Tofa is most closely related to the Tuvan language[6][failed verification] and forms a dialect continuum with it.

Tofa shares a number of features with these languages, including the preservation of *d as /d/ (as in hodan "hare" - compare Uzbek quyon) and the development of low tones on historically short vowels (as in *et > èt "meat, flesh").

[7] The Tofa, who are also known as the Tofalar or Karagas, are an indigenous people living in southwestern Irkutsk Oblast, in Russia.

However, reindeer herding has greatly declined since the 20th century, with only one Tofa family continuing the practice as of 2004[update].

[8] Recognized by the former USSR in 1926 as one of the "Small Numbered Minorities of the North," (Russian: коренные малочисленные народы Севера, Сибири и Дальнего Востока) the Tofa have special legal status and receive economic support from Russia.

Language contact—mainly with Russian speakers—has been extensive since 1926, when the Tofa officially received their "Small Numbered Minorities of the North" status from the USSR (Russian: коренные малочисленные народы Севера, Сибири и Дальнего Востока) and underwent significant cultural, social, and economic changes.

Most notably, this traditionally nomadic, reindeer-herding people have since become sedentary and reindeer herding has all but vanished among the Tofa.

According to Rassadin[13] pharyngealization is realized as creaky voice [◌̰]; Harrison and Anderson represent this feature as low tone.

[14] Tofa vowel harmony is progressive and based on two features: backness and rounding, and this occurs both root-internal and in affixes.