Voices from Tundra and Taiga The Language of the Tundra Yukagir in Arctic Russia

Project

Voices from Tundra and Taiga The Language of the Tundra Yukagir in Arctic Russia
Location
Continent	Europe
Countries	Russia
Sites	Amsterdam St. Petersburg Andryushkino
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Status
Project duration	2009  till 2012
Contact
Classification
Type of Project	Research
Discipline	Language and Culture
Activity	Research
Category	Intangible heritage
Keyword(s)
Indigenous people, Oral traditions & expressions, Enthnography

Background:

Project Poster

Tundra Yukagir (TY), a nearly extinct language in Arctic Russia, is spoken in the northeast of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). The population is ca. 700, but at present only some 50 people still speak their mother tongue properly. TY linguist Gavril Kurilov voiced thus his concern: “If we don’t hurry, the last Tundra Yukagir speakers still knowing the language properly, and mastering the traditional art of storytelling, will have died and with them a unique part of our cultural inheritance”. In the village of Andryushkino where most TY live, children learn their mother tongue at school from local native teachers. The language is hardly spoken anymore, but the attitude is positive towards language revitalization.

An exceptional language: Tundra Yukagir belongs to the Paleo-Asian languages. Two Yukagir languages exist, southern (Kolyma) and northern (Tundra), that are not mutually intelligible, and probably form an isolated language family. TY is an especially unique language as regards the traditional storytelling techniques: in narratives, speaking conventionally gradually changes into singing. This unique strategy needs to be documented and preserved given its exceptional character. The research methodology is the one common in documentary linguistics (fieldwork, recording, interview, elicitation, transcription, and translation into English and Russian).

Research Programme 2009-2012: The research programme consists of three parts: 1) Full description of the language by PhD student Mark Schmalz, 2) Documentation of the language through digital audiovisual recordings of narratives and songs, conversation and discourse, and the digital audio recording of an existing dictionary by Cecilia Odé, 3) Contribution to the development of courseware by Odé and Schmalz. All three parts of the research are being carried out in close cooperation with linguists in the Russian Federation, in Sakha and elsewhere, and with native speakers during periods of fieldwork.

Project information

Objectives
The aim of the project is the description, preservation and revival of the TY language and culture to ensure its safeguarding for posterity.

Result(s)
Technical training and workshops are given for local linguists, students and native language consultants. Popular-scientific presentations are also given for a larger audience. The result of the project will be an online synthesis with a multi-media CD/DVD, designed in such a way that it can be used by scientists as well as by the TY community. Publications will be sent to mass media in Sakha and elsewhere in the Russian Federation. Finally, courseware will be developed.

Document(s)

Relations

Involved organisation(s)
University of Amsterdam
Saint Petersburg State University
Russian Academy of Sciences in Yakutsk (Siberian Branch)
Amsterdam Centre for Language and Communication
Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts Yakutsk
Institute of Computational Technologies, (SB) RAS

Funding organisation(s)

Organisations referring to this project
Amsterdam Centre for Language and Communication
Arctic State Institute of Culture and Arts Yakutsk
Institute of Computational Technologies, (SB) RAS
Saint Petersburg State University
University of Amsterdam

Involved expert(s)
Cecilia Ode

Experts referring to this project
Cecilia Ode

Related Project(s)
Voices from Tundra and Taiga. The Safeguarding and Use of Sound Archives in the Russian Federation