Tuvan (Тыва дыл, Tıwa dıl; [tʰɯˈʋa tɯl]; also known as Tuvinian, Tyvan or Tuvine) is a
Turkic language spoken by slightly fewer than 300,000 in the Tuva Republic in south-central Siberia. Diaspora groups of
Tuvan people that speak varying dialects can also be found in Mongolia and China.
Linguistics
As a Sayan Turkic language, Tuvan is closely related to the
Tofa language, a
moribund language in Russia's Irkutsk Oblast, which it once formed a dialect continuum with. From being a Turkic language in general, it is more distantly related to other languages such as
Tatar (not to be confused with
Crimean Tatar, to which they're both related as well),
Kyrgyz, and of course everyone's favourite language,
Uzbek.
Classification Tuva's full classification is as follows:
Turkic (
Proto-Turkic) >
Common Turkic >
Siberian Turkic > South Siberian > Sayan Turkic > Tuvan
Phonology and Phonotactics Tuvan has 16 different vowel phonemes, contrasting 8 different
qualities and 2 different
lengths. Tuvan also has 8 'low-pitch' vowels that appear in word-initial syllables. Foг most sрakегs, this is rеalizеd as very low modаl voice, which hаs the aсoustiс сorгelate of low pitсh (low fundamental frеquеnсy). Early studies analyzed these as separate vowels, giving a total number of 24 vowel phonemes; however, following Anderson & Harrison (1999), from which this work draws, here they are analyzed as
suprasegmental features. Thus, in the
IPA, the phonemic vowels are /i y e ø ɯ u a o/ and their long counterparts. Note that, throughout this write-up, the vowels /y ø ɯ/ might be written with their turcological symbols, ü ö ɨ/ï, respectively.
Like most Turkic languages, Tuvan has a process of
vowel harmony, inherited from Proto-Turkic, which already had it fully formed. Tuvan has two types of vowel harmony, Back and Round. Because of Tuvan's perfectly symmetrical vowel system, both classes contain four phonemes and no phonemes are left out of the harmony processes, i.e. there are no neutral vowels.
Out of these two, back harmony is the most robust. The process of back harmony means that either all vowels must be front vowels (the first four listed above) or back vowels (the last four). Vowels in suffixes take their cue from the closest vowel to the left, whether it's in the root or another suffix. Thus all Tuvan suffixes have at least two allomorphs, one for front vowels, and one for back vowels. An example of this is given in
is-ter-im-den ('footprint-PL-1-ABL),
at-tar-ïm-dan (name-PL-1-ABL), where you can see the front and back alternations of the three suffixes. Back vowel harmony arises even when consonant clusters from borrowed words are simplified by vowel epenthesis, showing just how robust this type of vowel harmony is.
Unlike other Turkic languages, such as Uzbek, where vowel harmony only applies weakly (and might be more of a relic than applying at all), Tuvan only has four morphological suffixes exceptions to back vowel harmony, allative, diminutive, durative and sequential. They may be classified respectively as invariant (non-alternating) elements (allative), borrowed suffixal elements (diminutive), or fused elements (durative, sequential). Other exceptions to back harmony occur in some compound words, through ablaut (an intensive form is created by applying ablaut to the second vowel of a disyllabic adjective; this ablauted vowel is always front, regardless of the first vowel) as well as due to co-articulatory features in fluent speech. The latter of these causes disharmony in several other Turkic languages as well.
Round harmony, on the other hand, is much more restricted in its appearance. Under round harmony, high vowels that follow a round vowel must also be round. Thus, round harmony only targets two vowels, /i/ and /ï/, which become realized as /ü/ and if the vowel before them is a round vowel. The only time the rounded high vowels appear in post-initial syllables is when this process of vowel harmony takes place. Native words thus contain no examples of a round vowel followed by a high unrounded vowel. Furthermore, due to phonotactic contrasints, no rounded vowel may follow an unrounded vowel. Thus the only time that the mid-rounded vowels, /ö/ and /o/ occur in native words is in the initial vowel position, with a few exceptions that originally derived from compound words.
There are 19 native Tuvan consonant phonemes, with two more appearing only in loan words. Tuvan consonants undergo a predictable pattern of surface changes when they are realized in a word. Tuvan bilabial stops only contrast in word-initial position. For some speakers, the contrast between [b]/[p] and [d]/[t] is one of (weak) voicing, while for other speakers they are contrasted by aspiration.
No onset clusters exist in native Tuvan words, being limited solely to borrowings. Only two possible clusters exist in the coda - [rt] and [jt]. All other word-internal clusters are
heterosyllabic (i.e. they occur in two different syllables). The following syllable types are attested in native Tuvan words: V, VV, VC, VVC, VCC, CV, CVV, CVC, CVVC, CVCC. Stress in Tuvan is weak, and falls on the final syllable of a word. This stress is not sensitive to vowel quality, thus it is not attracted to long vowels; if suffixes are added, the stress typically shifts to the final suffix, though there are a few non-stress-bearing suffixes.
Morphology and Syntax Tuvan, like all Turkic languages, is an
agglutinative language, meaning suffixes are tacked on to the ends of words, often forming one long word that could represent a full English sentence. However, Tuvan does have a few morphological processes -- elision, vowel lengthening and reduplication -- which are not agglutinative.
Tuvan's basic word order is
subject-object-verb. Noun phrases and verb phrases are
head-final, with the maximum expansion of the noun phrase being [Demonstrative-Possessive-Adjective Phrase-Noun] and the verb phrase being [Direct Object - Indirect Object- Subject - Verb]. Some freedom is permitted within the verb-phrase for focus, with objects that move closer to the verb being more focused; however, the verb always occurs finally. Postpositions are also used in the language.
Tuvan makes no morphological distinction based on noun class/gender. However, there is one exception, the words meaning 'old' and 'young', which have different words based on whether the object is animate (people, animals, trees, the heart, etc.) or inanimate (things, plants, body parts). The animate words for old and young are, respectively,
kirgan and
anyak; the inanimate ones are, respectively,
èrgi and
čaa, with the latter also meaning 'new'. Tuvan likewise has no definite articles, with the demonstratives taking its place when something needs to be overtly marked.
However, despite not making any morphological distinctions based on noun class, Tuvan nouns do decline for seven cases --
nominative,
accusative,
genitive,
dative,
locative,
ablative and
allative -- as well as for plurality. The plural marker precedes any possessive and case affixes. Nouns that are quantified by a number generally do not take the plural suffix, and ones that take a numerical-qualifier can take the plural to give a distributive meaning (i.e. 'I have read many
different books').
The base case of Tuvan nouns is the nominative case, which is also the unmarked case. The nominative case is used to mark the subject of the sentence, as well as the first nominal in a two-part possessive construction. It's also used in constructions with 'auxiliary' nouns. Furthermore, it is used for an indefinite direct object of a transitive verb.
The ablative case is used to mark motion
away from an object. This has been extended into temporal use as well, thus
mart aydan (March month-ABL) means 'from March'. It also marks the source and the comparandum in a comparative construction. Furthermore, in uses specific to Tuvan among the Turkic languages, the ablative is used to mark the agent in certain passives and to give a partitive meaning. It is governed by certain postpositions as well.
While the accusative case in general is used to mark direct objects, it does not do this automatically in Tuvan. In fact, the accusative's primary function in Tuvan is to mark definiteness or specificity on direct objects. Furthermore, it make mark the subjects in some subordinate clauses, as well as the predicate itself in aother types. It can be used along with a third person possessive as a vocative and in some dialects its used to mark a causee over the dative case.
Contrary to other Tuvan cases, the allative case has basically one function, to mark direction wards a location, though it may also be used to denote motion around an object. This case is not descended from the Old Turkic allative case, but possibly arose from the word
čak ('moment').
The Tuvan dative case serves to mark the recipient or indirect object of a verb. It is also used to mark an expressed causee in causative formations, as well as an expressed agent in passive formations. Tuvan also uses the dative instead of the locative case in the past and future to express location, and it can sometimes be used to express direction instead of the allative. It also marks the experiencer subject with certain adjectival predicates and is required on the object of other adjectival predicates.
The Tuvan genitive case's primary function is to mark the possessor in a possesive construction, followed by a noun with with a possessive suffix (see below). It can also be used to mark the subject in some subordinate clauses.
The locative case expresses location
solely in the present-tense in Tuvan. This has been extended to temporal locations as well, in which case it is still used in the past tense.
A salient feature of Tuvan is that possessive constructions mark both the possessor and the possessum (thing possessed). The possessor in the clause takes the genitive case, whereas the possessum is marked with a special suffix corresponding to the number and person of the possessor. Some of these forms can be seen in the table below.
Tuvan also has a class of 'auxiliary nouns', which often indicate what would be indicated with prepositions and postpositions in other languages. Postpositions are found in Tuvan as well, but there is a formal difference in how the auxiliary nouns act when compared to the postpositions, so the two are treated as separate classes.
Nominative | 1.POSS | 2.POSS | 3.POSS | 1.PL.POSS | 2.PL.POSS | 3.PL.POSS | English |
xap | xavïm | xavïŋ | xavï | xavïvïs | xavïŋar | xavï | 'bag' |
küš | küžüm | küžüŋ | küžü | küžüvüs | küžüŋer | küžü | 'strength, power' |
The possessive markers precede the case markers, but they follow the plurality marker.
Tuvan has six pronouns, distinguishing two numbers (singular and plural) and three persons. Gender is not distinguished in the pronouns. The third singular form is also identical to the demonstrative 'that'. These pronouns are declined for all seven cases; the singular ones have certain irregularities in their declension patterns, but the plurals all decline regularly. The pronouns, in the nominative case, are summarized in the table below.
Pronoun | Meaning |
men | 1st singular |
sen | 2nd singular |
ol | 3rd singular |
bis(ter) | 1st plural |
siler | 2nd plural |
olar | 3rd plural |
Tuvan pronomial verbal markers can appear in two ways on verbs, either as enclitics or as suffixes. All main-clause verb forms take them as enclitics (except one of the past tense forms, to be described below), whereas all subordinate clauses use the suffix form. These markers, except for the third plural, are always required, whereas the pronoun is optional and frequently dropped; Tuvan is thus a
pro-drop language.
In terms of
tense-aspect-mood, Tuvan has an extensive number of affixes to express an extensive amounts of distinctions. Likewise, auxiliary verbs are also used to further increase the distinctions available. Some of these are described below.
Tuvan has two past tense categories, an 'assertive/definite' and a 'non-assertive/indefinite', past. Both of these are represented on the verb with an affix. The assertive past is the one exception to the use of the pronomial enclitics among main clause verbs in Tuvan. For most verbs, there is no clear-cut semantic distinction, though there are minimal contrasts that could be established for a few verbs. Generally, the non-assertive is the unmarked form, and refers to a general point in the past; it can also be used to express a point further back in the past, such as the English past perfect. The assertive, therefore, may refer to a recent or definite time in the past, and also refers back to things already introduced; in many people's speech, it occurs primarily with first person subjects. A full conjugation paradigm for the two past tenses can be seen in the table below.
Non-Assertive Past | Assertive Past | English |
uškan men | uštum | I flew |
uškan sen | uštuŋ | You flew |
uškan | uštu | S/he flew |
uškan bis | uštuvus | We flew |
uškan siler | uštuŋar | You (pl.) flew |
uškan(nar) | uštu(lar) | They flew |
Non-past is expresed as one form in Tuvan, thus
ažïdaar men can mean "I work" or "I will work". Non-past actions are commonly denoted by auxiliary verbs, which may express a progressive or non-progressive meaning.
Tuvan has six
aspect markers on the verb, the
iterative, used colloquially to mark expressive actions as well as iterative actions; the
perfective; the resultative, used to mark and emphasize actions completed in the past, and used to emphasize the truth of a statement the hearer doubts (e.g. I
did see you!); unaccomplished, used to mark an unaccomplished action and now mostly extinct. It carried a sense that the verb would be completed in the near future; emphatic, marked with reduplication, which adds emphasis to the verb or the connotation of a rapid/intense action; cessation, 'to stop doing X'.
Tuvan also marks an extensive set of modal categories on the verb. These include the
conditional, marking conditional statements in the past and future, and used to mean 'in order to'; the concessive mood, corresponding to English 'even though' or 'although'; the conciliatory, or
optative, which signals the concession or agreement on the part of the subject to perform an action; the
desiderative; the
evidential mood, which can also signal reported speech or the inadvertant, involuntary or unexpected nature of an action; the
imperative mood.
Verbs are negated with a suffix. Tuvan also has a system of
converbs, which can add shades of semantic meaning to the verb. Likewise, there is an extensive system of auxiliary verbs, which, when used with certain converbs, can add a further distinction in various tenses, aspects and moods. One example of this is where an auxiliary can be used to create a continuous meaning. Furthermore, other auxiliaries can add various shades of meaning, such as a self-benefactive voice, capabiliative mood,
inchoative aspect, benefactive voice, etc. Some auxiliaries determine the meaning depending on the converb or semantic class of the verb, but most auxiliaries only have one meaning, despite the converb. A list of these auxiliaries, and their additional meanings, can be seen in the table below.
Auxiliary | Meaning |
al- | self-benefactive voice or capabilative mood |
ber- | inchoative aspect or benefactive mood |
bar- | completitive/perfective action or translocative action (across space) |
bol- | possibilitive mood |
čït- | capabilitive mood |
čoru - | imperfective or durative aspect |
egele- | inchoative aspect |
kag- | 'already' |
kel- | cislocative |
kir- | completive or terminative aspect |
kör- | attemptive mood |
olur- | imperfective aspect |
Miscellany
- Tuvan currently uses a modified version of the Russian Alphabet, with three additional letters.
- Historically, Tuvan was written with the Mongolian script, and a Tuvan monk designed a Latin based script
- There is no traditional way to transcribe Tuvan Cyrillic, so traditional methods are often resorted to; Turkologists often use the Turkic Notation, which was used through this post
- Tuvan throat singing is a well-known musical style of the Tuvan people, as well as of other peoples of the steppes. A link is included below.
Samples
Spoken sample:
Conversation/interview throat singing lullaby More throat singing Final throat singing Tuvan storyteller telling an epic tale Introduction to another epic tale Written sample:
Тыва чоннуң эртинези – хөөмей Делегейниң эң улуг күчулүг, чараш, арыг, байлак хемнерниң бирээзи – алдарлыг Енисейниң – Улуг Хемниң шуурап баткан ораны, делегейде чок дээн делгем чаагай Азия диптиң географтыг төвү, чүрээ, буурул баштыг Саян сыннары хаажылаан Тыва чурту бойдустуң эң ховар чурумалы, тураскаалы болуп турары дег, тываларны өске чоннардан ылгап, алдаржыдып, киискидип турар онзагай демдектер эвээш эвес.
(Excerpt from an essay about Tuvan throat singing)
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Spanish II submitted by Download & View 929 French Verb Conjugation Chart as PDF for free . Related Documents. 929 French Verb Conjugation Chart November 2019 152. Icelandic Verb Conjugation Chart December 2019 51. Romanian Verb Conjugation December 2019 179. Japanese Verb Conjugation December 2019 135. Korean Verb Conjugation Title: French Verb Conjugation Chart Author: LoveToKnow Subject: French Verb Conjugation Chart Created Date: 8/23/2012 8:28:54 AM French Verb Conjugation Practice Sheet Verb: Singular Plural first person second person third person je tu il/elle/on nous vous ils/elles/sont Verb: Singular Plural first person second person third person je tu ill/elle/on nous vous ils/elles/sont Verb: Singular Plural first person second person third person je tu French conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a French verb from its principal parts by inflection. In French, a verb is inflected to reflect its mood and tense, as well as to agree with its subject in person and number. French verbs are conventionally divided into three conjugations (conjugaisons) with the following grouping: *Of course, French grammar wouldn’t be French grammar without its exceptions, for example “être” in the imparfait (imperfect) tense. Nothing is perfect indeed! For the following recipes, you will also need to use: the infinitive (“infinitif”). Refresher: in French, the infinitives are easily identifiable as they end in –ER (aller, lear french verbs The-conjugation.com will help you to correctly conjugate more than 9,000 French verbs. To quickly find a verb, whatever its voice (active voice, passive voice), mode (indicative, conditional, subjunctive, imperative,) or tense, type its infinitive or conjugated mode into our search engine. If you’re studying French, you need to get a handle on French verbs. Luckily, there’s a pattern to conjugating regular French verbs into the simple and compound tenses, so once you know how to conjugate one, you know hundreds! Learn how to give commands, directions, or requests by studying the imperative conjugations of French verbs. […] Most French conjugation tables show only 6: je, tu, il, nous, vous, ils. Not only is it sexist, but it’s really bad for French students who then seldom train with the feminine form – and usually know almost nothing about the French subject pronoun on. So please, don’t make this mistake. Drill with all the 9 subject pronouns. Download Full PDF Package. This paper. A short summary of this paper. 0 Full PDFs related to this paper. READ PAPER. French Verb Conjugation Chart. Download. French Verb Conjugation Chart. Edwin Tan. Download pdf. Download pdf × Close Log In. Log In with Facebook Log In with Google Sign in with Apple