Negidal language

Negidal
Spoken in	Russia
Region	Russian Far East
Ethnicity	Negidals
Native speakers	100-175  (no date)
Language family	Tungusic Northern Negidal
Language codes
ISO 639-3	neg

Negidal (also spelled Neghidal) is a language of the Tungusic family spoken in the Russian Far East, mostly in Khabarovskij Kraj, along the lower reaches of the Amur River.^[1] Negidal belongs to the Northern branch of Tungusic, together with Evenki and Even. It is particularly close to Evenki, to the extent that it is occasionally referred to as a dialect of Evenki.^[2]

According to the Russian Census 2002, there were 567 Negidals, 147 of which still spoke the language. Recent reports from the field reveal that the linguistic situation of Negidal is much worse than the official data claim it to be: according to Kalinina (2008),^[3] whose data stem from the fieldwork conducted in 2005-2007, there are only three full speakers left, and a handful of semi-speakers. Negidal is thus to be considered practically extinct.

There used to be two dialects: Upper dialect along the Amgun River (village of Vladimirovka), still residually spoken, and the now extinct Lower dialect in its lower reaches(villages of Tyr and Beloglinka, the town of Nikolaevsk-on-Amur). The Lower dialect was especially close to Evenki.

Notes

1. ^ Lewis, M. Paul (ed.), 2009. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition. Dallas, Tex.: SIL International.
2. ^ Janhunen, Juha (1996) Manchuria: An ethnic history. Helsinki: Finno-Ugrian Society, p. 73
3. ^ Калинина, Елена (2008) Этюд о гармонии гласных в негидальском языке, или негласные презумпции о гласных звуках. In: Архипов, А. В. et al. (eds.), Фонетика и нефонетика. К 70-летию Сандро В. Кодзасова, рр. 272-282. Москва: Языки славянских культур.

Bibliography

• Myl'nikova, K.M.; Cincius, V.I. (1931). "Материалы по исследованию негидальского языка (Materials on the Negidal language)". Tungusskij Sbornik I:107-218. 
• Cincius, V.I. (1982). Негидальский язык (The Negidal language). Leningrad: Nauka. 
• Kazama, Shinjiro (2002). ネギダール語 テキストと文法概説 (Negidal Texts and Grammar). Publications on Tungus languages and cultures 19. Endangered languages of the Pacific Rim, A2-021. Kyoto: Nakanishi. 
• Xasanova, M.M.; Pevnov, A.M.; (2003). Мифы и сказкы негидальцев (Myths and tales of the Negidals). Publications on Tungus Languages and Cultures 21. Endangered languages of the Pacific Rim, A2-024. Kyoto: Nakanishi.