Thematic Block I

Sociolinguistic Context Of Everyday Life Of Endangered Languages

Chairs: V.I. Rassadin and O.A. Kazakevich

1. Rassadin, Valentin Ivanovich (Ulan-Ude) On the problems of revitalization and preservation of languages of some numerically small Turkic peoples of Southern Siberia [text]

   …At present the issue of the rights of peoples to the national culture and language was raised to its full potential. The problem of revitalization and preservation of cultures and languages of numerically small peoples of Russia, especially numerically small peoples of Siberia and the North has become urgent and vitally important again. While in the first years of the Soviet rule national cultures and languages of these peoples were still living and widely used, and the main problem was the provision of written languages, the present situation has changed to such extent that not only languages but also peoples should be protected and revitalized…

2. Nazarov, Ivan Ivanovich (Barnaul) Language of Kumandins as an endangered language: present day conditions and possible ways of revitalization [text]

   …the present day situation of Kumandin language can be characterized as bilinguism with increasing domination of Russian language in all spheres of life. If no critical changes happen in the nearest future then there will be no native speakers of “Kumandin dialect” left and in the ethnographic publication we will have to reformulate the definition of Kumandins into one similar to: “Kumandins were a formerly Turkic language people, presently speaking Russian”…

3. Kazakevich, Olga Anatolievna (Moscow) Functioning of indigenous peoples’ languages on the territory of Yamalo-Nenetskiy Autonomous District, Turukhanskiy District, Krasnoyarskiy Region and Evenk Autonomous District [text]

   …All the minority languages of the area function in the situation of almost total bilingualism of their speakers. Representatives of indigenous minority peoples of the North who cannot speak Russian are very scarce to-day. They can be found only in the elder generation or among small children in the families of reindeer herdsmen leading nomadic life (among the Tundra and the Forest Nenets, the Khanty, the Evenki). All the Selkups and the Kets speak Russian. The transmission of the ethnic language from parents to children is still preserved among the Tundra and the Forest Nenets, the Khanty grazing reindeer, as well as in two Selkup and one Evenki local groups. Among the Ket the intergenerational transmission of the ethnic language stopped in all local groups of the Ket about twenty-forty years ago…

4. Pluzhnikov, Nikolay Vladimirovich (Moscow) Native language in the value system of the present day culture of peoples of the North [text]

   …According to the history of peoples of Siberia, the change of the way of life and the subsistence base with its cultural consequences more often took place along with the native language preserved as, for instance, it happened to Nenets supplanted to tundra by Ob Ugoric peoples and transformed into large-scale reindeer herders there…

5. Girfanova, Albina Khakimovna (St. Petersburg) Contemporary situation of Udehe and Oroch languages [text]

   …Besides difficulties of objective character, it is necessary to note, that the “academic” approach to disappearing languages, unfortunately, it is characterized original current situation at which there are paramount not the inquiries and interests of alive people, but soneone’s personal ambitions at times adjoining to absurdity…

6. Samarina, Irina Vladimirovna (Moscow) On the experience of establishment of database “Languages of Russia: A Sociolinguistic Perspective” [text]

   …The data base “Languages of Russia: sociolinguistic portray” contains the information on the functioning of 86 languages of the Russian Federation including endangered languages of Siberia. In the paper the terms of information fulfilling, programme provision of the data base, the possibilities and perspectives of it’s development are considered…

WWW lingsib.iea.ras.ru