The Ulch language: current state and research prospects

The paper discusses the current linguistic situation of the Ulchs, a minor ethnic group occupying a small area in the Far East region of the Russian Federation. After several decades of gradual decline, the indigenous Ulch language has reached the point of near extinction. The presented statistical data shows that the number of native speakers has decreased dramatically since the beginning of the 21st century (from 732 down to 154 countrywide). The author suggests several factors that contributed heavily to the erosion of the language. The primary one is the lack of a written form up until late 20th century, which both stunted its development as a communication tool and hindered the process of passing down cultural knowledge and linguistic skills. Failing to cover a required range of registers, the Ulch language was eventually relegated to the language of informal social interactions, typically among family members, with Russian performing the rest of linguistic functions. As the government and community groups are growing aware of the Ulch linguistic situation and engaging in efforts to make the indigenous language more prominent, reversing the shift is still possible. Including Ulch into the curriculums of junior and middle schools has allowed the younger generation to achieve a certain degree of oral competence. Social activities are being organized for adult speakers to encourage the use of language in a wider range of contexts. However, the process of language documentation, essential for revitalization, is revealed to still be in the beginning stages. The author presents an overview of all linguistic studies dedicated to the Ulch language and concludes that only a general framework of the system has been traced. Until mid-twentieth century the researchers mostly focused on collecting and processing the language material, offering only standalone observations related to the linguistic features. T.I. Petrova and later O.P. Sunik provided more detailed accounts of the Ulch phonetics, grammar and lexis, but both works only present a broad strokes description of the language that can’t be considered comprehensive. Creating a full record of the Ulch grammar, vocabulary and syntax appears to be the primary task that needs to be undertaken in order to make the recovery a more likely outcome.