language family of some thirty languages, spoken across a vast area from Eastern Europe to Siberia and Western China with an estimated 140 million native speakers and tens of millions of second-language speakers. ... Tyva Republic IPA: (Russian: IPA: ; Tuvan: ), or Tuva (), is a federal subject of Russia (a republic). ... It has been suggested that Western Siberia be merged into this article or section. ... Mongolian is the best-known member of the Mongolic language family, and the primary language of most of the residents of Mongolia. ... Russian ( , transliteration: , ) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages. ... Tuvan people live in the republic of Tuva, one of the Federal subjects of Russia. ...

Classification

Tuvan is linguistically classified as a Northeastern or Siberian Turkic language, closely related to several other Siberian Turkic languages including Khakas and Altai languages.

Dialects

Tuvan, as spoken in Tuva, is divided into four dialect groups. These are Western, Central, Northeastern, and Southeastern.

Central

The Central dialect forms the basis of the literary language and includes Ovyur and Bii-Khem subdialects.

Western

The Western dialect can be found spoken mostly around the upper course of the Khemchik river. It is influenced by interaction with the Altai language.

Northeastern

The Northeastern dialect, also known as the Todzhi dialect, is spoken around the upper course of the Bii-Khem river. The speakers of this dialect utilize nasalization. It contains a large vocabulary related to hunting and reindeer breeding not found in the other dialects.

Southeastern

The Southeastern dialect shows the most influence from Mongolian.

Other

Other dialects include the language spoken by the Dzungar Tuvans, the Tsengel Tuvans, and the Dukha, but these are little studied.

Sounds

Consonants

Tuvan has 19 native consonant phonemes. Additionally, /f/ and /ʦ/ are found in some Russian loanwords. The distinction between initial bilabial and alveolar stops is based on aspiration for most speakers and voicing for others. In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a sound in spoken language that is characterized by a closure or stricture of the vocal tract sufficient to cause audible turbulence. ... In human language, a phoneme is the theoretical representation of a sound. ... A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. ... In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies the release of some obstruents. ...

Vowels

Vowels in Tuvan exist in three varieties: short, long and short with low pitch. Tuvan long vowels have a duration that is at least (and often more than) twice as long as that of short vowels. Contrastive low pitch may occur on short vowels, and when it does, it causes them to increase in duration by at least one-half. When using low pitch, Tuvan speakers employ a pitch that is at the very low end of their modal voice pitch. For some speakers, it is even lower and using what is phonetically known as creaky voice. When a vowel in a monosyllabic word has low pitch, speakers apply low pitch only to the first half of that vowel (e.g., [àt] 'horse'). This is followed by a noticeable pitch rise, as the speaker returns to modal pitch in the second half of the vowel. The acoustic impression is similar to that of a rising tone (e.g., the rising pitch contour of the Mandarin second tone, although the Tuvan pitch begins much lower.) However, Tuvan is considered a pitch accent language with contrastive low pitch instead of a tonal language. When the low pitch vowel occurs in a multi-syllabic word, there is no rising pitch contour or lengthening effect (e.g., [àdɯ] 'his/her/its horse'). These low pitch vowels were previously referred to in the literature as either kargyraa or pharyngealized vowels. Phonetic studies have demonstrated that the defining characteristic of these vowels is low pitch. See Harrison 2001 for a phonetic and acoustic study of Tuvan low pitch vowels. Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ... Creaky voice (also called laryngealisation, pulse phonation or, in singing, vocal fry or glottal fry), is a special kind of phonation in which the arytenoid cartilages in the larynx are drawn together; as a result, the vocal folds are compressed rather tightly, becoming relatively slack and compact, and forming a... In linguistics, speech synthesis, and music, the pitch contour of a sound is a function or curve that tracks the perceived pitch of the sound over time. ... Pitch accent is a kind of accent system employed in many languages around the world. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... In linguistics, speech synthesis, and music, the pitch contour of a sound is a function or curve that tracks the perceived pitch of the sound over time. ... Kargyraa is a deep, undertone technique used in Tuvan throat singing. ... Pharyngealisation is a secondary feature of phonemes in a language. ...

Vowels may also be nasalized, in the environment of nasal consonants, but nasalization is non-contrastive. A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through the mouth and the nose. ...

Vowel Harmony

Tuvan has two systems of vowel harmony which strictly govern the distribution of vowels within words and suffixes. Backness harmony or what is sometimes called 'palatal' harmony requries all vowels within a word to be either back or front. Rounding harmony or what is sometimes called 'labial' harmony requires a vowel to be rounded if it is a high vowel and it appears in a syllable immediately following a rounded vowel. Low rounded vowels [ø] [o] are restricted to the first syllable of a word, and a vowel in a non-initial syllable may only be rounded if it meets the conditions of rounding harmony (it must both be a high vowel [y] [u] and be preceded by a rounded vowel). See Harrison 2001 for a detailed description of Tuvan vowel harmony systems.

Grammar

Morphology

Tuvan builds morphologically complex words by adding suffixes. For example [teve] is 'camel', [teve-ler] (hyphens indicate morpheme boundaries) is 'camels', [teve-ler-im] is 'my camels', [teve-ler-im-den] is 'from my camels'.

Tuvan marks nouns with six cases: genitive, accusative, dative, ablative, locative, and allative. Each case suffix has a rich variety of uses and meanings, only the most basic uses and meanings are shown here. Noun or noun substantive is a lexical category which is defined in terms of how its members combine with other grammatical kinds of expressions. ... In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns and adjectives to indicate such features as number (typically singular vs. ...

Verbs in Tuvan take a number of endings to mark tense, mood, and aspect. Auxiliary verbs are also used to modify the verb. For a detailed scholarly study of auxiliary verbs in Tuvan and related languages, see Anderson 2004. The nominative case is a grammatical case for a noun, which generally marks the subject of a verb, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments. ... This article or section cites very few or no references or sources. ... The accusative case (abbreviated ACC) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. ... The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. ... In linguistics, ablative case (also called the sixth case) (abbreviated ABL) is a name given to cases in various languages whose common thread is that they mark motion away from something, though the details in each language may differ. ... Locative is a case which indicates a location. ... In the Finnish language, the Allative case is the fifth of the locative cases, with the basic meaning of onto. Its ending is -lle, for example pöytä (table) and pöydälle (onto the top of the table). ... In the Finnish language, the Allative case is the fifth of the locative cases, with the basic meaning of onto. Its ending is -lle, for example pöytä (table) and pöydälle (onto the top of the table). ... It has been suggested that Verbal agreement be merged into this article or section. ... Grammatical tense is a way languages express the time at which an event described by a sentence occurs. ... It has been suggested that prohibitive mood be merged into this article or section. ... In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb defines the temporal flow (or lack thereof) in the described event or state. ... In linguistics, an auxiliary (also called helping verb, auxiliary verb, or verbal auxiliary) is a verb functioning to give further semantic or syntactic information about the main or full verb following it. ...

Syntax

Tuvan employs SOV word order. For example [teve sigen tʃipken] (camel hay eat-PAST) "The camel ate the hay" SOV is an acronym for several terms: SOV - Symphony Orchestra Vorarlberg. ...

Vocabulary

Tuvan vocabulary is largely Turkic in origin but marked by a large number of Mongolian loanwords. The language has also borrowed several Mongolian suffixes. In addition, there exist Ketic and Samoyedic substrata. A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. ... Ket has several meanings: The Ket people (Кеты) of Siberia, and their Ket language The Ket River (Кеть) in Siberia. ... Geographical distribution of Samoyedic, Finnic, Ugric and Yukaghir languages  Yukaghir  Samoyedic  Ugric  Finnic The Samoyedic languages (literally self-eaters in Russian) are spoken on both sides of the Ural mountains, in northernmost Eurasia, by perhaps 30,000 speakers altogether. ...

Writing system

Latin-based

The original Tuvan writing system was a Latin-based alphabet devised in 1930 by a Tuvan Buddhist monk, Mongush Lopsang-Chinmit. Prior to it, all writing was in the Mongolian language. A few books and newspapers, including primers intended to teach adults to read, were printed using this writing system. Lopsang-Chinmit was later executed in Stalinist purges on December 31, 1941. By September of 1943, this Latin-based alphabet was replaced by a Cyrillic-based one, which is still in use to the present day.

A B C D E F G Ƣ I J K L M N Ņ O Ɵ P R S Ş T U V X Y Z Ƶ Ь

a в c d e f g ƣ i j k l m n ņ o ө p r s ş t u v x y z ƶ ь

Example: Pirgi tьвa dьldьņ yƶykteri (бирги тыва дылдың үжүктери) - First Tuvan language alphabet

In the post-Soviet era, Tuvan and other scholars have taken a renewed interest in the history of Tuvan letters.

Cyrillic-based

The current Tuvan alphabet is modified version of the Russian alphabet, with three additional letters: ң (Latin "ng" or International Phonetic Alphabet [ŋ]), Өө (Latin "ö", IPA: [ø]), Үү (Latin "ü", IPA [y]). The sequence of the alphabet follows Russian exactly, with ң located after Russian Н, Ө after О, and Ү after У. Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ...

А Б В Г Д Е Ё Ж З И Й К Л М Н Ң О Ө П Р С Т У Ү Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я

а б в г д е ё ж з и й к л м н ң о ө п р с т у ү ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я

The letters Е and Э are used in a special way. Э is used for the short /e/ sound at the beginning of words while Е is used for the same sound in the middle and at the end of words. Е is used at the beginning of words, mostly of Russian origin, to reflect the standard Russian pronunciation of that letter, /ye/. Additionally, ЭЭ is used in the middle and at the end of words for the long /e/ sound.

Transliteration

There is no official transliteration standard for transforming the Cyrillic-based Tuvan alphabet into Latin. Common schemes in use by various media sources rely upon international standards for transliterating other Cyrillic languages such as Russian while scholars of Turkology generally rely upon common Turkic-styled spelling.

References

• Anderson, Gregory D. S. (2004). Auxiliary Verb Constructions in Altai-Sayan Turkic. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. ISBN 3447046368
• Anderson, Gregory D. S.; Harrison, K. David (1999). Tyvan, Languages of the World/Materials 257. Lincom Europa. ISBN 3-89586-529-X. 
• Harrison, K. David. (2001). Topics in the Phonology and Morphology of Tuvan. Doctoral Dissertation, Yale University. (OCLC catalog #51541112)
• Harrison, K. David. (2005). "A Tuvan hero tale, with commentary, morphemic analysis and translation". Journal of the American Oriental Society 125(1)1-30. ISSN 0003-0279
• Krueger, John R. (1977). in John R. Krueger: Tuvan Manual, Editor Emeritus: Thomas A. Sebeok, Uralic and Altaic Series Volume 126, Indiana University Publications. ISBN 0877502145. 
• Mänchen-Helfen, Otto [1931] (1992). Journey to Tuva, translated by Alan Leighton, Los Angeles: Ethnographic Press University of Southern California. ISBN 1-878986-04-X. 
• Taube, Erika. (1978). Tuwinische Volksmärchen. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag. LCCN: 83-853915
• Taube, Erika. (1994). Skazki i predaniia altaiskikh tuvintsev. Moskva : Vostochnaia literatura. ISBN 5020172367

External links

Tuvan language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

• English-Tuvan, Tuvan-English online talking dictionary
• Тыва дыл кырында форум (An online forum in and about the Tyvan language)
• Tuvan language and folklore materials
• TyvaWiki Language Articles
• Tuvan Alphabet
• Ethnologue: Tuvin