Dukha or Dukhan is a nearly extinct Turkic language or dialect variety of

Tuvan language Tuvan, also spelt Tyvan, is a Turkic language spoken in the Republic of Tuva in South Central Siberia, Russia. There are small groups of Tuvans that speak distinct dialects of Tuvan in China and Mongolia. History The earliest record ...

spoken by the Dukhan (a.k.a. Tsaatan) herder people in the Tsagaan-Nuur county of

Khövsgöl Province Khövsgöl () is the northernmost of the 21 Aimags of Mongolia, aimags (provinces) of Mongolia. The name is derived from Lake Khövsgöl. Geography and history The round-topped Tarvagatai (Khangai), Tarvagatai, Bulnain and Erchim sub-ranges of th ...

in northern

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

. Dukhan belongs to the Taiga subgroup of Sayan Turkic (which also includes Soyot–Tsaatan and Tofa). This language is nearly extinct and is only spoken actively by no more than 40 people. The ISO 639-3 proposal (request) code was dkh, but this proposal was rejected. It is mostly related to the

Soyot The Soyot are an ethnic group of Samoyedic and Turkic origin who live mainly in the Oka region in the Okinsky District in Buryatia, Russia. They share much of their history with the Tofalar, Tozhu Tuvans, Dukha, and Buryat; the Soyot have ta ...

language of

Buryatia Buryatia, officially the Republic of Buryatia, is a republic of Russia located in the Russian Far East. Formerly part of the Siberian Federal District, it has been administered as part of the Far Eastern Federal District since 2018. To its nort ...

.Endangered Languages of Indigenous Peoples of Siberia: The Soyot Language
/ref> Also, it is related to the language of

Tozhu Tuvans The Tozhu Tuvans, Tozhu Tuvinians, Todzhan Tyvans or Todzhinians (own name: Тугалар ''Tugalar'' or Тухалар ''Tukhalar''; Russian Тувинцы-тоджинцы ''Tuvincy-todžincy'', Тоджинцы ''Todžincy'') are a Turkic subg ...

and the

Tofa language Tofa (Tofa: Тоъфа дыл ''Tòfa dıl''), also known as Tofalar or Karagas, is a Turkic language spoken in Russia's Irkutsk Oblast by the Tofalars, an indigenous people of the region. Tofa forms a dialect continuum with the closely related ...

. Today, it is spoken alongside Mongolian. Dukhan morphophonemic units are written with capital letters, similar to its sister languages and standard grammars.

Classification

Dukhan is classified in the Taiga Sayan Turkic branch of Siberian Turkic. The Dukhan language is mainly related to an amalgam of dialects from the nomadic people of Outer Mongolia, Russia, and surrounding areas. It is most closely related to Tuvinian.

Geographical distribution

The Dukha language is spoken in Tsagaan-Nuur County, Tsagaanuur (Khövsgöl) Mongolia. Цагааннуур сум) is a Sum (district) of Mongolia in the province of Khövsgöl, located in Northern Mongolia.

References

{{Turkic languages Siberian Turkic languages Languages of Mongolia Endangered Turkic languages Turkic languages