General Description

Nivkh (also called Gilyak) is an isolated language spoken on the island of Sakhalin and in the lower reaches of the Amur River in the Russian Far East.  Since the middle of the 19^th century, Nivkh has been classified as a Paleosiberian (or Paleoasiatic) language together with languages as Ket, Yukaghir, Itelmen, Chukchi and Koryak, etc.  These languages are genetically not related to each other though (except for Chukchi and Koryak which form the Luorawetlan language family).  Neither is Nivkh related to its geographically neighboring languages as Ainu or Tungusic languages (Uilta, Nanai etc.).  The resemblances with Japanese (word order, heavy inflection of verbs) are all of typological nature (Austerlitz 1974).

The current sociolinguistic situation is disastrous.  Of the total population of approximately 4,500 (2,500 in Amur, 2,000 on Sakhalin), the number of speakers is estimated to be less than 200.  The speakers are above the age of 60 and they are all bilingual with Russian.  Nivkh is still used among this elder generation.  The next generation (age 40-60) still has some passive knowledge of the language.  The UNESCO Red Book on endangered languages describes the sociolinguistic situation of Nivkh to be “nearly extinct” in the Amur area and “seriously endangered” on Sakhalin.

Access to speakers was very limited before the Perestroika. Fieldwork was practically impossible for Western researchers. The first fieldtrip to Sakhalin by a group pf Western researchers was realized only in 1990 (cf. de Graaf 1992). Most of the available linguistic material are from Russian linguists (Kreinovich 1934, 1937, Panfilov 1962, 1965, etc.). Some non-russian linguists managed to record data of the Southeastern dialect in South Sakhalin under the Japanese regime (1905-1945) or from Nivkh refugees who settled in Hokkaido (Japan) after WWII (Austerlitz 1956, Hattori 1962, etc.).