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© 2007 - 2009 Empire Samoyeds - All Rights Reserved
DISCLAIMER: Unless indicated otherwise, everything in these files is
personal opinion, not an official statement of Empire Samoyeds.
DISCLAIMER: Unless indicated otherwise, everything in these files is
personal opinion, not an official statement of Empire Samoyeds.
THE NENETS
SAMOYED - A DOG/ A LANGUAGE/ PEOPLE
HOW DID THE NAME ORIGINATE?
The self-designation is Nenets (n'enyts, pl. n'enytsja), meaning
'man'; the native term for the language is n'enytsia vada. The name
hasaba, 'man', is less common and has restricted usage.
Etymologically, Nenets derives from the same origin as Nganasan
and Enets. The primal meaning of the root nenay is 'true, real,
genuine', and this is often used in conjunction with the
self-designation n'enay nenyts -- 'Nenets, i.e. a genuine man' (cf.
eney enet -- 'Enets' and ngano nganasan -- 'Nganasan'). The term
originally used by the Northern Nenets was applied to the whole
people in the 1920s.
The older and more widespread name for the Nenets is
Yurak-Samoyeds, or simply Yuraks. This comes from a Zyryan Komi
word yaran denoting the Samoyeds, which in its turn is probably
derived from the Yamal Peninsula tundra family name Yar. Through
the Russian language the term Yurak-Samoyeds has been
established in other languages and it is in common use up to the
present day outside the Soviet Union. The common term Samoyed
probably derives from the Selkup language where samatu ~ somatu
denoted the Enets. This probably has its origins with the Enets
Madu-tribe, who were called samatu or somaut by their neighbours.
Monk Nestor of Kiev in his chronicle A Tale of the Times Past refers
to the Samoyeds as neighbours and allies of the Ugrians. In 1787
the tribe name Hasaba was used by the missionary J. S. Vater in
his fable Vada Hasovo (The Language of the Nenets).
Habitat. The Nenets live in the polar regions of northeastern Europe
and northwestern Siberia from the Kanin Peninsula on the White
Sea to the Yenisey delta, occupying the central place among the
Samoyed territories. They also inhabit the Arctic Ocean islands and
the Kola Peninsula. Administratively, their habitat is divided
between the Nenets Autonomous District of the Arkhangelsk
Region and the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District of the Tyumen
Region. Combined, this covers a vast territory of about 1 million
square kilometres. A part of the Nenets also inhabits the Taymyr,
or Dolgan-Nenets Autonomous District belonging to the District of
Krasnoyarsk. The native land of the Nenets is the tundra and forest
tundra, a country of permafrost, numerous rivers and vast marshy
areas. Along the banks of the River Ob the Nenets settlements
reach the dense forest area of the Siberian taiga.
Population. The Nenets are the most numerous of the Samoyed
peoples -- this is clearly shown by the census results:
native speakers
1897 9,427 (an incomplete census)
1926 17,560
1959 23,007 84.7 %
1970 28,705 83.4 %
1979 29,894 80.4 %
1989 34,665 77.1 %
As the total population of the Samoyeds is about 40,000, the
Nenets, as can be seen, form a substantial part. While the
population shows a tendency towards increase, the data shows a
decline in native language speakers. Thus the Nenets are not in
danger of physical extinction but cultural. The percentage of
Nenets within the total populations of their native regions is also
decreasing. For example, the total population of the Yamal-Nenets
Autonomous District has increased six-fold in only 19 years, from
80,000 in 1970 to 486,000 in 1989.
Anthropologically, the Nenets are representatives of the Uralic race
with stronger than average Mongoloid characteristics. They are
commonly of short stature (the average male height is 158 cm) and
a stocky build. The face is broad and flat, with a short and
somewhat protruding nose. While hair is straight and thick, beard
growth is poor. Eyelids commonly exhibit epicanthic folds. Due to
dark pigmentation, hair and eyes are black or brown and the skin is
swarthy. In appearance the Nenets resemble most the Ostyaks,
displaying, however, more Mongoloid characteristics. The Nenets
of the Arkhangelsk region exhibit a somewhat stronger European
strain.
The language of the Nenets belongs to the Samoyedic branch of
the Uralic languages, comprising together with the Enets and
Nganasan languages its Northern Group. Due to a rather low
density of population spread over a vast territory the language is
rich in dialects. An overwhelming majority (about 95 %) speak the
Tundra Dialect that divides into 11 local vernaculars (Western,
Central, and Eastern). The most prominent among these is the
Bolshaya Zemlya local vernacular, which served as a basis for the
Nenets written language. The Forest or Taiga Dialect divides into
Western and Eastern vernaculars. The dialectal differences are
actually quite minor and they mostly occur on a phonetic level;
thus a Kanin and a Taymyr Nenets would have no difficulty in
understanding each other's speech. The structure and basic
vocabulary of the language are descended from the common
Samoyedic foundation. Nenets is particularly rich in ways of
describing nature (especially the character and properties of snow)
and weather conditions. It also abounds in terms connected with
reindeer-breeding, hunting and fishing.
The Nenets have well-established linguistic contacts mainly with
the other Samoyedic languages, however, there have also been
influences from the Turkic, Ob-Ugric, Komi and Russian languages.
Satisfactorily, the reverse is also true and the Nenets language has
influenced other languages too, notably in the terminology of
reindeer-breeding and nomadic life. As the territorially widespread
tongue of the most numerous Samoyedic people, Nenets has
served as a kind of lingua franca, and it is a common or secondary
language for the peoples of the Polar-Ural region.
During the 1930s there was a surge in contacts with Russian.
Abounding Sovietisms began to reflect new phenomena and
notions. Lexical borrowing became commonplace in the course of
time. Knowledge and use of Russian grew constantly, particularly
during the period of intense russification in the 1970s. Today, all
the western Nenets are bilingual, only east of the Ural mountains is
an equal knowledge of Russian not yet common. Russian has
gained a reputation as a medium for culture and communication,
and younger generations are at present discarding the language of
their fathers in favour of it.
History. During the first centuries of the first millenium AD. the
Northern Group of Samoyeds splintered from the Southern and
moved to the polar regions both east and west of the Ural
mountains. It is probable that they assimilated a native Arctic
people who formerly inhabited the region. In the following
centuries the tribes of the Northern Group (among whom were the
ancestors of the modern Nenets) underwent a process of change.
In northeastern Europe the Nenets were neighbours to the Ugrians,
while their journeys sometimes reached the banks of Lake
Äänisjärvi and the domain of the Veps. From the 13th to the 15th
century the Nenets paid tribute to Novgorod, and from the 14th to
the 16th century also to the Tatars. By the end of the 16th century,
however, the Russians had destroyed the Khanate of Siberia and
were stabilizing their power in Western Siberia. The building of the
Krasnoyarsk fortress (1628) marks the assemblage of all the
Samoyedic peoples under Russian rule.
To the dismay of the Russian conquerors there were constant
uprisings, in which the Nenets also participated. Caravans of tax
collectors were raided and Russian strongholds attacked. In a
period of one hundred years the Pustozersk stronghold in
northeastern Europe suffered six major attacks, the last of which
took place in 1746. From the Russians the Samoyeds learned the
use of firearms.
Christianity made its appearance among the Nenets in the 18th
century. Large-scale Russian-Orthodox baptism began after 1824
when a mission specifically for spreading Christianity among the
Samoyeds, was founded in the Arkhangelsk Province. In connexion
with this, there were attempts to educate Nenets youth at the
Bolshaya Zemlya, Kanin and Timan parochial schools. In 1846, a
clergyman named Popov established a school in Obdorsk (now
Salekhard) where some Samoyeds studied alongside Russians. No
missionaries, however, came of the Nenets themselves and literacy
gained no ground.
During the 19th century the Nenets, up until this time living only
from the land, became increasingly dependent on merchants and
colonial traders. With impunity these tradesmen extorted
enormous prices for essential goods like tea, sugar, flour, tobacco
and gunpowder. Befuddled by liquor, the Nenets easily ran up
debts with the tradesmen -- a position not easy to escape from. It
was not uncommon that a Nenets would be paying furs to clear
debts of his father, or even grandfather. In the 1870s Russia used
the Nenets to secure her own political interests. A part of the
Nenets were resettled to Novaya Zemlya to keep the Norwegians
out of the polar regions. At that time the settlements on the Kola
Peninsula were also reinforced with subjects of the Russian Empire.
Since ancient times the migratory cycle of the Nenets has been
tied to that of the reindeer (from the coastal regions to the forests
in autumn, and back in spring). They have led the lives of hunters
and fishermen and fully adapted themselves to existence in the
tundra. Their subsequent expertise in reindeer-breeding has been
of value to several other peoples. This experience born of centuries
of living with the land did not yield easily to the destructive efforts
of the Soviet administration. The first collective farms on Nenets
territory were set up in 1929. Collectivization was, however,
completed only 20 years later by means of ideological
brainwashing (militant atheism, political propaganda) and
widespread repression. The reindeer-breeders even rose up in
armed struggle against collectivization, and attacked the town of
Vorkuta. The army used aircraft to subdue the Nenets as if they
were a pack of wolves.
The Russians achieved a breakthrough in the 1950s when they
began to merge small collective farms. This meant deportations for
the Nenets and forced transition from a nomadic to a settled mode
of life. The recalcitrance of the Nenets was overcome by a
relatively simple method: Nenets women, children and elderly
people who were not directly employed in reindeer breeding, were
forcibly settled into villages. In time the men were compelled to
follow their families.
A system of state-controlled sustenance for northern peoples was
established by a government decree in 1957. A Nenets (or a Lapp,
or an Evenk) was considered to be in state custody from birth to
the day he completed his education. This meant growing up in a
boarding school, away from one's home and ethnic background.
State-controlled sustenance (i.e. free catering, clothing,
schoolbooks and transport) has ruined the sense of duty and
responsibility as well as all initiative in the younger generation. A
youth who has left school is as helpless as a hothouse plant on
permafrost.
A lot of damage has been caused by a Soviet levelling system
which deliberately ignores specific needs, local peculiarities and
national characteristics. The Nenets also study at schools run in
accordance with a Russian standard syllabus; apartment blocks are
built according to a standard; the village hall director works
according to a standard prescription. Even food rations (coupons
for buying tea, sugar, flour, butter, tobacco, etc.) were the same all
over the U.S.S.R.
Since the 1950s chemical and oil industries have exerted their
influence on the life of the Nenets -- in the Pechora region and in
northwestern Siberia big companies like Gazprom, Norilsknikel and
others are a dominant influence. Industry is the prime and
privileged concern and their own administrative units have proved
incapable of protecting the rights of the Nenets. The industrial
boom has brought along a drastic increase in population and
pollution of the natural habitat. On the Taymyr peninsula, for
example, the proportion of recent settlers to native-born residents
was six to one (excepting the 174,000 inhabitants of the city of
Norilsk and the prison camps). The pollution caused by Norilsknikel
alone has destroyed 4.8 million hectares of pasture and 0.5 million
hectares of forest. According to technocratic reckoning, the price
of one hectare of tundra land is 59 kopecks, although economists
have arrived at a figure of 20,000 roubles. The environment suffers
from acid rains; heavy metals accumulate in the moss and through
reindeer killed for meat, enter into the human diet. Nuclear tests on
Novaya Zemlya are another grave danger to the health and
existence of the people of the area.
Industrial cultivation has caused displacement of the Nenets
language -- the unfavourable demographic situation gives rise to
unfavourable linguistic tendencies -- and culture. In addition it has
led to extraordinarily high death and suicide rates. The
life-expectancy of Nenets is 45 to 50 years. Only 41 % of the
Nenets have found paid employment, mostly as unskilled labour.
The wages of the natives are considerably lower than those of the
recent settlers and the "glass ruble", that is, a bottle of strong
alcohol, functions as the hard currency in the tundra.
Writing. For centuries the Nenets, as most northern peoples, have
used pictographic writing. Special family signs called tamga were
used to mark property. Attempts to establish a written language
were made by the Orthodox missionaries. In the 1830s
archimandrite Venyamin Smirnov published some religious texts.
Spelling books were also introduced (e.g. by J. Sibirtsev, 1895),
however, they had little lasting success. In 1932 the Nenets
literary language was established on the basis of the Bolshaya
Zemlya vernacular (one of the Central vernaculars), using the Latin
alphabet. A spelling book Jadei vada ('New World'), a reader, an
arithmetic book and school glossaries were published, and a
number of political writings and sketches of everyday life
translated from Russian. In 1937 a transition to the Russian
alphabet was made and since then there has also been partial
compliance with Russian orthography.
Until recently the publishing output has consisted mainly of new
schoolbooks (textbooks for primary schools, etc.) as well as some
fiction and stories of everyday life. The best known writers are
Tyko Vylka (1886--1960), Ivan Istomin (b. 1917) Leonid Lepstui (b.
1932), and Vassili Ledkov (b. 1933). The only newspaper in Nenets,
Nyaryana Ngyrm ('The Red North'), is published in Salekhard, the
capital of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Region. Unfortunately,
the quantity of literature published in Nenets is minimal and thus
alongside the vast body of Russian work published, its influence is
zero.
Research. The kinship between the Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic
languages was first mentioned by Ph. J. von Strahlenberg (1730).
Word lists and comments were to be found as early as in the
comparative dictionary Linguarum totius orbis vocabularia
comparativa by P. S. Pallas. Linguistic material has been collected
by D. G. Messerschmidt, J. von Klaproth, A. G. Schrenk and
others. The missionary J. S. Vater attempted in 1767 to write an
outline grammar of the Nenets language on the ground of one
legend but the material proved insufficient for the task. The
foundation for systematic research was laid by M. A. Castrén who
published the first grammar of the Samoyedic languages
(Grammatik der samojedischen Sprachen, 1854) followed by a
glossary (Wörterverzeichnis aus den samojedischen Sprachen,
1855). After Castrén's death in 1852 there was a lengthy break
until 1912 when T. Lehtisalo commenced his study of the Nenets
language.
In the Soviet Union the year 1925 marked the starting-point for
Samoyedic studies. In 1930 an Association for Academic Research
was founded at the Institute of Northern Peoples in Leningrad,
specializing in the minor ethnic groups of the Arctic regions and
Siberia. The Nenets literary language was established in 1932 and
a grammatical survey was written by G. Prokofiev in 1937. An
outline grammar by N. Tereshchenko (1966) has remained to date
the most comprehensive of its kind. A collection of folklore has
been published by T. Lehtisalo (1947) and an ethnological survey
by L. Homich (1966). The first bilingual dictionary was compiled by
A. Pórerka and N. Tereshchenko and published in 1948. The bulky
Yurak-Samojedisches Wörterbuch by T. Lehtisalo came out in 1956.
REFERENCES
A. Künnap, P. Palmeos, T. Seilenthal, Põhja ja itta. Lehekülgi meie
sugulaskeelte uurimisloost, Tallinn 1974
A. Künnap, Samojeedid, meie kauged keelesugulased. -- Keel ja
Kirjandus 4, 1966
V. Uibopuu, Meie ja meie hõimud. Peatükke soomeugrilaste
minevikust ja olevikust, Lund 1984
Â. Ëåäêîâ, Áîëü çåìëè ðîäíîé. -- Íàðîäîâ ìàëûõ íå áûâàåò, Ìîñêâà 1991
Ã. Ïðîêîôüåâ, Íåíåöêèé (þðàêî-ñàìîåäñêèé) ÿçûê. -- ßçûêè è
ïèñüìåííîñòü íàðîäîâ Ñåâåðà. ×. 1, Ìîñêâà -- Ëåíèíãðàä 1937
Ç. Ï. Ñîêîëîâà, Íàðîäû Ñåâåðà ÑÑÑÐ: ïðîøëîå, íàñòîÿùåå è áóäóùåå. --
Ñîâåòñêàÿ ýòíîãðàôèÿ 6, 1990
Í. Ì. Òåðåùåíêî, Íåíåöêèé ÿçûê. -- ßçûêè íàðîäîâ ÑÑÑÐ. Ò. III, Ìîñêâà
1966
Á. ×óäàð, Ðîêîâîé ôàðâàòåð. -- Íàðîäîâ ìàëûõ íå áûâàåò, Ìîñêâà 1991
Ë. Â. Õîìè÷, Íåíöû. Èñòîðèêî--ýòíîãðàôè÷åñêèé î÷åðê, Ìîñêâà --
Ëåíèíãðàä 1966
SAMOYED - A DOG/ A LANGUAGE/ PEOPLE
HOW DID THE NAME ORIGINATE?
The self-designation is Nenets (n'enyts, pl. n'enytsja), meaning
'man'; the native term for the language is n'enytsia vada. The name
hasaba, 'man', is less common and has restricted usage.
Etymologically, Nenets derives from the same origin as Nganasan
and Enets. The primal meaning of the root nenay is 'true, real,
genuine', and this is often used in conjunction with the
self-designation n'enay nenyts -- 'Nenets, i.e. a genuine man' (cf.
eney enet -- 'Enets' and ngano nganasan -- 'Nganasan'). The term
originally used by the Northern Nenets was applied to the whole
people in the 1920s.
The older and more widespread name for the Nenets is
Yurak-Samoyeds, or simply Yuraks. This comes from a Zyryan Komi
word yaran denoting the Samoyeds, which in its turn is probably
derived from the Yamal Peninsula tundra family name Yar. Through
the Russian language the term Yurak-Samoyeds has been
established in other languages and it is in common use up to the
present day outside the Soviet Union. The common term Samoyed
probably derives from the Selkup language where samatu ~ somatu
denoted the Enets. This probably has its origins with the Enets
Madu-tribe, who were called samatu or somaut by their neighbours.
Monk Nestor of Kiev in his chronicle A Tale of the Times Past refers
to the Samoyeds as neighbours and allies of the Ugrians. In 1787
the tribe name Hasaba was used by the missionary J. S. Vater in
his fable Vada Hasovo (The Language of the Nenets).
Habitat. The Nenets live in the polar regions of northeastern Europe
and northwestern Siberia from the Kanin Peninsula on the White
Sea to the Yenisey delta, occupying the central place among the
Samoyed territories. They also inhabit the Arctic Ocean islands and
the Kola Peninsula. Administratively, their habitat is divided
between the Nenets Autonomous District of the Arkhangelsk
Region and the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous District of the Tyumen
Region. Combined, this covers a vast territory of about 1 million
square kilometres. A part of the Nenets also inhabits the Taymyr,
or Dolgan-Nenets Autonomous District belonging to the District of
Krasnoyarsk. The native land of the Nenets is the tundra and forest
tundra, a country of permafrost, numerous rivers and vast marshy
areas. Along the banks of the River Ob the Nenets settlements
reach the dense forest area of the Siberian taiga.
Population. The Nenets are the most numerous of the Samoyed
peoples -- this is clearly shown by the census results:
native speakers
1897 9,427 (an incomplete census)
1926 17,560
1959 23,007 84.7 %
1970 28,705 83.4 %
1979 29,894 80.4 %
1989 34,665 77.1 %
As the total population of the Samoyeds is about 40,000, the
Nenets, as can be seen, form a substantial part. While the
population shows a tendency towards increase, the data shows a
decline in native language speakers. Thus the Nenets are not in
danger of physical extinction but cultural. The percentage of
Nenets within the total populations of their native regions is also
decreasing. For example, the total population of the Yamal-Nenets
Autonomous District has increased six-fold in only 19 years, from
80,000 in 1970 to 486,000 in 1989.
Anthropologically, the Nenets are representatives of the Uralic race
with stronger than average Mongoloid characteristics. They are
commonly of short stature (the average male height is 158 cm) and
a stocky build. The face is broad and flat, with a short and
somewhat protruding nose. While hair is straight and thick, beard
growth is poor. Eyelids commonly exhibit epicanthic folds. Due to
dark pigmentation, hair and eyes are black or brown and the skin is
swarthy. In appearance the Nenets resemble most the Ostyaks,
displaying, however, more Mongoloid characteristics. The Nenets
of the Arkhangelsk region exhibit a somewhat stronger European
strain.
The language of the Nenets belongs to the Samoyedic branch of
the Uralic languages, comprising together with the Enets and
Nganasan languages its Northern Group. Due to a rather low
density of population spread over a vast territory the language is
rich in dialects. An overwhelming majority (about 95 %) speak the
Tundra Dialect that divides into 11 local vernaculars (Western,
Central, and Eastern). The most prominent among these is the
Bolshaya Zemlya local vernacular, which served as a basis for the
Nenets written language. The Forest or Taiga Dialect divides into
Western and Eastern vernaculars. The dialectal differences are
actually quite minor and they mostly occur on a phonetic level;
thus a Kanin and a Taymyr Nenets would have no difficulty in
understanding each other's speech. The structure and basic
vocabulary of the language are descended from the common
Samoyedic foundation. Nenets is particularly rich in ways of
describing nature (especially the character and properties of snow)
and weather conditions. It also abounds in terms connected with
reindeer-breeding, hunting and fishing.
The Nenets have well-established linguistic contacts mainly with
the other Samoyedic languages, however, there have also been
influences from the Turkic, Ob-Ugric, Komi and Russian languages.
Satisfactorily, the reverse is also true and the Nenets language has
influenced other languages too, notably in the terminology of
reindeer-breeding and nomadic life. As the territorially widespread
tongue of the most numerous Samoyedic people, Nenets has
served as a kind of lingua franca, and it is a common or secondary
language for the peoples of the Polar-Ural region.
During the 1930s there was a surge in contacts with Russian.
Abounding Sovietisms began to reflect new phenomena and
notions. Lexical borrowing became commonplace in the course of
time. Knowledge and use of Russian grew constantly, particularly
during the period of intense russification in the 1970s. Today, all
the western Nenets are bilingual, only east of the Ural mountains is
an equal knowledge of Russian not yet common. Russian has
gained a reputation as a medium for culture and communication,
and younger generations are at present discarding the language of
their fathers in favour of it.
History. During the first centuries of the first millenium AD. the
Northern Group of Samoyeds splintered from the Southern and
moved to the polar regions both east and west of the Ural
mountains. It is probable that they assimilated a native Arctic
people who formerly inhabited the region. In the following
centuries the tribes of the Northern Group (among whom were the
ancestors of the modern Nenets) underwent a process of change.
In northeastern Europe the Nenets were neighbours to the Ugrians,
while their journeys sometimes reached the banks of Lake
Äänisjärvi and the domain of the Veps. From the 13th to the 15th
century the Nenets paid tribute to Novgorod, and from the 14th to
the 16th century also to the Tatars. By the end of the 16th century,
however, the Russians had destroyed the Khanate of Siberia and
were stabilizing their power in Western Siberia. The building of the
Krasnoyarsk fortress (1628) marks the assemblage of all the
Samoyedic peoples under Russian rule.
To the dismay of the Russian conquerors there were constant
uprisings, in which the Nenets also participated. Caravans of tax
collectors were raided and Russian strongholds attacked. In a
period of one hundred years the Pustozersk stronghold in
northeastern Europe suffered six major attacks, the last of which
took place in 1746. From the Russians the Samoyeds learned the
use of firearms.
Christianity made its appearance among the Nenets in the 18th
century. Large-scale Russian-Orthodox baptism began after 1824
when a mission specifically for spreading Christianity among the
Samoyeds, was founded in the Arkhangelsk Province. In connexion
with this, there were attempts to educate Nenets youth at the
Bolshaya Zemlya, Kanin and Timan parochial schools. In 1846, a
clergyman named Popov established a school in Obdorsk (now
Salekhard) where some Samoyeds studied alongside Russians. No
missionaries, however, came of the Nenets themselves and literacy
gained no ground.
During the 19th century the Nenets, up until this time living only
from the land, became increasingly dependent on merchants and
colonial traders. With impunity these tradesmen extorted
enormous prices for essential goods like tea, sugar, flour, tobacco
and gunpowder. Befuddled by liquor, the Nenets easily ran up
debts with the tradesmen -- a position not easy to escape from. It
was not uncommon that a Nenets would be paying furs to clear
debts of his father, or even grandfather. In the 1870s Russia used
the Nenets to secure her own political interests. A part of the
Nenets were resettled to Novaya Zemlya to keep the Norwegians
out of the polar regions. At that time the settlements on the Kola
Peninsula were also reinforced with subjects of the Russian Empire.
Since ancient times the migratory cycle of the Nenets has been
tied to that of the reindeer (from the coastal regions to the forests
in autumn, and back in spring). They have led the lives of hunters
and fishermen and fully adapted themselves to existence in the
tundra. Their subsequent expertise in reindeer-breeding has been
of value to several other peoples. This experience born of centuries
of living with the land did not yield easily to the destructive efforts
of the Soviet administration. The first collective farms on Nenets
territory were set up in 1929. Collectivization was, however,
completed only 20 years later by means of ideological
brainwashing (militant atheism, political propaganda) and
widespread repression. The reindeer-breeders even rose up in
armed struggle against collectivization, and attacked the town of
Vorkuta. The army used aircraft to subdue the Nenets as if they
were a pack of wolves.
The Russians achieved a breakthrough in the 1950s when they
began to merge small collective farms. This meant deportations for
the Nenets and forced transition from a nomadic to a settled mode
of life. The recalcitrance of the Nenets was overcome by a
relatively simple method: Nenets women, children and elderly
people who were not directly employed in reindeer breeding, were
forcibly settled into villages. In time the men were compelled to
follow their families.
A system of state-controlled sustenance for northern peoples was
established by a government decree in 1957. A Nenets (or a Lapp,
or an Evenk) was considered to be in state custody from birth to
the day he completed his education. This meant growing up in a
boarding school, away from one's home and ethnic background.
State-controlled sustenance (i.e. free catering, clothing,
schoolbooks and transport) has ruined the sense of duty and
responsibility as well as all initiative in the younger generation. A
youth who has left school is as helpless as a hothouse plant on
permafrost.
A lot of damage has been caused by a Soviet levelling system
which deliberately ignores specific needs, local peculiarities and
national characteristics. The Nenets also study at schools run in
accordance with a Russian standard syllabus; apartment blocks are
built according to a standard; the village hall director works
according to a standard prescription. Even food rations (coupons
for buying tea, sugar, flour, butter, tobacco, etc.) were the same all
over the U.S.S.R.
Since the 1950s chemical and oil industries have exerted their
influence on the life of the Nenets -- in the Pechora region and in
northwestern Siberia big companies like Gazprom, Norilsknikel and
others are a dominant influence. Industry is the prime and
privileged concern and their own administrative units have proved
incapable of protecting the rights of the Nenets. The industrial
boom has brought along a drastic increase in population and
pollution of the natural habitat. On the Taymyr peninsula, for
example, the proportion of recent settlers to native-born residents
was six to one (excepting the 174,000 inhabitants of the city of
Norilsk and the prison camps). The pollution caused by Norilsknikel
alone has destroyed 4.8 million hectares of pasture and 0.5 million
hectares of forest. According to technocratic reckoning, the price
of one hectare of tundra land is 59 kopecks, although economists
have arrived at a figure of 20,000 roubles. The environment suffers
from acid rains; heavy metals accumulate in the moss and through
reindeer killed for meat, enter into the human diet. Nuclear tests on
Novaya Zemlya are another grave danger to the health and
existence of the people of the area.
Industrial cultivation has caused displacement of the Nenets
language -- the unfavourable demographic situation gives rise to
unfavourable linguistic tendencies -- and culture. In addition it has
led to extraordinarily high death and suicide rates. The
life-expectancy of Nenets is 45 to 50 years. Only 41 % of the
Nenets have found paid employment, mostly as unskilled labour.
The wages of the natives are considerably lower than those of the
recent settlers and the "glass ruble", that is, a bottle of strong
alcohol, functions as the hard currency in the tundra.
Writing. For centuries the Nenets, as most northern peoples, have
used pictographic writing. Special family signs called tamga were
used to mark property. Attempts to establish a written language
were made by the Orthodox missionaries. In the 1830s
archimandrite Venyamin Smirnov published some religious texts.
Spelling books were also introduced (e.g. by J. Sibirtsev, 1895),
however, they had little lasting success. In 1932 the Nenets
literary language was established on the basis of the Bolshaya
Zemlya vernacular (one of the Central vernaculars), using the Latin
alphabet. A spelling book Jadei vada ('New World'), a reader, an
arithmetic book and school glossaries were published, and a
number of political writings and sketches of everyday life
translated from Russian. In 1937 a transition to the Russian
alphabet was made and since then there has also been partial
compliance with Russian orthography.
Until recently the publishing output has consisted mainly of new
schoolbooks (textbooks for primary schools, etc.) as well as some
fiction and stories of everyday life. The best known writers are
Tyko Vylka (1886--1960), Ivan Istomin (b. 1917) Leonid Lepstui (b.
1932), and Vassili Ledkov (b. 1933). The only newspaper in Nenets,
Nyaryana Ngyrm ('The Red North'), is published in Salekhard, the
capital of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Region. Unfortunately,
the quantity of literature published in Nenets is minimal and thus
alongside the vast body of Russian work published, its influence is
zero.
Research. The kinship between the Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic
languages was first mentioned by Ph. J. von Strahlenberg (1730).
Word lists and comments were to be found as early as in the
comparative dictionary Linguarum totius orbis vocabularia
comparativa by P. S. Pallas. Linguistic material has been collected
by D. G. Messerschmidt, J. von Klaproth, A. G. Schrenk and
others. The missionary J. S. Vater attempted in 1767 to write an
outline grammar of the Nenets language on the ground of one
legend but the material proved insufficient for the task. The
foundation for systematic research was laid by M. A. Castrén who
published the first grammar of the Samoyedic languages
(Grammatik der samojedischen Sprachen, 1854) followed by a
glossary (Wörterverzeichnis aus den samojedischen Sprachen,
1855). After Castrén's death in 1852 there was a lengthy break
until 1912 when T. Lehtisalo commenced his study of the Nenets
language.
In the Soviet Union the year 1925 marked the starting-point for
Samoyedic studies. In 1930 an Association for Academic Research
was founded at the Institute of Northern Peoples in Leningrad,
specializing in the minor ethnic groups of the Arctic regions and
Siberia. The Nenets literary language was established in 1932 and
a grammatical survey was written by G. Prokofiev in 1937. An
outline grammar by N. Tereshchenko (1966) has remained to date
the most comprehensive of its kind. A collection of folklore has
been published by T. Lehtisalo (1947) and an ethnological survey
by L. Homich (1966). The first bilingual dictionary was compiled by
A. Pórerka and N. Tereshchenko and published in 1948. The bulky
Yurak-Samojedisches Wörterbuch by T. Lehtisalo came out in 1956.
REFERENCES
A. Künnap, P. Palmeos, T. Seilenthal, Põhja ja itta. Lehekülgi meie
sugulaskeelte uurimisloost, Tallinn 1974
A. Künnap, Samojeedid, meie kauged keelesugulased. -- Keel ja
Kirjandus 4, 1966
V. Uibopuu, Meie ja meie hõimud. Peatükke soomeugrilaste
minevikust ja olevikust, Lund 1984
Â. Ëåäêîâ, Áîëü çåìëè ðîäíîé. -- Íàðîäîâ ìàëûõ íå áûâàåò, Ìîñêâà 1991
Ã. Ïðîêîôüåâ, Íåíåöêèé (þðàêî-ñàìîåäñêèé) ÿçûê. -- ßçûêè è
ïèñüìåííîñòü íàðîäîâ Ñåâåðà. ×. 1, Ìîñêâà -- Ëåíèíãðàä 1937
Ç. Ï. Ñîêîëîâà, Íàðîäû Ñåâåðà ÑÑÑÐ: ïðîøëîå, íàñòîÿùåå è áóäóùåå. --
Ñîâåòñêàÿ ýòíîãðàôèÿ 6, 1990
Í. Ì. Òåðåùåíêî, Íåíåöêèé ÿçûê. -- ßçûêè íàðîäîâ ÑÑÑÐ. Ò. III, Ìîñêâà
1966
Á. ×óäàð, Ðîêîâîé ôàðâàòåð. -- Íàðîäîâ ìàëûõ íå áûâàåò, Ìîñêâà 1991
Ë. Â. Õîìè÷, Íåíöû. Èñòîðèêî--ýòíîãðàôè÷åñêèé î÷åðê, Ìîñêâà --
Ëåíèíãðàä 1966
ORDER THE BOOK
The book was after ten years
finally been printed in English,
and you can order it directly from
the publisher, NGO Red Book
(www.redbook.ee). It seems that
the publishers have forgotten to
add the ISBN number so here it
is: 9985-936922.
This web site has no affiliation
with the publisher. So far I have
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web version. Let's hope that this
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Tallinn,
February 2002
Webmaster
http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/
nenets.shtml
The book was after ten years
finally been printed in English,
and you can order it directly from
the publisher, NGO Red Book
(www.redbook.ee). It seems that
the publishers have forgotten to
add the ISBN number so here it
is: 9985-936922.
This web site has no affiliation
with the publisher. So far I have
received no requests to assist in
publishing or to remove this free
web version. Let's hope that this
continues to be so.
Tallinn,
February 2002
Webmaster
http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/
nenets.shtml
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