Selkup
PrintA language of Russian Federation
1,020 (2010 census). Central Selkup: 200 speakers, Northern Selkup: 1,000 to 1,500 speakers, Southern Selkup: less than 100 speakers (Salminen 2007). Ethnic population: 4,250.
Tomsk Province; Yamalia and Nenetsia autonomous regions, Krasnoyarsk District. Northern dialect: Krasnoselkup region, Ratta, Krasnoselkupskaya Tolka, and Krasnoselkup villages; Purovsk region, Tolka Purovskaya village; Krasnoyarsk District, Farkovo; Turukhan river basin; Baikha. Southern dialect: north Tomsk Province area villages.
5 (Developing).
Narym (Central Selkup), Srednyaya Ob-Ket (Southern Sel’kup), Taz (Northern Sel’kup, Tazov-Baishyan), Tym (Kety). Dialect continuum with difficult or impossible intelligibility between extremes. Southern speakers separated geographically from others. Northern Selkup literature not usable by Southern and Central.
In Ratta and Purovskaya Tolka almost everybody knows Selkup, including children and other ethnicities. Northern dialect spoken by 90% of people, but not mastered by young adults and children. Southern dialect spoken by 30%; 10–15 adults, all over 70, speak fluently. Most children are monolingual Russian [rus] speakers (2007). Positive attitudes among Northern Selkups, neutral attitudes among Central and Southern Selkups. Russian [rus] also used for most key domains, except perhaps family.
Formerly lingua franca for Ket, Evenki, Nenets, and Khanty. Traditional religion.