Tofa language

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Tofa Тоъфа дыл (Tòfa dıl)
Spoken in:	Russia
Region:	Irkutsk
Total speakers:	~30
Language family:	Altaic Turkic Northern Tofa
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`tyv`
ISO 639-3:	`kim`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

Tofa, also known as Tofalar or Karagas, is one of the Turkic languages. It is a moribund language spoken in Russia's Irkutsk Oblast.

Tofa is most closely related to the Tuvan language and forms a dialect continuum with it, Tuha, and Tsengel Tuvan, which may be dialects of either Tuvan or Tofa. Tofa shares a number of innovations with these languages, including the change *d>z (as in *adaq > azak "foot") and the development of low tones on historically short vowels (as in *et > èt "meat, flesh").

[edit] Writing System

Tofa, although not widely written, employs a modified version of the Cyrillic alphabet:

А а	Б б	В в	Г г	Ғ ғ	Д д	Е е	Ә ә
Ё ё	Ж ж	З з	И и	I i	Й й	К к	Қ қ
Л л	М м	Н н	Ң ң	О о	Ө ө	П п	Р р
С с	Т т	У у	Ү ү	Ф ф	Х х	Һ һ	Ц ц
Ч ч	Ҷ ҷ	Ш ш	Щ щ	Ъ ъ	Ы ы	Ь ь	Э э
Ю ю	Я я

The additional letters in Tofa are Ғғ (ɣ), Әә (æ), Ii (iː), Ққ (q), Ңң (ŋ), Өө (œ), Үү (y), Һһ (h), and Ҷҷ (ʤ). Additionally, the letter Ъъ is sometimes used after a vowel to mark low tone, as in эът "meat".

[edit] References

v • d • e

Altaic languages

Turkic languages • Mongolic languages • Tungusic languages • Buyeo languages*
Notes: *A hypothetical language family that includes Korean and the Japonic languages.

v • d • e Turkic languages
Bulgar	Bulgar† \| Chuvash \| Hunnic† \| Khazar†
Uyghur	Old Turkic† \| Aini²\| Chagatay† \| Ili Turki \| Lop \| Uyghur \| Uzbek
Kypchak	Baraba \| Bashkir \| Crimean Tatar¹ \| Cuman† \| Karachay-Balkar \| Karaim \| Karakalpak \| Kazakh \| Kipchak† \| Krymchak \| Kumyk \| Nogai \| Tatar \| Urum¹ \| Altay \| Kyrgyz
Oghuz	Afshar \| Azerbaijani \| Crimean Tatar¹ \| Gagauz \| Khorasani Turkish \| Ottoman Turkish† \| Pecheneg† \| Qashqai \| Salar \| Turkish \| Turkmen \| Urum¹
Khalaj	Khalaj
Northeastern	Chulym \| Dolgan \| Fuyü Gïrgïs \| Khakas \| Northern Altay \| Shor \| Tofa \| Tuvan \| Western Yugur \| Sakha / Yakut
Notes: ¹Listed in more than one group, ²Mixed language, *Disputed, †Extinct