MINELREL-L Archive (09161998-08:39:33-7817)

Endangered Uralic minority cultures


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Subject: Endangered Uralic minority cultures


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Endangered Uralic minority cultures


Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly
[To be debated and voted on at PACE on 25 September 1998
Full text of report on PACE website]
--------------------------------------------------------
 
Endangered uralic minority cultures
 
Report
 
Doc. 8126
 
2 June 1998
 
Committee on Culture and Education
 
Rapporteur: Mrs Tytti Isohookana-Asunmaa, Finland, Liberal, Democratic
and Reformers' Group
 
-------------------------------------------------------------
 
Summary
 
The Assembly wishes to draw attention to the endangered status of
Uralic languages and cultures. More than 23 million people in the
world speak languages belonging to the Uralic family. Most of them
live in nation-states of their own. In Russia, they include the
speakers of more than a dozen Uralic languages totalling some 3.3
million living as scattered minorities. In addition, there are the
Saami living both in Russia and in northern regions of Norway, Sweden
and Finland as well as a now very small number of Livonians in Latvia.
There are also the Ingrians, who are classed as Finns, and the Setus,
a branch of the Estonians, also living in Russia.
 
In order to preserve the Uralic languages and culture, thereby
enriching a developing Europe, the Assembly should urge the Russian
Federation and the other countries where these are present to support
these people's languages, cultures and traditions, through education
in their own mother tongues and through publications and mass media in
their languages.
 
I. Draft resolution
 
1. The Assembly is concerned at the endangered status of Uralic
languages and cultures in Russia. More than 23 million people in the
world speak Uralic languages and, according to the 1989 census, nearly
3.3 million of them live as minorities in Russia. Not all of them even
use their language in a regular basis.
 
2. Of the Uralic peoples living in Russia, the Karelians, the
Mordvins, the Mari, the Komi and the Udmurts have their own eponymous
republics, whilst the Khanty, the Mansi, the Komi-Permyaks and the
Nenets have their autonomous administrative districts. Even in those
areas, however, they are minorities, except the Komi-Permyaks.
Statistics show that those who speak their national language or
consider it their mother tongue have been constantly declining as a
proportion of the population. Abandon of national languages has been
most rapid among urban dwellers and young people.
 
3. With society and the economy in turmoil, the status of minority
languages has become even more precarious as people are forced to
concentrate on the problems of everyday life and earning a living. In
the Nordic countries, the Saamis now have a statutory right to their
own language, culture and native-language teaching. In the Russian
constitution and in new language laws enacted by several republics,
the preservation of national languages is supported in principle and
their status of equality alongside Russian is recognised, but economic
resources are not provided to implement these provisions.
 
4. In the Russian Federation, the language of instruction in schools
in the Karelian, Komi, Mari, Mordvin and Udmurt republics as well as
in the Komi-Permyak, Khanty-Mansi, Yamalo-Nenets, Nenets and Taimyr
(Dolgano-Nenets) autonomous areas is usually Russian and national
languages are taught only for a small number of hours a week, mainly
in the lower classes of rural schools. Some of the languages of the
indigenous peoples of central and northern Russia and Siberia have
failed to develop into modern cultural ones.
 
5. Speakers of Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian attach value to their
linguistic background, which is different from the Indo-European.
Diversity of cultures and languages should be seen as a precious
resource that enriches our European heritage and also reinforces the
identity of each nation and individual.
 
6. The Uralic peoples living as minorities in Russia are not
presenting any demands that aspire to political change, but need
support for their languages and cultures, several of which will
probably become extinct without the support of official bodies such as
the Council of Europe.

7. The Assembly recalls its Recommendation 1203 (1993) on Gypsies in
Europe and Recommendations 1291(1996) on Yiddish culture and 1333
(1997) on the Aromanian culture and language, which refer to the
establishment, in co-operation with the Council of Europe, of a
research centre for dispersed minority cultures. The tasks of this
body would be to help these minorities preserve their cultural
traditions and awareness of their past, to support the collection and
recording of linguistic monuments and oral tradition, help publish
material in their own languages and, in general, do its utmost to
prevent European languages and cultures from disappearing. This is
considered very important and the research centre should also be
assigned a monitoring function.
 
8. The Assembly supports continued work on the subject by the
Committee on Culture and Education in co-operation with the Russian
authorities.
 
9. The Assembly encourages the countries where the Uralic linguistic
minorities live and in particular the Russian Federation, in their
efforts to guarantee a living future on the cultural map of Eurasia
for such minorities. The following principles should be taken into
account: 
i.The native-language school is the foundation on which to revive and
develop languages and cultures. Therefore the states in question
should be encouraged and supported in providing children with teaching
in their mother tongue, first in the lower classes of elementary
schools and later gradually extended to higher classes.
Native-language schools should be established in towns and cities as
well as in rural areas. 

ii. As a basis for ethnic schools and native-language instruction,
teaching aids and learning material will first have to be provided in
those languages. Efforts will also have to be made to support teacher
training. Achieving these goals presupposes positive attitudes in
policies on minorities and the allocation of resources for reforming
teaching, training teachers and procuring educational material. 

iii. A prerequisite for the preservation of languages is their active
use in all written and oral communication. Therefore newspapers, radio
and TV programmes and other electronic media in minority languages
must be maintained or promoted and contacts between national
minorities living in different republics and regions must be ensured. 

iv. Exchanges of personnel and students between the Uralic areas and
universities, research institutes and state bodies in other countries
should be stepped up. Cultural exchanges of performing artistes,
writers, etc. between different minority peoples likewise reinforce
their own identity and create links with a multicultural world. In
addition to that, aid should be channelled to various organisations
and societies to enable them to work on the local level to revive and
protect native languages. 

v. The Uralic peoples should be taken into consideration in the
implementation of Recommendation 1291 (1996), especially in relation
to the research centre for dispersed minority cultures. 

vi. Heritage sites such as the old town of Tsygma (Kozmodemyansk)
should be placed on the World Heritage List of Unesco in order to
preserve old round-log buildings and wood carvings.
 
------------------------------------------------------------
 
II. Explanatory memorandum by Mrs Isohookana-Asunmaa
 
Contents:
 
1 Introduction
 
2 Uralic languages and peoples
 
2.1 Finnic languages
 
2.2 Saami languages
 
2.3 Mordvins languages
 
2.4 Permian languages

2.5 Ugrian languages
 
2.6 Samoyed languages
 
3 Traditional livelihoods, changes in the environment and preservation
of culture
 
4 Recent history
 
5 Present situation
 
6 Language laws and development plans for language and culture
 
7 Native-language schooling
 
8 Publications and mass media
 
9 Conclusion
 
Bibliography
 
Appendices
 
Uralic languages and speakers

Geographical distribution of Uralic languages

Development of the total population and of numbers of Finno-Ugrians
and Finno-Ugrian speakers in the Russian Federation 1926-89
 
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