Northern Selkup
[aka Taz Selkup, šöľqumyt әty, северноселькупский язык]Classification: Uralic
·endangered
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Endangered
80 percent certain, based on the evidence available
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<600
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2,166
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"According to our estimation basing on the results of a series of sociolinguistic surveys lead in the Krasnoselkup and Pur districts of the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous area and in the Turukhansk district of the Krasnoyarsk territory in 1996-2003, at present in the Northern group there are no more than 600 Selkup speakers left which is a little bit less than one third of the group strength (1833, according to the data of the Census 1989, 2166, according to the data of the Census 2002), and there are some (though rather few) children among the Selkup speakers... The number of 1641 Selkup speakers given as a result of the Census 2002 appears most doubtful."
- DATE OF INFO
- 1996-2003
- DOMAINS OF USE
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- TRANSMISSION
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- MORE ON VITALITY
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"The preservation of the Northern dialect is much better [than the Southern dialect] but still far from rejoicing. Since the 1970s the Northern dialect began to lose its positions: in larger settlements with the bulk of the population formed by newcomers from different parts of Russia and Selkups being a minority it is rarely spoken even in purely Selkup families (and one third of all Selkup families in the district are mixed being Selkup-Russian, Selkup-Ukrain, etc.) and its natural transmission from parents to children practically stopped. In small villages where Selkups constitute the majority of the population (Ratta, Pur Tolka) natural transmission of the language from parents to children is still preserved. To-day the functioning of Selkup is strongly connected with traditional activities of the population, especially reindeer herding."
- GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
- Protected language
- OTHER LANGUAGES USED BY THE COMMUNITY
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Russian
- LANGUAGE CONTEXT COMMENTS
"In the Tomsk region, the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous area and the Turukhansk district of the Krasnoyarsk territory Selkup has a status of a protected language... All Selkups speaking Selkup are bilingual with Russian as their second or sometimes their first language. There are no Selkup speaking monolinguals any more."
- Scripts (Writing system)
- Cyrillic script
- Competing Orthographies
- Older orthographies
- More on Orthography
"It should be mentioned that the main sphere of the functioning of the Selkup writing system is education. Outside school and university the Selkup writing (both in the Northern dialect and in the dialects of the Southern Selkups) is very little used."
- PLACES
- Russia;
- LOCATION DESCRIPTION
"In the Yamalo-Nenets autonomous area the Northern Selkup reside at the middle and upper flow of the river Taz and its tributaries. In the villages Ratta, Kikkiakki, and the-Upper-Tolka they build the bulk of the population. About 50 Selkup live in Salekhard, the administrative centre of the autonomous area.
In the Turukhansk district of the Krasnoyarsk area the Selkup mostly live in the middle flow of the Yenisei, mostly at its link tributary the river Turukhan (with its tributaries the Upper and the Lower Baikha). In the village Farkovo they constitute the majority of the population. In some villages at the Yenisei they live among the Ket. Some Selkups also live in the village Kellog at the Yelogui, a link tributary of the Yenisei."