Monitoring of the preservation and development of the state and official languages of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). Organization and conduct of linguistic and sociolinguistic expeditions to monitor the state of the Yakut language

In 2022, within the framework of the state program of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) “Preservation and development of state and official languages ​​in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) for 2020-2024”, approved by Decree of the Government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) No. 355 dated September 15, 2022, the project “Organization and conduct of linguistic and sociolinguistic expeditions to monitor the state of the Yakut language” is being implemented.

The responsible main manager of budgetary funds for this project of the state program of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) “Preservation and development of state and official languages ​​in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) for 2020-2024” is the Ministry for Foreign Relations and Affairs of the Peoples of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The responsible executor of the project is the Institute for Humanitarian Research and Problems of Indigenous Peoples of the North of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The Institute for Humanitarian Research and Problems of Indigenous Peoples of the North of the SB RAS is working on a scientific description of the language situation in the industrial regions of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), including the study of Yakut-Russian language contacts in a foreign language environment.

In the field of Dialectological Expeditions, a brief scientific review of dialectological sources was made. In the Manuscript Fund of the Archive of the Yakut National Archives a large array of archival documents on Suntarsky and Tattinsky regions was considered, and extracts (dialect words and expressions, data on expeditions of different years, etc.) were made. A brief scientific description of the specifics of the dialects of the Yakut language in the dialect zones of the Yakut language (Central, Vilyui) has been compiled.

From March 26 to April 04, 2022, in order to study the current state of the Suntar dialect, an expedition took place along the flowing route: Suntarsky, Zharkhansky, Mar-Kyuelsky, Toybokhoysky, Elgyaysky villages   of Suntarsky district.

On July 16-21, 2022, a trip to Tattinsky district was organized to study the oral speech of speakers of the Tattinsky dialect. Ytyk-Kyuelsky, Volbinsky, Ust-Tattinsky settlements of Tattinsky district was covered.

From April 6 to April 8, 2022, a dialectological expedition of linguists from the Institute for Humanitarian Studies and Problems of Indigenous Peoples of the North of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences to Ust-Aldan region took place.

On April 12-15 and September 13-16, 2022, linguistic expeditions were held to Amginsky district covering Amga, Abaga, Betyun, Chapchylgan villages and to Megino-Kangalassky district covering the following villages: Nizhny Bestyakh, Maya, Tekhtyur, Tyungyulu and Nuoragana.

In the field of “Toponymic research” in September 2022, a business trip was organized to Vilyuysky ulus along the route of the city of Vilyuysk, Lyokyochensky, Chochunsky, Chernyshevsky, Bappagainsky, Arylakhsky villages. The toponymic material containing the dialect features of the Yakut language has been collected.

The collected language material is currently being processed and analyzed. A scientific article by E.R. Nikolaev “Phonetic and semantic features of the Suntar dialect of the Yakut language was published.