About

Though the majority of Russia (predictably) is ethnically Russian and speaks the Russian language, there are almost 200 different ethnic groups in Russia. Siberia in particular has many minority groups, and each of these groups have their own language (or languages). Among these are Turkic (Yakut, Tuvan), Mongolic (Buryat), Uralic (Mansi, Nenets), Chukhotko-Kamchatkan (Chukchi, Itelmen), Tungusic (Evenk, Oroch), Ket, Yukaghir, Yupik, and many more.

As is the case in the United States, many indigenous languages are threatened or even dying out. Many languages are poorly-studied, especially as the area has only opened up to study by Westerners in the early 1990s. However, preservation efforts are ongoing, which aim to encourage learning and study of these languages.

In this blog, I seek to examine a variety of different groups and their respective cultures and outline what efforts are being taken and should be taken in the future to study and preserve their languages.

I chose to do my project on this topic for numerous reasons. First, it ties in with my studies of Russia and the Russian language. I wanted to compare and contrast with the situations faced by indigenous groups in North America and other regions of the world (e.g. Papuan languages). I also wanted to learn more about these groups and their languages because I am interested in comparative and historical linguistics. These languages that may seem remote at first may provide great insight into the nature of language change over time.

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