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The proportion of native speakers routinely using their mother tongue in daily
life had shrunk over the period to 3% (grandchildren’s generation), up from
65% (great-grandparents). The disappearance of minor languages is a disastrous
process, which in some cases may happen over just two or three generations.
A survey undertaken that same year on the Yakut language, though, showed its
high degree of sustainability, with a fluent command demonstrated by 100% in
great-grandparents’ generation and by 86% in grandchildren’s.
The decrease in native speaker numbers is more pronounced with urban
dwellers. In rural areas, 100% of the ethnic Yakut born between 1910 and
1930 and 79% of those born in 1990-2010 demonstrate fluency in their native
language. In cities, meanwhile, the figures are 93% and 61%, respectively.
In ethnic Yakut inhabitants, aged 15-19 and 20-29, the willingness to preserve
their cultural identity is much harder to come by than in older community
members, aged between 30 and 65.
To gauge the pace of processes related to native language and culture
transmission, we have split the ethnic Yakut population into two categories
depending on whether the original identity is neglected or preserved. In the
former category, people attach little importance to their traditional culture; they
are reluctant to cultivate ethnic traits in themselves, and have no willingness
to use their mother tongue, nor teach it to their children (only 48% of the
respondents intend to teach it, as compared with 95% in the latter category).
The survey’s findings show a deformation in the mechanisms of value, language
and culture reproduction in the ethnic Yakut during their industrial and postindustrial
transition.
Prospects and Risks of Yakutia’s Economic and Socio-Cultural Development
in Global Context
The limited amount of proven natural reserves and the industrial boom of
major Asian economies (such as China and India) are likely to prompt major
world powers’ political, economic and socio-cultural expansion into the Arctic
and circumpolar areas in the next two decades or so. Countries like the United
States, Russia, Canada, and Norway are expected to step up their industrial
activity in those territories. This will dramatically increase the migrant inflow
in the sub-Arctic, along with bringing in different lifestyles, value systems, and
socio-cultural standards. Faced with cultural and economic occupation in their
ancestral lands, the region’s indigenous communities may find themselves on
the brink of cultural extinction within two or three generations.
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