Central Eurasian Language Grammars project/organising

<accesscontrol>CELG</accesscontrol> This page is here for organising thoughts for the Central Eurasian Language Grammars project.

So far, this includes ideas for organising the languages by volume (currently #Medium-density, #Low-density, #Critical, and #Extinct / Historic). Along with the languages in each section are UNESCO declarations about the relative endangerment of the language (including estimates of the number of speakers), and also ideas for who could write a chapter on the language.

There's also a few notes on #Size concerns.

Language Organisation

Languages are broken down by what volume they should occur in, and then genetic affiliation. Ideas for contributors are included with each language, as well as some info from UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

Medium-density

Turkic

• Kyrgyz
  • 3.5M speakers (estimate)
  • Who: Jonathan
• Kazakh
  • 12M speakers (estimate)
  • Who (last resort): Jonathan
• Qaraqalpaq
  • 0.5M speakers (estimate)
• Uzbek
  • 23.5M speakers (estimate)
• Uyghur
  • 10M speakers (estimate)
  • Who (ideas): Arienne Dwyer (recommended by Mahire Yakup (recommended by Eric Schluessel))
  • Who (other recommendations by Eric): "Reyhangul Abliz (Professor at Xinjiang Agricultural University, co-author of Uyghur: A manual for conversation and De Jong's grammar) rayhan10@hotmail.com, tell her I sent you; Abdurishit Yakup (in Germany, wrote an excellent grammar of Turpan Uyghur); Mahire Yakup (at University of Kansas, teaches Uyghur at SWSEEL, PhD student); Frederick de Jong (very, very senior professor at Utrecht, produced the above-mentioned learner's grammar of Uyghur with Reyhangul and others), frederick.dejong@let.uu.nl, again, tell him I sent you..."
• Tatar
  • 8M speakers (estimate)
• Bashqort
  • UNESCO: unsafe, 1,379,727 speakers (2002 census)
• Chuvash
  • UNESCO: unsafe, 1,325,382 speakers (2002 census)
• Turkmen
  • 9M speakers (estimate)
• Azeri
  • 31M speakers (estimate)
• Turkish
  • 63M speakers (estimate)
  • Who (ideas): Kornfilt?

Mongolic

• Khalkha
  • 2.6M speakers (estimate)
  • Who: Andrew

IE

• Tajik
  • 4.5M speakers (estimate)

Low-density

These are low density languages.

UNESCO rates most of these languages as unsafe or definitely endangered.

Turkic

• Tuvan
  • UNESCO: unsafe, 242,754 speakers (2002 census of the Russian Federation; much smaller numbers of speakers in China and Mongolia)
  • Who (ideas): Greg Anderson and/or David Harrison
• Southern Altay (Altay, Teleut (Telengut), Telengit) (Teleut on lingsib.iea.ras.ru)
  • UNESCO: definitely endangered, 50,000 speakers (estimate based on the 2002 census of the Russian Federation; 65,534 speakers of Altay languages collectively, which may be a slightly inflated figure)
• Khakas (Kacha, Sagay, Kyzyl, Koibal, Beltir, Shor)
  • UNESCO: definitely endangered, 52,217 speakers (2002 census)
• Noghay
  • UNESCO: definitely endangered, 90,020 speakers (2002 census; perhaps slightly inflated)
• Kumyk
  • UNESCO: unsafe, 458,121 speakers (2002 census)
• Dolgan
  • UNESCO: definitely endangered, 4,865 speakers (2002 census)
• Sakha
  • UNESCO: unsafe, 456,288 speakers (2002 census)
  • Who (ideas): Nyurguyana Petrova (petrova3@buffalo.edu, native speaker and linguistics student, friend of / recommended by Chris Straughn (U Chicago))
• Karachay-Balkar
  • UNESCO: unsafe, 302,748 speakers (2002 census)
• Salar
  • UNESCO: unsafe, 104,503 speakers (population figure from the 2000 census; the active speakers are much fewer, but no estimate is available; cf. Dwyer 2001)
  • Who (ideas): Arienne Dwyer (recommended by Mahire Yakup—see above for Uyghur)
• Qırımtatar
  • Wikipedia estimates about 400,000 total speakers based on its sources

Mongolic

• Oyrat
  • UNESCO: definitely endangered, 280,000 speakers (estimate based on Birtalan 2003: approximately 150,000 speakers in Mongolia and less than 130,000 in northern Sinkiang, which represent the numerically most significant groups)
• Buryat (Cis-Baikal)
  • UNESCO: definitely endangered, 50,000 speakers (estimate based on various sources covering both China and Mongolia; according to Skribnik 2003: 102 there are at least 100,000 ethnic Buryat in the region, but “the general trend is that Buryat is being abandoned in favour of more dominant languages”)
• Buryat (Trans-Baikal)
  • UNESCO: definitely endangered, 300,000 speakers (estimate for Trans-Baikal Buryat based on the 2002 census: 368,807 speakers of Buryat altogether, which includes a number of Mongolian speakers; cf. Buryat (Cis-Baikal) and Buryat (Manchuria))
• Kalmyk
  • UNESCO: definitely endangered, 153,602 speakers (2002 census)
• Daur (Nonni)
  • UNESCO: definitely endangered, 100,000 speakers (estimate based on Tsumagari 2003)
• Ordos
  • UNESCO: definitely endangered, 100,000 speakers (2003 Georg estimate)

Tungusic

• Xibe (maybe should be in #Critical?)
  • UNESCO: severly endangered, 27,000 (population figure based on the 2000 census; not all are active speakers)

IE

• Yaghnobi
  • UNESCO: definitely endangered, 20,000 speakers (The estimate is based on 2001 official census)
• Wakhi
  • UNESCO: definitely endangered, 75,000 speakers (The figure is relatively accurate and is based on approximate estimate of the speakers in the borders of four countries: Badakhshan region in Tajikistan, Badakhshan Province in Afghanistan, Northern Pakistan and Tashkurghan disctrict of Xinjiang Prov)
• Ossetic (maybe #Medium-density?)
  • UNESCO: unsafe, 550,000 speakers (estimate based on the 493,610 speakers reported in the 2002 census of the Russian Federation; also spoken in South Ossetia)

Other

• Dungan
  • UNESCO: definitely endangered, 41,000 speakers (2001 census)

Critical

These are moribund and maybe recently dead languages.

Many are classified by UNESCO as severely endangered, critically endangered, or extinct.

Turkic

• Fu-yü Ğırgıs ("Manchurian Kirgiz")
  • UNESCO: critically endangered, 5 speakers (estimate based on various sources reporting less than 10 speakers)
• Khotong
• Ili Turk
  • UNESCO: severely endangered, 120 speakers (1980 R. F. Hahn for the Ethnologue)
• Dukha
  • UNESCO: severely endangered, 200 speakers (compromise figure based on various sources)
• Northern Altay (Tuba, Qumandı, Chalkan/Lebedin/Kuu)) (Qumandı on lingsib.iea.ras.ru, Chalkan on lingsib.iea.ras.ru)
  • UNESCO: severely endangered, speaker data unavailable (not know exactly, but in the range of a few thousand; the 2002 census figures for Tuba [436], Kumandy [1044] and Chalkan [539] are presumably too low, because some speakers may have registered as (Southern) Altay speakers)
• Shor (Shor on lingsib.iea.ras.ru)
  • UNESCO: severly endangered, 6,210 speakers (2002 census)
• Tofa/Karagas (Tofalar/Karagas on lingsib.iea.ras.ru)
  • UNESCO: critically endangered, 40 speakers (specialist estimate; the census figure 378 is inflated)
  • Who (ideas): David Harrison and/or Greg Anderson ??
• Soyot (Soyot on lingsib.iea.ras.ru)
  • UNESCO: extinct, 0 seakers (became extinct in the second half of the twentieth century)
• Chulym (Chulym on lingsib.iea.ras.ru) = Middle Chulym?
  • UNESCO: critically endangered, 35 speakers (specialist estimate)
  • Who (ideas): David Harrison and/or Greg Anderson
• Karagash (a "Tatar"/"Noghay" dialect)
  • UNESCO: definitely endangered, 7,000 speakers (current estimate; not listed separately in the census)
• "Yurt Tatar"
  • UNESCO: definitely endangered, 12,000 speakers (2005 Арсланов)
• Alabugat Tatar ("outlying dialect of Nogay")
  • UNESCO: definitely endangered, 422 speakers (1987 figure in Арсланов 1988)
• Urum
  • UNESCO: definitely endangered, data unavailable
• Trukhmen ("Caucasian Turkmen")
  • UNESCO: definitely endangered, 10,000 speakers (estimate based on the 2002 census)
• Kamas Turk (an extinct outlying dialect of Khakas spoken by the last speakers of Kamas (Samoyed))
  • UNESCO: extinct, 0 speakers (recently extinct)
• Saryg/Western Yugur
  • UNESCO: severly endangered, 4,600 speakers (2000 census)

Mongolic

• Khövsgöl Uryangkhay
  • UNESCO: critically endangered, 10 speakers (specialist estimate)
• Khamnigan Mongol
  • UNESCO: definitely endangered, 2,000 speakers (2003 Janhunen estimate)
• Daur (Hailar)
  • UNESCO: definitely endangered, 5,000 speakers (estimate based on Tsumagari 2003)
• Daur (Amur)
  • UNESCO: critically endangered (overall vitality: definitely endangered), 400 speakers (2003 Tsumagari estimate)
• Manchurian Ölöt
  • UNESCO: severely endangered, 1,000 speakers (rough estimate)
• Eastern/Shira Yugur
  • UNESCO: severely endangered, 3,000 speakers (based on Junast 1981 estimate of one third of the (then) total population of 9,000 Yugur speaking Shira Yugur)

Tungusic

• Ongkor Solon
  • UNESCO: extinct, 0 speakers (the last fluent speaker died in the 1990s; there may still be a few people who know some isolated phrases or words)
• Evenki
  • UNESCO: severely endangered, 7,584 speakers (2002 census of the Russian Federation for Evenki; cf. Evenki (Northern Siberia) and Evenki (Sakhalin); possibly also a small number of speakers in Mongolia)
• Evenki (Manchuria)
  • UNESCO: severely endangered, 4,000 speakers (estimate based on Chinese census figures and other sources; includes all speakers in the official Oroqen nationality as well as under 1,000 speakers of the Manchurian Reindeer Tungus dialect and the approximately 1,000 Evenki-speaking Khamnigan)
• Solon
  • UNESCO: definitely endangered, 10,000 speakers (estimate based on the 2000 census and other sources)
• Manchu (Amur)
  • UNESCO: critically endangered, 10 speakers (compromise figure based on various sources)

Uralic

• Kamas/Koibal (Samoyedic)
  • UNESCO: extinct, 0 speakers (the last speaker, Klavdia Plotnikova, died in 1989)

IE

• Yazgulami
  • UNESCO: severely endangered, 6,000 speakers (Official statistics, 2003)
• Ishkashimi
  • UNESCO: severely endangered, 1,000 speakers (Approximate estimate, 2006)

Extinct / Historic

Most of these won't be able to have full grammars written on them, and many won't be able to have more than "present level of knowledge about the language" written. Maybe this volume should be of a slightly different nature.

Turkic

• Orkhon/Yenisei
• Old Kirgiz?
• Old Uyghur
• Karakhanid
• Bulgar
• Khazar
• Cuman
• Chaghatay
• Old Tatar

Mongol-Xianbeic

• Classical Mongolian
• Kitan
• Tabgach
• Middle Mongol

IE

• Scythian
• Sogdian
• Bactrian

Size concerns

A decent-quality bare-bones grammar of a medium-density language would be a minimum of about 20 pages, and a more full grammar might be as much as 50 pages. This allows for a maximum of 10-20 languages per volume before a volume starts to get too big. On the level of the volume, do we stress quantity of languages, or quality of grammars (probably the former, but we do want to fit everything)? On the level of the individual language/grammar, we probably stress quality over size? These are things which need to be discussed.