The Ulchi Language

I. Sociolinguistic data

Language name

Language name: Ulchi (ulcha, olcha). Linguistic endonym: nan’i kheseni /nāńị xəsəni/ (literally “the Nani’s language”). English names: Ulcha, Olcha, Ulch, Ulchi. International codes: iso-code ulc, glottocode: ulch1241

Ethnonyms: the Ulchi, the Olchi, Manguns (“people of the Amur”), endonym — nan’i (literally “people of the land”).

In the first half of the 20 ^th century, Ulchi was viewed as a Nanai dialect (the Ulchi dialect).

1. General characteristics

Total number of speakers and of the corresponding ethnic group

Number of speakers: 506 persons (about 20% of the ethnic group). Source: people who indicated command of the language in the 2020 Census.

Numbers of the ethnic group (per the 2020 Census): 2,481 persons

Age of speakers .

Use of Ulchi is limited to the older generations .

Apparently, younger generations no longer have people fluent in the language, although there are those who could be qualified as “rememberers“: those who heard the language in childhood, remember individual words / phrases, understand the Ulchi speech to some degree and can even keep up a simple dialog. School students who are taught Ulchi have a limited command of it, rather as a foreign language.

2. Sociolinguistic characteristics

General characteristics

The language is not passed to children, has few speakers (between 50 per latest expeditions and 150 per the 2010 Census) in the older generation (born in the 1950s and earlier). All speakers are fluent in Russian and today, use Russian more actively than Ulchi in all fields. Few speakers use Ulchi, along with Russian, in family communication, primarily in the village of Bulava. In some ethnic villages, Ulchi is taught in schools. There are some Ulchi song groups. A page in a district newspaper is published in Ulchi.

Vitality status

Vitality status: 2A–1В. The status of Ulchi in the village of Bulava, its principal locus with the highest number of speakers, may be described “ interrupted .” Transmission between generations has been interrupted, one could cautiously speak about regular communication in individual families, but it is very limited.

In other sites (each has only few speakers), the language’s status is rather “dormant” (1В). Last speakers remember the language, some are fluent, but there is no regular communication in Ulchi.

EGIDS status: 8b Nearly Extinct. Status in the UNESCO Atlas: Critically Endangered.

Use in different fields

At the moment, Ulchi functions in very few fields, even though the community looks upon it positively or neutrally. Its principal function might be said to be symbolic: it is the function of supporting cultural and ethnic identity. As a language of family communication , it is fairly consistently used in individual families (speakers born in the 1930s). Younger speakers can keep up very short conversations in Ulchi or intermittently insert individual Ulchi words and phrases into Russian when communicating in the family, with their neighbors or friends. It is relevant primarily for communication with some oldest and most respected members of the community. In ethnic villages (particularly in Bulava), people can greet each other in Ulchi in the street or in shops, but use of the language rarely goes beyond etiquette formulas. The same applies to the use of Ulchi in traditional occupations . Individual Ulchi words are used in hunting, fishing, gathering berries and herbs, especially to refer to specific items. Spontaneous communication in Ulchi in such situations is limited to episodic phrases.

The Ulchi language in religion. Use in worship was an important function of Ulchi, it was the language of shamanic practices. At the moment, as far as we know, there are no recognized Ulchi shamans. The last Ulchi shaman Indyaka Dyaksul (the village of Mongol) died in 2007. According to her niece who was the shaman’s assistant, Indyaka was fluent in Russian and used it actively, but in the last years of her life, having discovered her shamanic abilities, she completely switched to Ulchi in her ritual practices. When people with little or no Ulchi came to her, her niece translated the shaman’s words to the visitors. Today, some Ulchi are Orthodox Christians, few are Baptists. Ulchi is not used in Christian practices in any way. Unlike the related Nanai language, Biblical texts have never been translated into Ulchi.

The Ulchi language in education . It is not used as a language of instruction. It is taught as a subject primarily in elementary school. Since Ulchi is not passed down in families, children generally learn it as a foreign language. It is taught as a mandatory or elective course in elementary schools in the villages of Bulava, Ukhta, Kalinovka, Savinskoe, Solontsy. In middle school (grades 5-6), it is taught as an elective in Bulava. Bulava also has a kindergarten that teaches Ulchi.

The Ulchi language in the media . There is a regularly published page in Ulchi (“ Nani khesedin nyuruvkhe bitkhe ”) in the Amursky Mayak ( Amur Beacon ) (the village of Bogorodskoe). Until recently, the page was written primarily by Valentina A. Sidorova. Until the 1990s, the district radio station had offered regular radio broadcasts in Ulchi (the village of Bogorodskoe).

The Ulchi language on the internet . Ulchi is not a major presence on the internet (see the data in the Languages of Russia project at the Higher School of Economics National Research University: http://web-corpora.net/wsgi3/minorlangs/view/ulc ). There are Ulchi communities on the internet: “The Nanai and the Ulchi” in VK, the “Ulchi Spirit” community on Instagram. Those few Ulchi speakers who use social media and messengers can insert individual Ulchi words and phrases into their messages. As far as we know, the Ulchi chat bot that Sberbank has recently developed has not prompted great interest in the community. At the same time, the Ulchi community is aware of the efforts to spearhead internet communication in the related Nanai language (work of the language activist Vasily S. Kharitonov), and some of the speakers appear to be interested.

The Ulchi language in culture . Principal associations supporting Ulchi culture and, to some degree, the Ulchi language, include Ulchi dance and song ensembles Giva and Diro (the village of Bulava), the Ethnic Culture Center in Bulava that hosts club meetings and offers master classes on traditional arts and crafts, the Extracurricular Activities Center in the village of Bogorodskoe that has an Ulchi language and culture club. Schools in villages of the Ulchi district mount plays, engage in declamation, prepare essays in Ulchi (they are presented at various events and at district and regional competitions).

The Ulchi language in literature . There is literature in Ulchi: prose, poetry, songs. It is not particularly extensive, but it is well-known and of much interest for the language community. Authors who wrote or write in Ulchi: Alexey L. Valdyu (1915-1994, prose), Prokopy V. Lonki (1926-1991, prose), Alexander Dyatala (1933-1977, artist and poet), Gennady Angin (1958-2012, poetry), Pyotr L. Dechuli (1917-1988, songs), Lilia P. Dechuli (b. 1939, songs), Marina N. Kilta (b. 1957, poetry). The case of the poet Marina N. Kilta: she writes and publishes poetry in Russian and in Ulchi translations. Her poetry is translated into Ulchi by the recently deceased mother of the poet V.P. Dechuli.

Information on the writing system (if applicable)

School education uses the writing system developed in the late 1980s by Lidia I. Sem ( Primer , 1992). Previously, the Ulchi used the Nanai writing system and Nanai textbooks. Ulchi teachers debate possible orthographic changes such as using the letter “Ы” (y) for [i] after hard dental consonants (currently it is used only in Russian borrowings).

The current orthography is not used consistently beyond schoolbooks. The Ulchi Page of the Amursky Mayak newspaper and works of literature use different author-specific versions of Ulchi orthography. In everyday life, speakers also use /used their own versions.

3. Geographical characteristics

Ulchi is spoken in the Ulchi district of the Khabarovsk territory. Today, most speakers live in the village of Bulava. Other villages that emerged on the site of erstwhile Ulchi camping areas that are home mostly the Ulchi and with a few speakers of Ulchi: Dudi, Kolchem (and the adjacent Russian Solontsy), Mongol (and the adjacent Russian village of Savinskoe), Dudi, Ukhta, Kalinovka, Mariinskoe. A few speakers moved from various locations to the district center, the village of Bogorodskoe, and to the cities of Khabarovsk, Nikolaevsk-on-Amur, Komsomolsk-on-Amur.

Constituent entities of the Russian Federation with ethnic communities .

Khabarovsk territory (primarily the Ulchi district).

Total number of traditional ethnic settlements. - 9: Bulava, Bogorodskoe, Dudi, Kolchem (and the adjacent Russian village of Solontsy), Mongol (and the adjacent Russian village of Savinskoe), Dudi, Ukhta, Kalinovka, Mariinskoe.

4. Historical dynamics

The number of speakers has been declining inexorably throughout the 20 ^th century.

Censuses data, Table 5, including the column “Speakers as % of ethnic group” give an approximate idea of historical dynamics. However, one should take into account different data collection methodologies in different Censuses (see the column “Notes”). In particular, the great discrepancy between the data for 2002 and 2010 is, most likely, not indicative and emerged from different methods of collecting data.

Table. Number of speakers and the corresponding ethnic group per various Censuses (starting in 1897)

II. Linguistic data

1. Position in the genealogy of world languages

Altaic languages > Tungus Manchu languages > Southern group

Previously considered to be a dialect of Nanai.

2. Dialects

There are no clearly identifiable dialects. There are two similar subdialects: the Right-Coast and Left-Coast (Lake) subdialects with insignificant phonetic, morphological, and lexical differences.

The Left-Coast (Lake) subdialect is used / was used in several villages around Lake Udyl (Kolchem, Dudi, Ukhta, and several camping areas that have since disappeared), today, several main speakers live in the district center, in the village of Bogorodskoe.

The Right-Coast subdialect is used in other villages of the Ulchi district, primarily in the village of Bulava.

As of today, the Right-Coast subdialect is better represented than the Left-Coast one.

Ulchi is very similar to Nanai, and for a long time it had been seen as a Nanai dialect. It is possible that earlier, Ulchi subdialects constituted a continuum of dialects with one pole being very close to the “Lower Reaches” subdialects of Nanai (the villages of Belgo, Nizhnie Khalby). Closest to the Nanai is probably the Ulchi language variant in the villages of Kalinovka, Mariinskoe (it has virtually no living speakers now).

3. Brief history of studying the language

In 1854–1856, Leopold Shrenk’s expedition studied the Ulchi among other Amur peoples and, in particular, collected information on lexis (see [Grube 1900]). In the 1890s—1900s, Bronisław Piłsudski sketchily documented Ulchi along with other Tungus-Manchu languages; Piłsudski compiled a small dictionary and recorded a few short texts (published in [Majewicz 2011 (ed.)]). In 1906–1907, Karl Loginovsky worked with the Ulchi as part of his folklore ethnographic expedition; he also collected lexical information [1908]. In 1908, Pyotr Shmidt did field work with Ulchi; in 1923, he published an Ulchi dictionary with three short texts and a four-page essay. In the late 1920s—1930s, Taisia I. Petrova worked with Ulchi: her data were collected primarily in Leningrad from Ulchi students at Herzen Institute for Peoples of the North. In 1936, Petrova published materials on Ulchi (she called it “the Ulchi dialect of Nanai”), including a dictionary, 11 texts, and the first, fairly short, but rather detailed description of Ulchi grammar. In 1948, Valentin A. Avrorin briefly did fieldwork in the Ulchi district: he recorded 7 texts (published in [Avrorin 1981]). In the 1960s, Orest P. Sunik actively studied Ulchi. In 1985, he published materials on Ulchi: a dictionary, 19 texts, a grammar description, and a bit later he also published an Ulchi-Russian and Russian-Ulchi dictionary. In the 1970s, Lidia I. Sem and Yuri A. Sem did audiorecordings of the Ulchi speech (kept at the archive of the Institute of Linguistics of the RAS). In the 1990s—2000s, Shinjiro Kazama worked in the Ulchi district; he published several collections of texts [2002; 2006; 2008; 2010] and appended an outline of Ulchi grammar (in Japanese) to one of the collections. In the 2000s, E. Kalinina, Valentin Yu. Gusev, Svetlana Yu. Toldova, and Nina R. Sumbatova conducted several expeditions to the Ulchi district; they recorded and transcribed a large collection of texts; see also a sociological overview [Sumbatova, Gusev 2016]. In the early 2000s, Anna N. Gerasimova also studied Ulchi and compared polypredicative constructions in Nanai and in Ulchi; see her thesis [Gerasimova 2007]; she also authored an article with a sociolinguistic overview of Nanai and Ulchi [2002]. Igor V. Kormushin also wrote overview articles on Ulchi [2002; 2005]. In the 2010s, Albina Kh. Girfanova recorded a sound dictionary of Ulchi (later worked on by Mark M. Zimin). In 2017–2020, Natalya V. Stoynova, Sofia A. Oskolskaya, and Anna S. Smetina organized several expeditions to the Ulchi district; they recorded and transcribed a collection of texts, collected grammar materials, and published several articles on Ulchi grammar. Today, Mark M. Zimin (phonetics, morphology) and Victoria A. Gorbunova (lexicography, word formation) work with Ulchi.

4. Principal linguistic information (phonetics, grammar, vocabulary)

Principal linguistic information (grammar)

Like other Tungus-Manchu languages, Ulchi is an agglutinative tongue with a developed derivational and inflectional morphology. Morphonological processes at morphemic boundaries are few. No tendency for cumulative expression of grammatical meanings with the exception of person-number. For instance, case and number are expressed separately. Only suffixes serve as inflectional and derivational affixes. Words have fixed order of inflectional suffixes; order of derivational suffixes is not as rigidly fixed; the morphological system can be described in terms of inflectional and derivational slots.

Sumbatova N.R., Gusev V.Yu., “The Ulchi Language” // Mikhalchenko V.Yu. (ed.) Language and Society. Encyclopedia . Moscow: Azbukovnik Press, 2016. С. 513–515. (in Russian)

Gerasimova A.N. Polypredicative Constructions in Nanai Compared to Ulchi . PhD thesis. Novosibirsk, , 2007. (in Russian)

Kormushin I.V. “The Ulchi Language” // Languages of the Russian Federation and Neighboring States: Encyclopedia in 3 vols. / Editorial board: V.A. Vinogradov, E.R. Tenishev, V.M. Solntsev, A.M. Shakhnarovich, E.A. Potseluevskiy, G.A. Davydova. Institute of Linguistics of the RAS. Moscow: Nauka Press, 2005. P. 246–254. (in Russian)

Kormushin I.V. “The Ulchi Language” // Languages of the Russian Federation: The Red Books . V.P. Neroznak, ed. Мoscow: Academia Press, 2002. P. 207–211. (in Russian)

Gerasimova A.N. “Nanai and Ulchi in Russia; Comparative Characteristic of the Sociolinguistic Situation” // Languages of Indigenous Peoples of Siberia , 12, 2002. P. 246–257. (in Russian)

Avrorin V.A. “Ulchi Texts. Materials for Research in Grammar and Ethnography.” // Noun Morphology in Siberian Languages . Nivosibirsk, 1981. (7 texts recorded in 1948) (in Russian)

Loginovsky K.D. “About the Expedition” // Notes of the Society for Studying the Amur Area . Vladivostok, 1908. Vol. XII. P. 29–33. (including materials for dictionary, expedition of 1906–1907) (in Russian)

Kazama Sh. Ulcha oral literature, a collection of texts. Tottoro, 1996. [In Japanese]

Kazama Sh. Ulcha oral literature 2. (Publications on Tungus Languages and Cultures, 20.) Osaka: ELPR, 2002.

Kazama Sh. Ulcha oral literature 3. (Publications on Tungus Languages and Cultures, 30.) Tokyo: Graduate School of Letters, Hokkaido University, 2006.

Kazama Sh. Ulcha oral literature 4. (Publications on Tungus Languages and Cultures, 43.) Tokyo: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 2008.

Kazama Sh. Ulcha oral literature 5. (Publications on Tungus Languages and Cultures, 49.) Tokyo: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 2010. (grammar outline in Japanese appended)

Grube W. Goldish-Deutches Wörterverzeichniss, mit vergleichender Berücksichtigung der űbrigen tungusischen Dialekte. Reisen und Forschungen im Amur Lande von Schrenck. Petersburg, 1900.

Lopatin I.A. Material on the Orochee Language, the Goldi (Nanai) Language, and the Olchi (Nani) Language. Posieux/Fribourg: Anthropos Institute, 1957.

Majewicz A. (ed.) Materials for the study of Tungusic languages and folklore. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2011. P. 749–974. (dictionary of about 1,500 words, three texts, and riddles)