Language Policy in the Soviet Union

Chapter 7: The North

Languages of the North• “Languages of the North” refers to a number of genetically

unrelated languages– “Large” languages -- over 40K– “Small” languages -- under 40K; combined total about 130K

• Samoyedic (Nenets, Enets, Nganasan, Selkup)• Finno-Ugric (Khanty, Mansi, Saami)• Tungusic (Even, Evenki, Negidal, Nanai, Ul’ch, Orok, Udihe,

Oroch)• Chukotko-Kamchatkan (Chukchi, Koryak, Alutor, Kerek,

Itelmen)• Aleut (Eskimo, Aleut)• Isolates: Gilyak, Yukagir, Ket

Languages of the North, cont’d.

• Two of the “small” languages are relatively large: Nenets 34K & Evenki 30K

• The smaller “small” languages are rapidly dying; only about 7% of ethnic group members use these languages, remainder use Russian

Languages of the North, cont’d.

• “Large” languages:– Altai (Turkic 70K)– Tuvin (Turkic 308K)– Yakut (Turkic 382K)– Buriat (Mongolic 421K)

• The “Large” languages had literary forms and ties with speakers of related languages

• The “Small” languages had no written form and no ties of identity beyond clan/tribe

Languages of the North, cont’d.

• Soviet planners endeavored to rid the North of the clan system, which dominated native identities, and replace it with ethnolinguistic divisions

• Many groups lacked an ethnonym, so Soviets invented identities, with the ultimate goal of creating a supracultural Soviet identity

The Literacy Campaign in the North

• This is the part of the USSR that presented the most problems for achieving literacy:– Vast territory and limited undeveloped

resources– Sparsely populated, mostly by nomads– Linguistically diverse– Nearly all languages lacked written form– Most indigenous populations were entirely

illiterate

The Literacy Campaign in the North, cont’d.

• First task was to describe languages and create orthographies and standards

• 1924 first ethnographers began their work, and Soviet gov’t begins to establish itself

• First schools were conducted entirely in Russian, but the plan was to eventually have primary education in 27 indigenous languages

• “Northern departments” created in key Siberian cities to undertake the creation of materials and training of teachers for indigenous languages; led by Herzen Pedagogical Institute in Leningrad

The Literacy Campaign in the North, cont’d.

• Many of the early goals of the Committee of the North to create materials for indigenous-language schools were never achieved

• Linguistic difficulties: dialectal variations spread over disperse populations; language contact situations often made it hard to sort out what belonged to which language

• 1930s textbooks and dictionaries published, using Latin-based “Unified Northern Alphabet”

The Literacy Campaign in the North, cont’d.

• Budgetary constraints and challenges of transportation made it difficult to distribute even the materials that were published

• To save on resources, there was a decision to lump together some languages to produce 9 “base languages”: Evenki, Nanai, Ul’ch, Chukchi, Eskimo, Itelmne, Aleut, Ainu

• This meant that some people who spoke non- “base” languages wound up being instructed in a “base” language that might be incomprehensible

The Literacy Campaign in the North, cont’d.

• Often it was Soviet authorities that decided what groups existed, what their names were, what their languages were, whether they were recognized as a “nation”, etc.

• Dearth of teachers -- no native people were trained to teach, and Russians didn’t want to go to Siberia to work -- gov’t offered them 20%-50% extra to get them to go

The Literacy Campaign in the North, cont’d.

• 1926 Indigenous teacher-trainees were sent to Leningrad for training

• 1960s shift in emphasis to Russification, and by that time, Russification was the primary goal in training Siberian teachers

• Still the majority of teachers were Russian

“Small” Languages of the North

• Two major obstacles faced by Soviets:– Nomadic people– Clan organization

• Thus they lacked clear ethnic identity and also common stable territory, and defied Stalin’s definition of a nation

Education and Northern Schools

• There were no schools previously• 1925 Establishment of 6 schools > 1927 57

schools, 480 students > 1929 131 schools, 3000 students

• First schools were established for settled populations, then nomadic schools were created, but these proved too challenging so the Soviets instituted a compulsory boarding school system, imposed by coercion and bribes despite the objections of parents

Education and Northern Schools, cont’d.

• Parents didn’t understand value of formal education and feared that their children would abandon traditional ways -- and they were right

• The boarding school system had the most detrimental impact on the indigenous languages, and all education in boarding schools was in Russian, and this created Russian-language enclaves in villages in Siberia

Pedagogical Materials and Teacher Training

• 1927-30 first textbooks for use in Siberia printed in Russian, Evenki, Khanty, but overall lack of materials meant that teachers created their own

• 1930-41 1st & 2nd grade textbooks printed in 11 languages

• 1938 Constitutions of USSR and RSFSR translated into Chukchi, Evenki, Koryak, Nanai, Nenets

• But after this, progress stalled, stymied by small, nomadic populations with diverse dialects, and Russian became the sole language of education

The Development of Written Languages

• 1932-41 Team of Leningrad linguists did field research on Siberian languages

• 1929-31Proposed a single Latin-based Unified Northern Alphabet, with hopes that this would help the native peoples communicate with closely related groups in China, Finland, and US

• Early 1930s Written languages created for 14 languages, but 3 were not further developed

The Development of Written Languages, cont’d.

• 1937-40 All languages converted to Cyrillic• Soviets soon gave up on aims of creating

literary languages and aborted the effort• By 1950s use of any language other than

Russian in school was punished, parents were discouraged from using native languages at home

• Small languages lost a lot of ground

Language Development

• Initially the “Large” languages received less attention than the “small” ones, because they already had literary languages, and this weakened the larger languages

• Even the speakers of the large languages were nearly all illiterate

Samoyedic: Nenets & Samoyedic, Enets and Nganasan

• 19th c missionaries tried to create written forms for Nents and Selkup, but their lack of linguistic sophistication rendered them useless; Soviet linguists had better success in early 1930s

• Enets & Nganasan (smaller and more isolated) were never developed

Samoyedic: Nenets & Samoyedic, Enets and Nganasan, cont’d.

• Selkup is now the only surviving language of S. Samoyedic; <4K, 93% claim fluency in Russian

• 1930s There were Selkup schools• Conversion to Cyrillic was unsuccessful• 1950s Selkup education and creation of literary

texts halted• 1980s attempt to reintroduce Selkup in schools,

but by then children lacked knowledge of the language

Tungus Languages

• Literary languages developed for 4 of 8 Tungus languages, but it is doubtful they are used today; students speaking remaining languages were instructed in one of the 4 languages

• M. A. Castren (Russian Academy of Sciences) worked on Tungus languages in mid 19th c

• Tungus peoples have a real problem with lack of ethnonyms

Tungus Languages

• Even, Evenki, and Nanai are the only languages that have survived Russification, but Nanai is declining

• Evenki & Even both spoken by sparsely dispersed nomadic peoples, and show dialectal fragmentation, as well as contact with other languages – in both cases the literary language is rather artificial

• All other Tungus languages seriously endangered by Russian

Paleosiberian Languages

• Also known as “Paleoasiatic”, “Ancient Siberian”, “Ancient Asiatic” – these languages are not genetically related; the names come from an Russian/Soviet hypothesis that they were once related

• Total population <27K; Chukchi largest group (12K), Kerek smallest (<100)

Paleosiberian Languages, cont’d.

• Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages: Itelmen, Chukchi, Alutor, Kerek, Koryak

• Only Chukchi (Chukot) has really survived• Chukchi and Koryak were used in

instruction until 1950s• Kerek is extinct, Itelmen seriously

endangered (though there are now attempts to bring it back through instruction)

Paleosiberian Languages, cont’d.

• Yupik subgroup of Eskimo-Aleut spoken in Siberia: Central Siberian Yupik, Naukan Yupik, Sirenik Yupik – all are endangered or extinct, loss accelerated by loss of culture when Yupik fishers were not allowed to fish in 1970s & 80s

Finno-Ugric Languages: Khanty & Mansi

• Khanty (22.5K, also called Ostiak and Iugra), Mansi (8.5K)

• Khanty has severe dialectal fragmentation, and there is controversy over how to organize the dialects

• Khanty and Mansi had their own system of “tamgi” symbols etched into poles and bark, used to record hunting successes

Finno-Ugric Languages: Khanty & Mansi, cont’d.

• Russian Orthodox missionaries created alphabets for Khanty in late 18th c

• Soviets created Khanty Latin-based alphabet in 1930, but dialectal differences proved insurmountable and no literary norm was achieved

• Mansi: 1931 Latin alphabet > 1938 Cyrillic; now 94% speak Russian, only 5% are monolingual speakers of Mansi

The “Large” Minorities

• Altai, Buriat, Tuvin, Yakut• Traditionally most Siberians were

multilingual, and the larger languages served for interethnic communication

• Russian was at top of assimilation hierarchy, then the “large” languages, then the “small” languages

Buriat• 1989 421K Buriats, 363.6K (86%) claim Buriat as

native language, 57K claim Russian as native language

• Mongolian descent with Tungusic and Turkic language influence, Buriat Mongol ASSR existed 1923-56

• Classical Mongolian was used as literary language, there was no unified Buriat literary language

• Buriat schools existed since 19th c

Buriat, cont’d.

• Development of Buriat literary language under the Soviets:– Initial period of standardization, based on

Khalkha, the literary standard in Mongolia, with goal of creating unified Mongolian language

– 1930s-40s orientation period, trying to base literary language on local Buriat dialects

– 1950s-80s standardization of literary languages

Buriat, cont’d.• 1931 Uyghur-Mongolic script > Latin; 1939 >

Cyrillic• Effort to base the literary language on Buriat

dialects was successful• Late 1930s terminology based on Mongolian roots

was branded “ideologically dangerous” and this undermined prestige of Buriat, which then became limited to sue with only a subset of the people

• Beginning with WWII there is a decline of Buriat vis-à-vis Russian, but there have been renewed efforts to support language education since 1980s

Yakut

• Yakuts call themselves Sakha – this ethnonym became official only in 1990

• Turkic language, 392K speakers (includes 2nd language speakers)

• 1926 Yakut made official language of Yakut ASSR, but then this status was lost and regained in 1992 – Moscow was nervous about the strong Yakut national character

Yakut, cont’d.

• Yakut has had a Cyrillic-based literary form since early 19th c

• 1917 Latin-based orthography > 1930 Unified Northern Alphabet > 1940 Cyrillic

• 1989 95% language retention for Yakut, and it is used as a first language by many of the smaller minorities

Altai• 71.6K in 1989, Spoken near borders with Mongolia &

China, 86% language retention, but 66% speak Russian• Turkic, but dialectally fragmented• 1840s missionaries created a Cyrillic-based literary

language• Soviets revised this orthography & language to represent a

more central dialect• 1931 Latin-based orthography > 1938 Cyrillic• Development of Altai undertaken by native linguists (a

unique situation in USSR)

Tuvin (aka Tuvan)• Turkic language, 198.5K, 99% rural language retention vs.

9% urban, 58% fluent in Russian, spoken near (and in!) China & Mongolia in territory disputed by China and Russian Empire/USSR

• Historically Mongolian was used as literary language• 1930 Tuvin language founded with New Turkic Alphabet

> 1941 Cyrillic• Good support for language in schools and mass media• Tuvin language law mandates use of Tuvin in all

instruction by 2001

Language Endangerment

• 1989 170K ethnic minorities in Siberia, 50% used ethnic language as native

• Multilingualism is prevalent, mixed marriages common

• 1960s-80s massive influx of Russians, who were 86% of Siberian population by 1979

• Language shift has been very rapid, causing dramatic losses for most languages, as much as 50% in only 30 years

Language Endangerment, cont’d.• Loss of funding since end of USSR has

discontinued study and data collection• The smaller languages are nearly all seriously

endangered, only Dolgan and Nenets are relatively strong

• Education system played a fundamental role in language loss

• Newly created literary languages were often not accepted by the indigenous peoples, due to dialectal divisions

Language Endangerment, cont’d.

• By late 1980s children came to school knowing only Russian

• Increase in grass-roots movements to save indigenous languages toward end of USSR, but prospects for future are grim