Tofa, also known as Tofalar or Karagas, is one of the Turkic languages spoken in Russia's Irkutsk Oblast by the Tofalars. It is a moribund language; in 2010 only 93 people were reported to speak it.[1]
Tofa is most-closely related to the Tuvan language[2] and forms a dialect continuum with it. Tuha, and Tsengel Tuvan 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").
Writing system[edit]
Tofa, although not often written, employs a 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 |
Ы ы |
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 [d͡ʒ]. Additionally, the letter ъ is sometimes used after a vowel to mark low tone, as in эът "meat".
Morphology and syntax[edit]
Pronouns[edit]
Tofa has six personal pronouns:
Personal pronouns
| Singular |
Plural |
| Tofa (transliteration) |
English |
Tofa (transliteration) |
English |
| мен (men) |
I |
биъс (bìs) |
we |
| сен (sen) |
you (singular) |
сілер (siler) |
you (plural, formal) |
| оң (oŋ) |
he/she/it |
оларың (olarıŋ) |
they |
Tofa also has the pronouns бо "this", тээ "that", кум "who", and чү "what".
References[edit]
- ^ a b "Население Российской Федерации по владению языками" [Population of the Russian Federation by languages used] (XLS) (in Russian).
- ^ Lars Johanson (1998) "The History of Turkic". In Lars Johanson & Éva Ágnes Csató (eds) The Turkic Languages. London, New York: Routledge, 81-125. Classification of Turkic languages at Turkiclanguages.com
External links[edit]
