Dynamics of language endangerment: a comparison of three northern tungusic lects spoken in the Russian Federation

Most languages spoken by the so-called "small-numbered peoples of the North" are currently highly endangered or extinct (Janhunen, 2010, Bromham et al., 2022). Yet there are big individual differences in vitality between languages and even between dialects of individual languages. For instance, the Samoyedic language Tundra Nenets - even though "definitely an endangered language" - is still spoken by approximately 20,000 individuals, albeit with big differences in vitality between regional varieties (Nikolaeva, 2014: 5-6). In contrast, the Tungusic language Negidal is spoken by only a handful of elderly women, and it is only the Upper dialect of Negidal that is still spoken, while the last speakers of the Lower dialect passed away in 2010-2020 (Pakendorf, Aralova, 2018). Factors that have an impact on language vitality at a global level are the size of the speech community (number of L1 speakers), the extent of connectedness of the language community to other communities and urban centres, and the level of formal schooling, but regional specificities can have a significant impact on differences in vitality and endangerment (Bromham et al., 2022).Differences in language vitality are also observable in three Northern Tungusic lects that I have been studying since 2007: the Lamunkhin dialect of Even spoken in Central Yakutia, the Bystraja dialect of Even spoken in Central Kamchatka, and Negidal, spoken in the Lower Amur region of the Russian Far East (see Appendix 1). All three communities have undergone Russian colonization in 17th century and the sociopolitical changes associated with the Soviet era (cf. Sablin, Savelyeva, 2011), and all three are relatively small, numbering only several hundred individuals during most of the 20th century (Filippova, 2017; Kirillova, 2012: 117; Pevnov, Khasanova, 2006: 451-452). And yet, while all three lects are definitely endangered, they are at different stages of the endangerment scale (Grenoble, Whaley, 2011: 40): Negidal is nearly extinct (Pakendorf, Aralova, 2018: 11), Bystraja Even is moribund, and Lamunkhin Even is disappearing. In this abstract, I discuss the factors that have shaped the current levels of language vitality among these lects and the reasons for the observed differences.