Tofa language

Tofa is most closely related to the Tuvan language[4] and forms a dialect continuum with it. Tuha, and Tsengel Tuvan may be dialects of either Tuvan or Tofa. Tofa shares a number of features with these languages, including the preservation of *d as /d/ (as in hodan "hare" - compare Uzbek quyon) and the development of low tones on historically short vowels (as in *et > èt "meat, flesh").

Alexander Vovin (2017) notes that Tofa and other Siberian Turkic languages, especially Sayan Turkic, have Yeniseian loanwords.[5]

Historical Range of Tofalaria

The Tofa, who are also known as the Tofalar or Karagas, are an indigenous people living in southwestern Irkutsk Oblast, in Russia. The region they inhabit is informally known as Tofalaria. They are traditionally a nomadic reindeer-herding people, living on or near the Eastern Sayan mountain range. However, reindeer herding has greatly declined since the 20th century, with only one Tofa family now continuing the practice.[6] Recognized by the former USSR in 1926 as one of the "Small Numbered Minorities of the North," (Russian: коренные малочисленные народы Севера, Сибири и Дальнего Востока) the Tofa have special legal status and receive economic support from Russia. The Tofa population is around 750 people; around 5% of the population spoke Tofa as a first language in 2002, (although that number has likely declined since then, due to the age of the speakers).[6][7] Although the population of Tofalaria appears to be growing, the number of ethnic Tofalar seems to be in decline.

Tofa is an agglutinative language with a few auxiliary verbs.[3] The bare stem of a verb is only used in the singular imperative; other categories are marked by suffixation, including the singular imperative negative.[3] The Tofa suffix /--sig/ is an especially unusual derivational suffix in that it attaches to any noun to add the meaning 'smelling of + [NOUN]' or 'smelling like + [NOUN]'.[14] Grammatical number in Tofa includes singular, plural, dual inclusive ('you and me'), and plural inclusive, tense includes the present and past, and aspect includes the perfective and imperfective. Historically suffixes conformed to Tofa vowel harmony rules, but that appears to be changing. Some example sentences are included below to illustrate suffixation:[3]

Plural Perfective

orus[t]e -y ber-gen

Russian[ize]-[CV] [ASP]-[PST]

'They have become Russian[ized]'

Singular Imperative

nersa-ɣa bar

Nerxa-[DAT] go

'go to Nerxa'

Singular Imperative Negative

al-gan men 'di-ve

take-[PST] 1 say-[NEG]

'don't say "I took"!'

Tofa, although not often written, employs a Cyrillic alphabet:

Tofa has letters that are not present in the Russian alphabet: Ғғ [ɣ], Әә [æ], Ii [iː], Ққ [q], Ңң [ŋ], Өө [œ], Үү [y], Һһ [h], and Ҷҷ [d͡ʒ]. Additionally, the letter ъ is sometimes used after a vowel to mark pharyngealization [ˤ], as in эът [ʔɛˤt̪] "meat".