Chulym language
| Chulym | |
|---|---|
| Чулым,Ӧс (июс) тили, татар тили | |
| Native to | Russia |
| Ethnicity | 360 Chulyms (2010 census) |
|
Native speakers
|
44 (2010 census) |
|
Turkic
|
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | chul1246 |
Chulym (Russian: Чулымский язык, Čulymskij jazyk), also known as Chulim, Chulym-Turkic, Küerik, Chulym Tatar or Melets Tatar (not to be confused with the closely related Siberian Tatar language) is the language of the Chulyms. The name the people use to refer to themselves, and also to their language, is Ös, literally ‘self’ or ‘own’. It is also spoken by the Kacik (Kazik, Kuarik). This name originated from a now extinct tribe.
The language is closely related to the Shor and Khakas languages. Though all these are considered by some as one language, the Ös speakers themselves do not believe this to be the case.
Chulym comprises distinct dialects, corresponding to locations along the Chulym River: Lower Chulym (now believed extinct), Middle Chulym, and Upper Chulym.
Chulym is a moribund language and will most likely be extinct by the 2030s. It is listed in the UNESCO Red Book of Endangered Languages. During the filming of the 2008 American documentary film The Linguists, linguists Greg Anderson and K. David Harrison interviewed and recorded 20 speakers and estimated there may be between 35–40 fluent speakers out of a community of overall 426 members. The youngest fluent speaker was 54 at the time of filming.
The speakers are located in Russia, in southwestern Siberia, north of the Altay Mountains, in the basin of the Chulym River, a tributary of the Ob River. The Turkic, Northeastern villages where the greatest concentrations of Ös live are Belij Yar, Novoshumilovo, Ozyornoe, and Tegul’det, in eastern Tomsk Oblast’ and Pasechnoe in western Krasnoyarsk Kray. All speakers are bilingual in Russian. In Soviet times, speakers of the language suffered as children were discouraged from or punished for using the language in schools, in a process of language devalorization.
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Wikipedia