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Dear all,<o:p> </o:p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;">I
have just
returned from fieldwork on Forest Enets on the <st1:place w:st="on">Taimyr
Peninsula</st1:place> (22.11.06 - 19.04.07). As several subscribers of
this
list teach introductory courses to Uralic linguistics this short
comment is
intended to provide them with fresh data on the current linguistic
situation. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p><b
style="">Socio-linguistic survey of current <st1:place w:st="on">Forest</st1:place>
Enets<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left: 18pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 150%;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span
style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·<span
style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Forest Enets (further FE) is
currently still
known in Potapovo (about 20 individuals) and in the district capital
Dudinka (about
6 individuals). Several speakers have left the <st1:place w:st="on">Taimyr
Peninsula</st1:place> and therefore are not included in this number as
they
probably have no chance to speak their language any longer at all.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left: 18pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 150%;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span
style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·<span
style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Some speakers of FE are said to live
in Tukhard.
According to one of my Forest Enets consultants who frequently travels
to
Tukhard as she is employed in the district administration, about 10
more
speakers of FE should live around Tukhard. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left: 18pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 150%;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span
style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·<span
style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->The youngest speaker of FE I’m aware
of is 44
years old; the oldest speaker is 61 years old. There are no L1 speakers
in the
generation +60; at least two Tundra Nenetses in Potapovo in the
generation +60
have some limited knowledge of FE but do not qualify as competent
speakers (In
Tukhard all speakers are said to be at least 50 years old too).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left: 18pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 150%;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span
style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·<span
style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Nobody younger than 40 speaks or
even
understands FE (in fact in Potapovo, nobody born in Potapovo and
younger than
40 speaks anything else than Russian, regardless of ethnic background)</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left: 18pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 150%;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span
style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·<span
style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->As has been assumed earlier, FE is
moribund. At
current the language is already functionally extinct and probably has
been
functionally extinct for at least a decade.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left: 18pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 150%;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span
style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·<span
style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->There is no monolingual speaker
left; several
speakers of FE are actually trilingual in FE, TN and Russian. All
trilingual speakers
have a clear preference for TN.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left: 18pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 150%;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span
style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·<span
style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->The once existing radio program was
shut down in
2003, at current the only visible sign of FE in local media is a page
of news
in FE published more or less regular once a month on a Wednesday in the
local
newspaper Taimyr <a href="http://www.taimyr24.ru/gazeta">www.taimyr24.ru/gazeta</a>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left: 18pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 150%;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span
style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·<span
style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Revitalization attempts in Potapovo
(which have
started in the early 1990s) have not produced any L2 speakers;
currently the language
is not taught in Potapovo.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left: 18pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 150%;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span
style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·<span
style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->The local <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName
w:st="on">Taimyrskii</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">College</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>
in Dudinka still offers courses in FE language and culture taught by a
native
Forest Enets speaker. However the teacher retires in May and most
probably the
FE program will be closed as there is nobody who could continue this
work.
Unfortunately also this program has not produced any new L2 speakers.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"><b
style="">Some personal comments<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left: 18pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 150%;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span
style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·<span
style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Whereas the overall number of FE
speakers equals
about 20-25 individuals (this excludes Tukhard) it is obvious that
linguistic
competence varies profoundly. Based on direct and almost daily contact
(linguistic
elicitation, socio-anthropological work and recording spontaneous
speech)
I’m tempted to say that only 4 fully competent speakers of FE remain.
The best
speaker died shortly after I left Potapovo in March.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left: 18pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 150%;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span
style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·<span
style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style=""> </span>“Traditional
folklore” such as epic and mythological legends is no longer
remembered. The
last renowned story teller died in 2003.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left: 18pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 150%;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span
style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·<span
style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="">Those Forest Enetses
who still care about
their language are aware that in 10-20 years from now the language will
be gone
forever.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin-left: 18pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt; line-height: 150%;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span
style="font-family: Symbol;"><span style="">·<span
style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]-->Forest Enets and Tundra Enets are
not dialects
of one language; they should be considered as two independent
languages. For
those knowing the FE revitalization handbook Rodnoe slovo (2002) I went
through
the Vorontsovo sketch with speakers from Potapovo and probably with one
exception compound tense-mood forms as attested in Tundra Enets do not
exist in
Forest Enets. <b style=""><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"><b
style=""><o:p> </o:p>Speech communities, linguistics and
fieldwork<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;">The
Forest Enets
intelligentsia in Dudinka is wondering why there is so few primary
material
published albeit almost all Forest Enetses alive have been serving as
consultants
for linguists in and around Potapovo or Dudinka starting with Irina
Sorokina in
1969. According to their understanding they have received almost
nothing in
return which would have assisted them in compiling materials for
language
revitalization. Personally I share their concerns, the former practice
of doing
fieldwork for the sake of science is a concept antiquated by now.
Language
endangerment has resulted in the emancipation of native speakers who no
longer
see themselves as “something” to be studied. Whereas this trend has
started in
other parts of the world already in the late 1970s this understanding
has
arrived in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Russia</st1:place></st1:country-region>
by now. Nowadays one has to justify one’s work and speakers of
endangered
languages have become critics of scientific practice. A central
consultant of
mine in Potapovo initially asked me why she should tell me “the old
stories”
again as “everything I know or found worth to tell I have told many
times to…”
which was followed by a list of researchers. When I tried to explain
her that
almost nothing has been published which was my decision to get started
with
Forest Enets she asked me frankly why this has happened. “Isn't this
something
you have to do? Isn't this part of your work?” This is just another
instance of
what other researchers have predicted two decades ago:</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"><span
style="" lang="ET">„<i>I would also like to express the hope that
more effort might be put into producing dictionaries of Australian
languages
than has been case to date. Although many fieldworkers (including Bible
translators and literacy personnel) have extensive lexical files, the
number of
adequate published dictionaries is scandalously low. Aside from the
large
Pintupi dictionary by the Hanses, I do not know of a single published
dictionary which makes any pretensions of being comprehensive. In
particular,
’the academic’ linguists have essentially contented themselves with
long
grammatical studies, squeezing out ’theoretical’ conclusions of various
sorts,
and have as yet published few or no texts and no adequate dictionaries.
I
suspect that the next generation of linguists, not to mention the
Aboriginals
themselves, will judge their predecessors harshly for this behaviour,
which not
only renders meaningless the linguists’ professions of providing
support for
Aborginials but is also self-defeating even for purposes of theoretical
analysis.“ </i><span style="">Heath, Jeffrey 1982 </span></span><span
style="">Nunggubuyu Dictionary. <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Canberra</st1:place></st1:City>. AIAS. p. IX<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"><i><span
style="" lang="ET"><o:p></o:p></span></i><span style="" lang="ET">Principally
the
situation </span><span style="">in Uralic linguistics
outside the historical-comparative framework is similar. There are
still no
modern grammars (“<i>long</i>”<i> grammatical studies</i>) for the
majority of Uralic
languages and for several languages well known to the subscribers of
this list I
personally doubt that long grammatical studies can be expected. In the
Forest
Enets case, linguists are already <i>judged harshly for their behavior</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"><span
style="" lang="ET"><o:p> </o:p><br>
Florian Siegl, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;"><span
style="" lang="ET">Documentation of Enets
and Forest Nenets<br>
DOBES Tartu-Göttingen<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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