Language Information
Tuvan is a Turkic language spoken by the Tuvan people, who mainly live in Central Asia. Most Tuvan speakers are residents of the Republic of Tuva (or "Tyva"), a republic of Russia located in the far south of the country.
From the 18th Century to early 20th Century, Tuva was part of the Qing Dynasty, the empire that ruled China for more than 300 years. The name of the area was "Tannu Uriankhai (唐努乌梁海)" or “Таңды Урянхай” in Tuvan.
After the 1911 revolution, Tuva and Outer Mongolia declared independence from the new regime of the Republic of China and became independent in August 1921. However, the ROC government did not renounce their sovereignty over the land at the time. In 1944, Tuva was then annexed by the USSR. After the collapse of the USSR in 1991, Tuva agreed to stay in the newly independent Russian Federation but with the provision that it would remain its own republic.
Due to its intertwined history with Mongolia and Russia, the Tuvan language incorporates many borrowed words and expressions. Tuvans in Russia use Cyrillic letters to write or spell Tuvan words, while groups of Tuvan who live in other countries like China (mainly in Xinjiang) have no written form of their Tuvan dialect.
Tuvan is not currently taught at Indiana University, but we do have access to some archived materials (listed below).