The Forest Nenets as a double language minority

Les Nénetses des forêts, doublement minoritaires du point de vue linguistique

Eva Toulouze (1)

1 CREE EA 4513 - Centre de recherches Europes-Eurasie

This article comments upon the sociolinguistical situation of the Forest Nenets in the Agan region: this language, which is practically non written, is nowadays spoken only by people aged 60 and more, only some adults being able to use it and no children at all. It observes that Forest Nenets is not only a minority language compared to Russian, the lingua franca; it is also a minority language in regard to the other native language of the region, Khanty (Eastern dialect): if the Nenets who speak Nenets are also fluent in Khanty, the Khanty speaking Khanty do not know Nenets.

Mots clés: sociolinguistics, endangered language; Western Siberia; minority language

Domaines: Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie; Linguistique

Eva Toulouze. The Forest Nenets as a double language minority. Pro ethnologia, 2003, Multiethnic Communities in the Past and Present, 15, pp.95-108. ⟨hal-01284698⟩