Overview

Map of Siberian ethno-linguistic groups

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/commonwealth/ussr_ethnic_1974.jpg

 

According to the CIA World Factbook, Russia contains over 190 ethnic groups, and almost as many languages are spoken in the country. Many of these are indigenous to Russia, particularly those in the vast expanses of Siberia. These languages include representatives of several different families, including:

TURKIC: Turkic languages are found throughout Siberia, from the border with China and Mongolia to the coast of the Arctic Ocean. Sakha (Yakut)  is one of the most robust and widely used Siberian languages, with almost a half a million L1 and L2 speakers (Ethnologue) and official status in the Sakha Republic within the Russian Federation.

URALIC: These languages, related distantly to Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian, include Nganasan, Mansi, Nenets, and Khanty, found in Northern and Western Siberia near the Ural mountains.

TUNGUSIC: Includes Even, Evenk, and Nanai peoples. These languages are related to Manchu, and are found throughout the Russian Far East, including some speakers in China and Mongolia.

PALEO-SIBERIAN & ISOLATES: Beyond the larger language families, there are other smaller families only found in Siberia and nearby areas. These include the Yupik/Aleut (also found in Alaska and Canada), Chukchi, Itelmen, Yukaghir, and Ket.

The position of Russian as the dominant language of the Russian state, through the Romanovs, the USSR and today’s Federation, has eroded the usage and importance of Siberian languages. Today, most of these groups show 80-99% knowledge of Russian (Pereltsvaig 2014, “Russification Policies in Siberia”), and as a result people stop using and learning languages like Itelmen. Though many of these languages number in the thousands or tens of thousands, a great number are moribund or close to it, with well under a hundred elderly speakers. Many of these languages are still being studied and documented, and are therefore of interest to linguists and anthropologists. Even the more widely spoken languages face challenges in adapting to the modern world and preserving their culture, history and language as Russian society and culture continues to move in.

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