The speakers are located in Russia, in southwestern Siberia, north of the Altay Mountains, in the basin of the Chulym River, a tributary of the Ob River. Ös speakers reside primarily in Belij Yar, Novoshumilovo, Ozyornoe, and Teguldet, in eastern Tomsk Oblast and Pasechnoe in western Krasnoyarsk Kray. All speakers are bilingual in Russian. In Soviet times, speakers of the language suffered as children were discouraged from or punished for using the language in schools, in a process of language devalorization.