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Importantly, these statistics do not reflect the actual level of language
proficiency. The overwhelming majority of the respondents who claimed they
speak Yukaghir are not fluent speakers really, with their “command” often
based on the knowledge of a limited number of words and phrases.
As of early 2011, fewer than thirty natives were fluent in the Yukaghir language,
including five in its forestland dialect.
Main Action Lines for the Revival and Preservation of the Yukaghir Language
The problem of language preservation is closely related to a community’s
socio-economic and cultural development. In efforts to preserve the Yukaghir
language, particular attention should be paid to the following tasks:
1. Encouraging the use of the native language in a household environment;
2. Teaching the language at pre-school institutions;
3. Shaping language awareness in schoolchildren;
4. Teaching the language to college students;
5. (Re)creating an environment that could stimulate language use;
6. Promoting research on the language;
7. Recording and archiving native speech samples;
8. Promoting folklore and literature in the language;
9. Enhancing the presence of the language and culture in cyberspace.
Only a systemic approach will enable us to cope with the challenge of preserving
the Yukaghir language.
Yukaghir Language: Domains of Use
Any natural language is used in the following four domains:
1. Personal;
2. Professional;
3. Public;
4. Educational.
For the Yukaghir language, these domains were closely linked together as
long as the traditional lifestyle was maintained. But they split apart in the 20 th
century, prompting a sharp decrease in the language use. Yukaghir left the public
domain in the 1950s and the ’80 saw its use in the personal domain reduced
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