Tubalar language

I. Sociolinguistic data

1. Names of the language

The Tubalar language is known under the following names: Tubalar, Tuba, Tuba-Kizhi, the Tuba-Kizhi dialect, the Chern Tatar dialect (from the self-name yish-kizhi “people of the Chern taiga”). The Tubalars are a Turkic-speaking people living in the northern part of the Altai Republic, in the Turochaksky, Choysky and Maiminsky districts. The Tubalars used to be included in the Altai group, and their language was considered a northern dialect of the Altai language along with Chelkan and Kumandin. In 2000 (according to the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 255 of March 24, 2000), the Tubalars were classified as an indigenous small-numbered people of the Russian Federation, and Tubalar was recognized as an independent language.

2. General characteristics

2.1. Number of native speakers and the corresponding ethnic group

Number of native speakers: 229 people. Source: the census of 2010. Number of speakers in traditional settlements according to the census of 2010: 211 people. Number of people (according to the census of 2010): 1965 people. Since 2002, the number of native speakers has gone down by 50% (from 463 people).

2.2. Age of speakers.

The group is limited to the older generation, 60+

2.3. Sociolinguistic characteristics.

2.3.1. General characteristics

At the turn of the 20-21 ^st centuries, sociolinguistic surveys presented Tubalar as an endangered, but not a dying, language. In 1999, 27.8% of the respondents answered that they could speak the Tuba dialect fluently, 26.3% can understand but do not speak it, and 45.9% do not know the language” (Sarbasheva, 2000: 169). Over 90% of Tubalars answered that they communicated with their children in Russian. In 2002 “about 19% of Tubalars aged 30 to 49 claim that they could speak the language fluently and another 11% that they could speak it on any topic but prefer Russian in communication” (Nikolina et al. 2003). However, the degree of proficiency was determined using a direct question (“can you speak Tubalar?”), which often gives a biased result. However, in 2006 the state of preservation of the language appeared extremely eroded and, apparently, the damage is irreversible.

It was not possible to find speakers under 45 in Kebezen; the average age of speakers was close to 55-60 years (“The Tubalar studies”: 193). The same situation was observed in the villages of Ust-Pyzha, Novotroitsk and Iogach in 2012

The national policy, school education in Russian and the literary Altai languages, as well as the growth of foreign ethnic environment throughout the 19-21st centuries all contributed to the loss of language. The catalyst for the current crisis situation was, firstly, the policy of liquidating unpromising villages in the 1950–1970s, which provoked a massive movement of small ethnic Altaic groups from their native villages to regional centers and cities, with many leaving the Republic altogether. Secondly, the difficult economic situation of 1990-2000 caused a new wave of emigration. As a result, the Tubalar language environment was destroyed and its transmission from the older generation to the younger discontinued.

2.3.2. Vitality status

2A – Intergenerational linguistic transmission discontinued throughout the entire area

At the time of Moscow linguistic expeditions (2006, 2012), all native speakers, who actively worked with linguists, were over 50 years old. The language functioned exclusively as a home language. The main language of communication in families is Russian; only older speakers would communicate with each other in Tubalar. The relatives of the informants under the age of 40 denied any level language proficiency. The actual level of fluency is low. Informants were often confused about the meanings of words and avoided any complex grammatical forms. In the villages of Ust-Pyzha, Novotroitsk, and Yogach, the representatives of only 2-3 families were considered to be able to speak the language.

2.2.3. Use in various fields

2.4. Information about a writing system (if applicable)

Tubalar is unwritten. To record Tuba texts, characters of the Altai language are used. In the early 2000s. Surna Sarbasheva developed a 42-letter Tubalar alphabet. This alphabet is used in the Russian-Tubalar dictionary and phrasebook, published in 2019, but has not become widespread.

3. Geographical characteristics

3.1. Constituent entities of the Russian Federation with ethnic communities

The Altai Republic

3.2. Total number of native settlements

About 20.

3.3. List of main native settlements (census of 2010).

The Tubalars live in the Turochaksky, Choysky and Maiminsky districts of the Altai Republic. The places of residence are mostly the villages of Karasuk, Aleksandrovka, Biryulya, Urlu-Aspak (Maiminsky district), Uskuch, Karakoksha, Paspaul, Salganda, Tunzha, Uymen, Ynyrga, Krasnoselsk (Choysky district); Turochak, Artybash, Yogach, Novo-Troitsk, Yailyu, Biyka, Chuika, Kebezen, Old Kebezen, Syurya, Tuloy, Ust-Pyzha, Tondoshka (Turochaksky district).

4. Historical dynamics

Number of native speakers and size of the ethnic group according to various censuses (beginning with 1897) and other sources.

— - no data available

II. Linguistic data.

1. Position in the genealogy of the world languages

Altaic macrofamily > Turkic family > Central-Eastern group > Altaic languages > Northern Altaic subgroup

The genealogy of Tubalar and even its cohesiveness (i.e. whether it is ensured by something other than a shared tribal name and way of life, which, incidentally, is common with the speakers of the other Northern Altai languages) remained not entirely clear until recently. The glottochronological list based on the materials published by Nikolai Baskakov does not allow separating Tuba from the Altai-Kizhi dialect (which can be explained, for example, by the fact that the Choya dialect of Tubalar was assimilated as early as the 1940s by the Altai dialect, which underlies the modern literary language). Based on the results of the expedition in 2012, Anna Dybo concludes that the Tubalar language in the villages of Yogach, Ust-Pyzha and Novotroitsk form a single dialect not belonging to either the northern or southern group of dialects, and representing, therefore, a branch of the Altaic dialects, equally distant from the northern and southern groups.

2. Dialectal situation

Tubalar is traditionally divided into three dialects, Choy, Maimin and Turochak. This division is somewhat artificial, since it is drawn along the boundaries of the administrative districts of the Republic. The ethnic Tubalars of the Maiminsky region seem to have switched to the Altai language long ago. Nikolai Baskakov wrote about the Choy dialect as one quite strongly assimilated by the Altai language.

3. Brief history of academic research of the language

The study of the Tubalar language began with the publications on the Altai dialects by Vasily Radlov: in the first volume of his “Samples of folk literature of the Turkic tribes” a number of Tubalar folklore texts were published.  Some information is also contained in his classical work “Phonetics of the Northern Turkic languages” (1882). Also, some material on the Tubalar language was included in the “Dictionary of the Altai and Aladag dialects” by Vasily Verbitsky (1884) and the comparative work of Nikolay Katanov “A study of the Uriankhai language” (1903). A grammatical description of the Tubalar language was first made by Nikolai Baskakov based on the data collected in 1934-1952 in Altai (“Dialect of the Chern Tatars (Tuba-Kizhi))”, 1966). Some of the materials were published separately in 1965 (“Dialect of the Chern Tatars (Tuba-Kizhi). Texts and translations”). In the 1980s, several articles on the phonetics of the Tubalar language by Margarita Chumakaeva et al. were published, based on the materials from dialectological expeditions. In 2000-2001 the scholars of the Institute of Philology of the Russian Institute of Sciences undertook an expedition to the Turochaksky, Maiminsky and Choysky districts. Their main goal was to study the sociolinguistic situation and some linguistic material was also collected. In issues 7, 10, 13 (2003-2004) of the journal “Languages of the Peoples of Siberia”, a significant amount of the Tubalar texts collected during these expeditions was published, with translation into Russian, some also with morphemic analysis. In 2002, Surna Sarbasheva defended her dissertation on vocalism and consonantism of the Tubalar language, on the basis of which a monograph on the phonetics of the language was published in 2004.

After this, two more expeditions to the Tubalars were carried out. However, both expeditions faced a deplorable language situation in which full-fledged work with native speakers was no longer possible. For this reason, the Tubalar language remains underdescribed. In 2019, through the efforts of language activists Anastasia Todozhokova and Avgusta Kuchukova a Russian-Tubalar dictionary and phrasebook were written and published. The only Tubalar-Russian dictionary remains the glossary compiled by Baskakov.