Tundra Yukaghir language
Quick Summary
The Tundra Yukaghir language is spoken by a few hundred people in the Kolyma River region of Russia. It is part of the Yukaghir language group, which also includes the extinct Omok and Chuvan languages. While historically grouped with other unrelated languages as "Paleo-Siberian," Yukaghir is now considered a potential distant relative of the Uralic language family.123
The Yukaghir people themselves are a remnant population of Arctic Siberia, historically engaged in hunting, fishing, and reindeer herding. They are divided into Northern (Tundra) and Southern (Kolyma) groups, with mutually unintelligible dialects. Sadly, few younger Yukaghir speak their native tongue due to assimilation, with Russian and Sakha (Yakut) being more common languages.45
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