YAKUT (Russia, Asia)

Family
Siberian-Turkish

Country
Russia, Asia

Language code
UKT

Continent
Asia

Alternate language names
SAKHA

Genetic affiliation
Altaic, Turkic, Northern

Geographical region
Yakutia, near the Arctic Ocean, nearly the entire length of the basin of the middle Lena River and the Aldan and Kolyma rivers; 2,000 miles long. Jakutsk is the capital

Population
311,600 mother tongue speakers (95%) out of an ethnic population of 328,000 (1979 census)

Bilingual in
Russian

Printings of whole books of Bible
1858-1898

Remarks
Has status as a literary language. Cyrillic script. Yakut is preferred by most speakers for most purposes. It is used as second language by some Evenki, Even, and Yukaghir people. A town koine has developed in Jakutsk, which older speakers reject. Speakers are bilingual in Russian. Russian is used in higher education. Grammar

Subsistence type
Nomadic, fishermen, hunters

Grammars
Boehtlink, Otto, Veber die yakutischen Sprache

Total speakers
311,600

Religion
Traditional religion, Christian: Russian Orthodox