Five Numerically Small Languages in RF on Brink of Extinction, Shor Activist Tells UN Conference

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 27 – Vladislav Tannagashev, a Shor activist, told the UN’s Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples meeting in Geneva earlier this month that the languages of five numerically small peoples in the Russian Federation are spoken by fewer than 60 people each and are on the brink of disappearing.

            These include the Aleut with 19 speakers of the titular language, Itelmen with 56 speakers, Orochi with three, Chuvan with 56, and En with 36, he says. Unless radical steps are taken, those languages will soon disappear (rosdep.online/vladislav-tannagashev-vlasti-rf-ugnetayut-korennye-narody-prikryvayas-demagogiej-o-borbe-s-kolonializmom/).

            Those figures come from the 2020/2021 Russian census, but the real situation is far worse than that, Tannagashev continues, for three reasons. First, there are many other languages with only a few more speakers. Second, the Russian government despite claims to the contrary is not providing the necessary support in schools and in official institutions.

            And third, Moscow is working hard to conceal what is taking place by blocking the participation of representatives of these minorities from attending meetings like the one he spoke do.ha Several were in fact prevented from speaking in Geneva because of Russian pressure on the organizers.

            In addition, Tannagashev said, the minority nationalities and their languages suffer from the fact that most representatives of what is called the Russian democratic opposition have taken positions on the minority nationalities that are not strongly dissimilar from those of the Kremlin, further limiting the possibility that their languages will survive.