‘Natural’ and obsolescent change in Tofa

Leipzig: Swarthmore College, from "Structural correlates of language endangerment and language contact in Altai-Sayan Turkic" at the Symposium of South Siberian Turkic languages held in Frankfurt 3-5 July 2003, p. 15.In this paper, we present some findings from recent field data on Tofa, a moribund Turkic language of central Siberia. We include sociolinguistic and demographic findings, as well as descriptions of linguistic phenomena. Many of these data differ significantly from previously published materials on Tofa. In some instances, these changes appear to be ‘normal’ changes found in any number of other languages, while others may specifically reflect effects of contact and obsolescence of the Tofa language.