Tuvan language

Tuvan
тыва дыл tyva dyl
Native to	Russia, Mongolia, China
Region	Tuva
Ethnicity	Tuvans
Native speakers	unknown (280,000 cited 1993 – 2010 census)
Language family	Turkic Siberian Turkic South Siberian Sayan Turkic Tuvan
Writing system	Cyrillic
Official status
Official language in	Tuva (Russia)
Language codes
ISO 639-2	tyv
ISO 639-3	tyv
Glottolog	tuvi1240

Inscription in Kyzyl using Turkic script

Tuvan (Tuvan: тыва дыл, tyva dyl), also known as Tuvinian, Tyvan or Tuvin, is a Turkic language spoken in the Republic of Tuva in south-central Siberia in Russia. The language has borrowed a great number of roots from the Mongolian language, Tibetan 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.

History

The earliest record of Tuvan is from the early 19th century by Wu-li-ya-su-tai-zhi lue (烏里蘇台志略), Klaproth 1823, Castrén 1857, Katanov and Radlov etc .

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. Its closest relative is the moribund Tofa.

Tuvan, as spoken in Tuva, is principally divided into four dialect groups; Western, Central, Northeastern, Southeastern.

• Central: forms the basis of the literary language and includes Ovyur and Bii-Khem subdialects.
• Western: can be found spoken near the upper course of the Khemchik River. It is influenced by the Altai language.
• Northeastern, also known as the Todzhi dialect, is spoken near 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: shows the most influence from the Mongolian language.

Other dialects include those spoken by the Dzungar, the Tsengel and the Dukha bands of Tuvans, but currently these uncommon dialects are not comprehensively documented.

Sounds

Consonants

Tuvan has 19 native consonant phonemes.

Consonant phonemes of Tuvan

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Plosive	unaspirated/ voiced1	p	t		ɡ
	aspirated/ voiceless1	pʰ	tʰ		k
Affricate			(t͡s)2	t͡ʃ
Fricative	voiceless	(f)2	s	ʃ	x
	voiced		z	ʒ
Flap			ɾ
Approximant		ʋ	l	j

1. The distinction between initial bilabial and alveolar stops is based on aspiration for most speakers and voicing for others.
2. /f/ and /ts/ are found in some Russian loanwords.

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.

Vowel phonemes of Tuvan

		Short		Long		Low Pitch
		High	Low	High	Low	High	Low
Front	Unrounded	i	e	iː	eː	ì	è
	Rounded	y	ø	yː	øː	ỳ	ø̀
Back	Unrounded	ɯ	a	ɯː	aː	ɯ̀	à
	Rounded	u	o	uː	oː	ù	ò

Vowels may also be nasalized, in the environment of nasal consonants, but nasalization is non-contrastive.

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 requires 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.

Teve	[teve]	Nominative case	'camel' (no suffix)
Teve + /-NIŋ/	[teveniŋ]	Genitive case	'of the camel' (the [ŋ] phonetic symbol is pronounced as English 'ng' in 'sing')
Teve + /-NI/	[teveni]	Accusative case	'the camel' (definite meaning, direct object of verb, as in "I saw THE camel.")
Teve + /-KA/	[teveɡe]	Dative case	'for the camel' or 'at the camel' (in the past tense)
Teve + /-DAn/	[teveden]	Ablative case	'from the camel' or 'than a/the camel' (as in "taller than a/the camel")
Teve + /-DA/	[tevede]	Locative case	'at the camel' or 'in the camel' (also used to show possession in some contexts)
Teve + /-Je/	[teveʒe]	Allative case	'to(wards) the camel' (the phonetic symbol [ʒ] is pronounced as the 's' in English 'pleasure')
Teve + /-DIvA/	[tevedive]	Allative case	'to(wards) the camel' (this is an obsolete or dialectical version of this case)

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.

Syntax

Tuvan employs SOV word order. For example, [teve siɡen tʃipken] (camel hay eat-PAST) "The camel ate the hay."

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 Tuvan talking dictionary is produced by the Living Tongues Institute.

Writing system

The current Tuvan alphabet is a modified version of the Russian alphabet, with three additional letters: ң (Latin "ng" or International Phonetic Alphabet [ŋ]), Өө (Latin "ö", [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.

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, /je/. Additionally, ЭЭ is used in the middle and at the end of words for the long /e/ sound.

Historic scripts

Mongol script

In the past, Tuvans used Mongolian as their written language.

Mongolian script was later developed by Nikolaus Poppe to suit the Tuvan language. This is the first known written form of the Tuvan language.

Tuvan Latin

Example of Latin-based alphabet on the Tuvan People's Republic coat of arms. It says "PYGY TELEGEJNIŅ PROLETARLARЬ POLGAŞ TARLATKAN ARATTARЬ KATTЬƵЬŅAR".

The Latin-based alphabet for Tuvan was devised in 1930 by a Tuvan Buddhist monk, Mongush Lopsang-Chinmit (a.k.a. Lubsan Zhigmed). 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 31 December 1941.

A B C D E F G Ƣ I J K L M N N̨ 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 n̨ o ө p r s ş t u v x y z ƶ ь

Examples

Pirgi tьвa dьldьn̨ yƶykteri	PYGY TELEGEJNIN̨ PROLETARLARЬ POLGAŞ TARLATKAN ARATTARЬ KATTЬƵЬN̨AR!
бирги тыва дылдың үжүктери	Бүгү делегейниң пролетарлары болгаш дарлаткан араттары каттыжыңар!
First Tuvan language alphabet	All the world's workers and oppressed peoples, unite!

By September 1943, this Latin-based alphabet was replaced by a Cyrillic-based one, which is still in use to the present day. In the post-Soviet era, Tuvan and other scholars have taken a renewed interest in the history of Tuvan letters.

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.

Status

Tuvans in China, who live mostly in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, are included under the Mongol nationality. Some Tuvans reportedly live at Lake Kanas in the northwestern part of Xinjiang in China where they are not officially recognized, are counted as a part of the local Oirat Mongol community that is counted under the general label 'Mongol'. Oirat and Tuvan children attend schools in which they use Chakhar Mongolian and Chinese, native languages of neither group.

References

• Anderson, Gregory D. S. (2004). Auxiliary Verb Constructions in Altai-Sayan Turkic. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz. ISBN 3-447-04636-8
• 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
• Mawkanuli, Talant. 1999. "The phonology and morphology of Jungar Tuva," Indiana University PhD dissertation.
• Nakashima, Yoshiteru (中嶋 善輝 Nakashima Yoshiteru). 2008 "Tyva Yapon Biche Slovar', トゥヴァ語・日本語 小辞典" Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, http://www.aa.tufs.ac.jp/project/gengokensyu/08tuvan6.pdf (Archive)
• Ölmez, Mehmet; Tuwinischer Wortschatz mit alttürkischen und mongolischen Parallelen, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-447-05499-7
• (Mongolian) Sečenbaγatur, Qasgerel, Tuyaγ-a [Туяa], Bu. Jirannige, Wu Yingzhe, Činggeltei. 2005. Mongγul kelen-ü nutuγ-un ayalγun-u sinǰilel-ün uduridqal [A guide to the regional dialects of Mongolian]. Kökeqota: ÖMAKQ. ISBN 7-204-07621-4.
• Takashima, Naoki (高島 尚生 Takashima Naoki). 2008 "Kiso Tuba-go bunpō 基礎トゥヴァ語文法," Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, http://www.aa.tufs.ac.jp/project/gengokensyu/08tuvan1.pdf (Archive)
• Takashima, Naoki. 2008 "Tuba-go kaiwa-shū トゥヴァ語会話集," Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, http://www.aa.tufs.ac.jp/project/gengokensyu/08tuvan3.pdf (Archive)
• Taube, Erika. (1978). Tuwinische Volksmärchen. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag. LCCN: 83-853915
• Taube, Erika. (1994). Skazki i predaniia altaiskikh tuvintsev. Moskva : Vostochnaia literatura. ISBN 5-02-017236-7
• Todoriki, Masahiko (等々力 政彦 Todoriki Masahiko). 2011 "Possibly the oldest Tuvan vocabulary included in Wu-li-ya-su-tai-zhi lue, the Abridged Copy of the History of Uliastai, 烏里蘇台志略にみえる，最古の可能性のあるトゥバ語語彙について". Tōyōbunka-Kenkyūjo Kiyō 東洋文化研究所紀要 159 238-220. ISSN 0563-8089 The University of Tokyo, http://repository.dl.itc.u-tokyo.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2261/43632/1/ioc159007.pdf (Archive)
• Oelschlägel, Anett C. (2013). Der Taigageist. Berichte und Geschichten von Menschen und Geistern aus Tuwa. Zeitgenössische Sagen und andere Folkloretexte / Дух-хозяин тайги –Современные предания и другие фольклорные материалы из Тувы / Тайга ээзи – Болган таварылгалар болгаш Тывадан чыгдынган аас чогаалының өске-даа материалдары. [The Taiga Spirit. Reports and Stories about People and Spirits from Tuva. Contemporary Legends and other Folklore-Texts.] Marburg: tectum-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-8288-3134-6

External links

• 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
• Research among the Tyvans (Tuvans) of South Siberia
• Contemporary Legends and other Folklore-Texts from Tuva