Language Policy in the Soviet Union

1. Language Policy in the Soviet Union Chapter 7: The North

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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”

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. “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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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)

24. 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)

25. 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

26. 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

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. 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

32. 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

33. 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

34. 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)

35. 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

36. 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

37. 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

38. 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