Enets ChildrenLanguage: Tundra Enets Language
People & Culture:
The Enets (Tundra) language is spoken in the Taimyr Autonomous Territory, Northern Russia in the lower parts of the Yenisei River near the arctic circle. The language is from the Uralic language family from which also comes Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian. This language is also considered to be a sister language to the Forest Enets Language spoken south of the Tundra Enets people. The nomadic Enets are hunters and fishers who are known for raising reindeer.
Why Save Enets?
The Enets people have been suppressed by the collectivisation policies under the USSR and only recently have they been able to transcribe their oral language into writing. By saving the language we can learn the process of the transition from oral to written and the development of a newborn literary language which are extremely valuable to linguists and anthropologists. Moreover these people have lived in some of the most northern parts of the world and their legends and stories provide excellent insight into how human beings migrated and survived in the extreme north.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tundra_Nenets_language
http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/enets.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enets
People & Culture:
The Enets (Tundra) language is spoken in the Taimyr Autonomous Territory, Northern Russia in the lower parts of the Yenisei River near the arctic circle. The language is from the Uralic language family from which also comes Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian. This language is also considered to be a sister language to the Forest Enets Language spoken south of the Tundra Enets people. The nomadic Enets are hunters and fishers who are known for raising reindeer.
Why Save Enets?
The Enets people have been suppressed by the collectivisation policies under the USSR and only recently have they been able to transcribe their oral language into writing. By saving the language we can learn the process of the transition from oral to written and the development of a newborn literary language which are extremely valuable to linguists and anthropologists. Moreover these people have lived in some of the most northern parts of the world and their legends and stories provide excellent insight into how human beings migrated and survived in the extreme north.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tundra_Nenets_language
http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/enets.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enets
Saving the Enets language, would be an example of Russia protecting its cultural heritage. Siberia and northern Russia are areas designated by UNESCO as hot spots for loss of linguistic diversity. It is because of Russian migration into these area, that the indigenous people fled northwards and embraced reindeer herding. Now the Russian people can be of help by preserving their languages.
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