It is a common mistake to consider Tuvans as Mongols. You can often find disputes about who they are. As a resident of this republic, I declare, I confirm that the inhabitants of Tuva are a Turkic-speaking people. And I finally want to end this debate. First I will talk about culture, then I will move on to linguistics (because this section is about linguistics, not about culture).
Of course, confusion does not arise from scratch. It comes from similarities in culture, genetics and similar words. I will analyze each factor:
1) Culture. Buddhism, shamanism, nomadism, throat singing, and so on. First, let's deal with religion. Buddhism was, so to speak, brought from the south. As often happens in history, there were attempts to plant this religion on the local population. I do not think that this should be any pointing factor on this topic, because the fact that Italians and Germans profess Christianity does not make them the same people. As for everything else, everything is quite simple here, this is the culture of the steppe people. This is not Turkic culture, this is not Mongolian culture, this is the culture of the steppe people, period.
2) Genetics. Yes, Tuvans look like Mongols. Especially in the southern and eastern regions. However, you should know that the genetics of people here are different. Someone is more like a Kazakh, a Kyrgyz, and someone is more like a typical Mongol. Tell me what a real Turk should look like? Let's be honest, there is no country in which the population is typical "Turkic" features. What are the Turkic anthropological features? I'm going too far, so I'll be brief: red (blonde) hair, colored eyes, Asian face, but with European features. Are there such Turks now? Definitely there is, but there are very few of them left. At the moment, most of the Turks are mestizos. And it doesn't matter. Specifically for a given linguistic and ethnic group, it does not matter. Bottom line: Tuvans have different racial characteristics. From a distance you can't tell them from the Mongols. However, many have typical Central Asian features.
3) Linguistics. Everything is quite simple here, the basic Tuvan lexicon is purely Turkic. But why are there so many Mongols in the Tuvan language? Well, for the same reason that you, the reader, use the Roman word for "republic", the Greek word for "democracy", the English word for "telephone" for cell phones. There are many mongolisms in the lexicon of the Tuvan language, but almost all of them are not basic words. For example, a wheel or a candle "Dugui", "Laa". The only exception I can think of is the color green "nogaan" instead of the correct "chazhyl" or "zhashyl". Why did it happen that there is a Mongolian word in the basic lexicon? Well, because in the last century, standardization was carried out by incompetent people. For some unknown reason, those people decided that they needed to mix the two languages. I won't try to understand why, but the very idea of this is already ridiculous.
In summary: Tuvans are Turks. The Tuvan language belongs to the Turkic group of languages. SiberianTurkicUser (talk) 21:56, 28 June 2023 (UTC)
Edit: After my exploration of one of the closest Turkic languages to Tuvan — Tofalarian/Tofalari/Tofa language (Tofa/Tofalar — one of the Turkic ethnic minorities of Russia who do not have their own territory.) I had come to conclusion that Tuvans may had the same situation as with the Tofalars — They used the same word both for blue and green. Theoretically, it can be another example of the Blue-green distinction in languages. Basically it's when in a language the colors blue and green are the same word. Some Turks "decided" (not sure if it's the correct word for this) to use Chazyl/Yasyl/Zhashyl. From the word "Spring". While Tuvans, their ancestors, used "blue" to describe the green color. Many years later, they may chose to use the Mongol word to avoid misunderstandings. It doesn't deny the fact that the people who were responsible for the standardization could have decided to use the Mongol word. "Why not?" They said, "We are similar to them". Anyway, nowadays people use the Mongol "nogaan" without even thinking about it, I mean without any uncomfortableness. Perhaps it's the result of the generational re-teaching the people, or the Tuvans indeed used the Mongol "Green" for a very long time.