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This morning I was browsing the Russian MSM and I saw this piece, which linked to this piece. I found this interesting, because it doesn't seem like radio signallers get as much attention or admiration as they used to. I am sure we all grew up on those thrilling stories about WWII, the breaking of the German Enigma code, that sort of thing. [...] The first piece is entitled "The Tuva Phenomenon", and this story reminds me of those American Navajo Indian Codetalkers of WWII. Although the Navajos had no particular reason to be patriotic to the Federal Government of the United States of America (allude to the infamous Long Walk of 1864), their leaders felt it would be best for their people if they were allowed to contribute to the war effort against the Japanese. [...] In 1944 Tuva joined the USSR more or less voluntarily; and in 1992 was a signatory to the treaty which created the Russian Federation. This country lies way out there in southern Siberia, bordering on Mongolia, to the South. Ethnic Tuvans speak Tuvan as their native language. According to wiki[wtf], Tuvan is a member of the Turkic language family. The grammar is Turkic, but the vocabulary includes many borrowed words from Mongolian, Tibetan, and Russian. Just from scanning the description, one can see that Tuvan is a very complex language, both phonologically (it has relatively few consonants, but many vowels and also length and pitch) and grammatically. Which would make it perfect as the kind of language that nobody can learn unless they imbibed it with their mother's milk!
archived Ethnologue, Step 1. in Has the backstop back-fired on Ireland?, Vinay Lal
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