|
The GilyakLanguage is a language isolate spoken in Russia (Asia). SIL code: NIV. ISO 639-2: mis. Population: 400 or slightly more mother tongue speakers (1991) out of an ethnic population of 4,400 (1996 G.A.Otaina). 100 Amur speakers out of 2,000 population, 300 Sakhalin speakers out of 2,700 population (1995 M. Krauss). Region: Sakhalin Island, many in Nekrasovka and Nogliki villages, small numbers in Rybnoe, Moskalvo, Chir-Unvd, Viakhtu, and other villages, and along the Amur River in Aleevka village. Alternate names: NIVKH, NIVKHI. Dialects: AMUR, EAST SAKHALIN GILYAK, NORTH SAKHALIN GILYAK. Comments: The Amur and East Sakhalin dialects have difficult inherent intelligibility with each other. North Sakhalin is between them linguistically. All members of the ethnic group are reported to be bilingual or monolingual in Russian. Most speakers are older than 50 years. The language has been written. Forced resettlement has weakened language use. Some are scattered and without regular contact with other speakers. Endangered. Taught through second grade in settlements at Nogliki and Nekrasovka. Not taught at Amur. Fishermen, agriculturalists (recently).(extract from http://www.ethnologue.com/)
|