The Languages and Peoples of Russia
The Disappearance of a Wealth
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
In Russia, over 120 other languages from 11 language families are spoken alongside the state language, Russian. However, the majority of these languages are endangered or moribund. Even languages spoken by tens of thousands of people are being displaced by Russian and other major languages. Only a few languages, such as Tatar, Chechen, and Bashkir, are stable. With the extinction of each language, humanity loses part of its cultural heritage, which is preserved in stories, verses, epics, and creation myths that for the most part have been passed down orally. Specific ways of talking about the world and human experience are disappearing. This current linguistic overview gives an impression of the diversity of the Russian world of languages, but also of the dimension of the loss.
(Osteuropa 1-3/2024, pp. 65–122)