Tomas Eriksonas M.A. On the Phonology and Morphology of the Taiga-Sayan Tuha Language

Electronic edition. — The 4th International Turkish Research Symposium. — Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey, May 23-26, 2012.The Turkic language Tuha in North Mongolia remains one of the least documented Altaic language. Tuha is a moribund language, the furthest east of South Siberian Turkic of the Sayan Turkic dialect continuum spoken by around twenty elderly speakers and some passive speakers in their 50s. The Khalkha make up the majority of the 2,500 inhabitants in Tsagaan-Üür county with 600 Urianghai and 650 Buryat. The ethnic endonym is Tuhalar comprising the Soyt tribe of eight former clans which were Arɣamut, Danǰɨla, Derdileet, Dül’heǰik, ǰohomdoi, Quˤrtqaahš, Sarɨhaahš, Solɣoi, and Yamáadai. (Rassadin, personal communication). More specifically, Tuha is of the Taiga branch of the Sayan language complex including also Dukha (Tsaatan), Tofa, Todja, and Soyot as opposed to Steppe Sayan comprising Tuva dialects.There is therefore an isogloss in the north-east Tuva Republic. V.A. Stepanov et al. wrote that there are three Tuvan anthropological types i.e. the Southern Tuvinian Mongoloid type, the west of Tuva with lesser expression of the Mongoloid component where there is higher proportion of Caucasoid component in the gene pool dating from the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, and the Todja Tuvinian group, i.e. Taiga Sayan, attributed to the Baikalic anthropological type. (Stepanov p. 551) The Soyot endonym is shared by the Soyot of Buryatia, to the north-west in Russia.