Gilyak

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A language of Russian Federation

ISO 639-3
niv
Alternate Names
Nivkh, Nivkhi
Population

200 (2010 census). A few hundred active users (Salminen 2007). Ethnic population: 5,160.

Location

Sakhalin island, Nekrasovka and Nogliki villages; Rybnoe, Moskalvo, Chir-Unvd, Viakhtu, and other villages; Amur river area, Aleyevka village.

Language Maps
Language Status

8a (Moribund).

Classification
Language isolate
Dialects

Amur, East Sakhalin Gilyak, North Sakhalin Gilyak. Amur and East Sakhalin dialects have difficult inherent mutual intelligibility. North Sakhalin is between them linguistically.

Language Use

Seriously endangered (2000 A. Kibrik). Forced resettlement weakened use. Some scattered without regular contact with other speakers. No younger speakers in Amur region and very few on Sakhalin (2007). Home. Mainly older adults. Neutral to mildly positive attitudes. Ethnic group bilingual or monolingual in Russian [rus].

Language Development
Taught through second grade in settlements at Nogliki and Nekrasovka. Not taught at Amur. Dictionary. Grammar.
Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Gilyak
Writing
Cyrillic script. Latin script.