The following is the entry for this language as it appeared in the 14th edition (2000).
It was superseded by the corresponding entry in the 15th edition (2005). See also the corresponding entry in the current edition of Ethnologue.
SIL code: UKT
ISO 639-2: sah
| Population | 363,000 mother tongue speakers (95%) out of an ethnic population of 382,000 (1993 UBS)). |
| Region | Yakutia, near the Arctic Ocean, nearly the entire length of the basin of the middle Lena River and the Aldan and Kolyma rivers; 2,000 miles long. Jakutsk (Yakutsk) is the capital. |
| Alternate names | SAKHA, YAKUT-SAKHA |
| Classification | Altaic, Turkic, Northern. |
| Comments | Russian is used in higher education. It is used as second language by some Evenki, Even, and Yukaghir people. A town koine has developed in Jakutsk, which older speakers rejected. A higher percentage of teachers and officials come from this group than from nearby languages. Yakut is preferred by most speakers for most purposes. Grammar. Cyrillic script. Nomadic, fishermen, hunters, agriculturalists. Traditional religion, secular, Christian: Russian Orthodox. Bible portions 1858-1995. |
