Editing Tuvan language (section)

==== Traditional Mongolian script ====
From approximately the 17th and 18th centuries until the 1930s, Tuvans used the traditional [[Mongolian script]] for their written language. By the late 1920s less than 1.5% of the total Tuvan population was literate in the traditional [[Mongolian script]]. Mongolian literacy was mainly possessed by the feudal nobility and officials. The absolute majority of Tuvans (with the exception of residents of some areas of the south-eastern part of Tuva, where Tuvan-Mongolian bilingualism has been preserved to this day) did not know the Mongolian language, and had long spoken only their native language.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Бичелдей |first1=Каадыр-Оол |title=80 лет тувинской письменности: становление, развитие, перспективы |journal=Новые исследования Тувы |date=2010 |issue=4 |page=221 |url=https://nit.tuva.asia/nit/article/view/480 |access-date=2024-10-06 |language=ru |issn=2079-8482}}</ref>