Sibirica

Solon, a Northern Tungusic language spoken in Hulunbuir, China, is currently the most viable Tungusic language, with approximately 20,000 speakers. This article presents a sociolinguistic survey based on two months of fieldwork in the Ewenke Autonomous Banner, a key Solon-speaking area with 10,000 speakers. The data was gathered through observation, interviews, and questionnaires across different age groups, focusing on language proficiency, language use, intermarriage of the Solon community, and language attitudes. Although Solon retains certain language vitality, it faces severe danger due to declining language assessments among younger generations (aged 13–25). The endangerment level of the Solon language is rapidly approaching the “definitely endangered” status, underscoring the urgency of preservation efforts.

The expansion of state capacity as a prerogative for increased penal practices in the first quarter of the nineteenth century forced the Russian Empire to renegotiate its relationship with the Siberian Cossack Hosts, and most notably, their inorodets troops. This article will explore the consolidation of Turkic “ethno-estates” across the West Siberian Plain in the early nineteenth century, focusing on the empire's courtship of Tatar and Kazakh service elites as a response to its growing policing needs within the ever-expanding exile system. Although the material condition of most Siberian inorodtsy continued to decline during this period, a closer analysis of the reforms leading up to Speransky's Statute of 1822 demonstrates that the empire's chronic shortage of able-bodied men placed the service Tatars and Kazakhs in a relatively fortuitous position.

The article discusses the activity of extracting mammoth tusks in the Arctic regions in the context of the cultural and ethnic characteristics of the Indigenous people of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). It identifies factors affecting the contemporary activity around collecting mammoth fauna. Findings of surveys carried out among the population of Yakutia yield a profile of contemporary mammoth collectors and reasons why some members of the population have a fear of obtaining mammoth remains. In addition, the article describes specific features of the attitude of the local population towards the collection of mammoth tusks, such as their reluctance to disturb the peace of nature, as well as their perception of mammoth tusks as a source of additional income.

This article focuses on the revitalization of the Koryak language, one of the seven Indigenous languages in Kamchatka, Russia. It begins by framing the ethnolinguistic situation in Kamchatka in the context of demographic and statistical data, and continues with an overview of efforts to preserve and develop endangered Indigenous languages in the region. It then introduces the uptake of digital technology for Koryak language learning. To support technology inclusion with remote communities, a mobile language learning application called “Koryak Tuyu” has been developed to facilitate the study of Koryak as a supplemental tool through both home-based individual learning and classroom learning. The article provides a description of the language application and a discussion of the application's features and components.

Risky Futures: Climate, Geopolitics and Local Realities in the Uncertain Circumpolar North Olga Ulturgasheva and Barbara Bodenhorn, eds. (London: Berghahn Books, 2023). 234 pp., ISBN 978-1-80073-593-4.

Evil Spirits and Rocket Debris: In Search of Lost Souls in Siberia Ludek Broz (New York: Berghahn Books, 2024), 240 pp., ISBN: 978-1-80539-260-6.