The Content of the Concept of "Native Language" in the Linguistic Picture of the World of Modern Dolgans of the Khatango-Anabar Region (Sociopsycholinguistic Aspect)

The Arctic Khatango-Anabar region is located in the Taimyr-Yakut borderland – on the territory of the Anabar and Oleneksky uluses of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and the Taimyr municipal District of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and in this study is considered as an integral historical and cultural space with a unique experience of interethnic interaction, economic and cultural adaptive practices ^[10]. Of particular interest is the ethno-cultural landscape of this region, including the ethno- and linguistic cultures of Dolgans, Evenks, Evens, Nganasans, Ents, Nenets, characterized by the influence of long-term ethno-cultural contacts on the development of languages and culture of the indigenous population.

The population of the Anabar national (Dolgan-Evenki) ulus lives in two localities: in the district center of Saskylakh and in the village of Yuryung-Khaya, where, according to the data of the settlement administrations as of April 2022, 2,438 people and 1,159 people live. accordingly. In general, 42.4% of Dolgans, 22.7% of Evenks, 21.6% of Sakha, 6.4% of Evens were registered in the ulus. The uniqueness of the village of Yuryung-Hai, founded in 1930 as part of the settlement of nomadic indigenous inhabitants of the region, is that it is currently the only place of compact residence of Dolgans in Yakutia and the only significant settlement of Dolgans outside the Krasnoyarsk Territory. According to the Administration of the Taimyr municipal district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the population as of April 01, 2022 in the village of Khatanga is 2608, in the village of Popigai – 288 people.

The main source was the field materials of 2020-2022, including a questionnaire survey, interviews, observation results and information from local administrations. When determining the sample set of the survey, an equal number of observation units or a disproportionate stratification sample was selected ^{[9, p.15]}. The size of the sample totaled 400 respondents, in each of the settlements that are the place of compact residence of Dolgan - the village of Saskylakh, the village of Yuryung-Khaya (Anabar national (Dolgan-Evenki) district of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)), the village of Khatanga and the village of Popigai (Taimyr Dolgan-Nenets municipal district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory), 100 respondents took part in the survey.

According to the sample, 51.2% of Dolgans, 23.4% of Sakha, 14.9% of Evenks, 6.5% of Evens took part in the study in Anabar ulus. 2.5% of respondents indicated another nationality (Tuvinka, international, mixed, KMNS, Dolgan+Sakha). The ethnic composition of respondents who took part in the survey in the Taimyr municipal district is represented by 85.5% Dolgans, 9.5% Russians, 0.5% Evens, 0.5% Sakha; 3.5% of respondents indicated a different nationality (Nganasan, Ukrainian, Mestizo, Buryat), one (0.5%) did not answer this question (Dolgan mother, Nenets father). According to the study, 29 people (14.5% of respondents) had a bi–ethnic identity (were born in interethnic families), of which 17 Dolgans chose the corresponding nationality of the mother in a situation of choosing a nationality; 1 - the nationality of the father.

A comparative analysis of the survey results in Yakutia and Taimyr revealed a difference in the main markers of ethnic identity: the majority of respondents in Anabar ulus believe that the choice of nationality is determined by: firstly, culture and traditions (60.2%), secondly, native language (26.9%), thirdly, history and territory (10.4%); in the Taimyr Dolgan-Nenets Municipal District, respondents chose their native language as the most important ethnoidentifier (58.7%), followed by culture and traditions (27.4%), history and territory (12.2%) (Fig.2.).

Fig.2. Distribution of answers to the question "What determines your nationality first of all", Anabar (2020), Khatanga (2021), in %

This discrepancy can be explained by the processes of transformation of the ethnic and cultural consciousness of the Dolgans, namely, the partial loss of linguistic competence, excluding the native language from the number of universal ethnointegrators and compensated by other components and symbols of ethnic continuity, which is characteristic of other peoples ^[11].

The results of the study in the Khatango-Anabar region are confirmed by the results of a sociological study conducted in 2021. The Institute of Humanitarian Studies and Problems of the Indigenous Peoples of the North SB RAS within the framework of the project "Resources of identity, language and Culture of the indigenous peoples of the North of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia): the current state, local and global context of transformations". More than half of the respondents from among the indigenous peoples of the North (54.4%) agreed with the opinion that a modern person can consider himself a representative of the CIS, even if he does not know his native language, 25.7% found it difficult to answer this question. "The language of the KMNS today is becoming a secondary factor of their identity, and in practice there is a reduction in the speakers of the language of the peoples belonging to the minority in Russia" ^{[6, p. 34]}. According to the study, the ethnosocial stability of the representatives of the KMNS of Yakutia is due to a whole complex of factors, the most important of which are culture, customs and traditions, native land and nature.

The question of the native language is a complex indicator of ethno-national identity, which does not always correspond unambiguously to the real language situation and language behavior. The sign “I consider my native language” is often considered by researchers as identical to the sign “I speak this language as the first/ main one". But this does not always correspond to reality, since people who consider the language of their nationality as their native language do not always speak it. The linguistic component of an individual's ethno-national identity is characterized by a complex hierarchy of emotional and evaluative attitudes towards the language of the ethnos with which the individual identifies himself. Representatives of small-numbered peoples seek to position their ethno-national identity in terms of language competence, declaring proficiency in the language of their ethnic group, although the actual language behavior does not correspond to the proper level of language competence in this language.

This is proved by the results of the survey: 96.7% of Evenks, 71.8% of Dolgans, 92.3% of Evens in the Anabar district indicated Yakut as their native language, which is 83.1% of all respondents. It should be noted here that respondents indicated not one, but two and sometimes even three languages as their native language. The absolute majority of respondents also named Yakut as the language in which communication mainly takes place at home (94.5%). The Yakut language is most often used in communication in the forest, taiga (50.3%), in their locality (69.7%), in the district center (54.2%), in the city of Yakutsk (49.8%).

A feature of the linguistic situation in the Anabar district is the fact that the Dolgan language (Dulgaan of the rear, Haka of the rear, Dolgan-haka of the rear) belongs to the Yakut subgroup of the Uighur-Oguz group of Turkic languages of the Altai linguistic community, "formed in the process of spreading the Yakut language in the macroregion of interaction of various ethnic groups" ^{[1, p. 2]}. In a number of studies, the Dolgan language was considered as a dialect of the Yakut language, "for administrative and ethnopolitical reasons, as well as due to the strong influence of the Evenk language (in the western regions - Nenets influence), which is considered a separate language" ^{[2, p. 52]}. According to the researchers, the vocabulary of the Dolgan language "reflects the processes that took place in the environment of the cohabitation of Evenks, Yakuts, Russians and led to the formation of a new ethnic group. The three main ethnic groups that formed the core of the Dolgan ethnos each contributed to the general vocabulary of the modern Dolgan language" ^{[8, p.100]}. In the processes of interaction and mutual influence, the related Yakut language, which has the status of the state language of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is the dominant language, predetermining the processes of language shift. Therefore, within the framework of this study, it was important for us to determine and compare the status and spheres of use of the Dolgan language among the representatives of the Dolgans of Yakutia and Taimyr.

According to the research in Anabar district, Dolgan is spoken fluently (11.4%), spoken language (18.9%), knows individual words and phrases (26.9%), does not speak it (14.4%), 28.4% found it difficult to answer this question. Native languages are more often spoken at home (80.6%), at work (54.7%), at school (26.9%), in clubs, shops (30.4%), in the forest, taiga (18.9%). Among other answers to the question "Where do you usually communicate in your native language?" were named "everywhere" (9 mentions), "when there were parents", "rarely with relatives", "when as" and "nowhere".

The Dolgan language is most often used in communication in the forest, taiga (6%), in their locality (6%), it is practically not used in the district center and in the capital of the region, the city of Yakutsk. At the same time, the Yakut language has great communicative power in all socio-territorial environments, as the main language of communication it is used both in its locality (60.2%), and in the district center (39.8%), and in the forest, taiga (42.8%), as well as in the city of Yakutsk (20.9%) (table 1).

Table 1.

Socio-territorial environment of language use: Dolgan, Russian, Yakut (Anabar district of the RS(Ya) and Taimyr district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory, 2020,2021 (%)

In the Taimyr Dolgan-Nenets Municipal District, the absolute majority of Dolgans indicated the Dolgan language as their native language (94.7%.) According to our research, they speak the Dolgan language fluently (58.5%), spoken language (12.5%), know individual words and phrases (15%), do not speak it (2%), 12% found it difficult to answer this question.

The Dolgan language is most often used in communication in the forest, taiga (36.5%), in their locality (48%), less often in the district center (12%), in the capital of the region, the city of Krasnoyarsk (3.5%). Russian is used in communication, respectively, more often in the capital of the region, the city of Krasnoyarsk (51.5%), in the district center (39%), in their locality (20%), in the forest, taiga (19.5%). For greater reliability, this question was open in structure – respondents were asked to enter the language(s) themselves in an open line, rather than choose from the proposed answers, so there were options for specifying two languages at the same time (Table 1), which indicates the widespread functional bilingualism of Dolgan Taimyr.

One–dimensional distributions of answers to the question about the language of communication confirm the fact of the predominant use of two languages - Dolgan and Russian. Dolgan language is more often used in communication with older relatives – grandparents (63.5%), parents (61%), friends (56%), spouses (35%).

To the question "Where do you usually communicate in your native language?" (Fig.2.), the answers were distributed as follows: at home, in the family (34.9%), at work (20%), at school (10.9%), in a club, shops (14.7%), in the forest, taiga, tundra (14.1%), 2.2% of all respondents did not answer. In addition, "everywhere" (12 mentions) was marked as another option (4.2%).

The results of the directed associative experiment also confirm the use of two languages. The subjects were asked to answer the question: "What is a "native language"?". In total, 400 people were interviewed, the population of the Dolgan settlements: ss. Syndassko, Popigai of the Khatanga district of the Krasnoyarsk Territory and ss. Yuryung Khaya, Saskylakh of the Anabar district of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The requirement for the subjects: age over 17 years. Installation: without hesitation, write down the first five associations that came to mind in connection with these questions. There was no time limit.

The stimulus of the NATIVE LANGUAGE caused a variety of reactions. The main content of the concept is revealed in the meaning of the word "native". A large layer of words-reactions included in the lexico-semantic group "national culture" 52%, words such as: bargan, beads, dish, food, costumes, culture, national clothes, national dishes, rite, rituals, shoes, custom, customs, Ogduo Aksen/Ogdo Aksenova, clothing, ornament, park, songs, holiday, crafts, fairy tales, competitions, poems, stroganina, dance, traditions, torobut, rear, patterns, unties, unts, heiro, etc.

The second largest layer is the "traditional way of life" 31%, such as:. argish, bokari, bolok, life, sleds, reindeer herders, reindeer husbandry, deer, deer, olok, hunting, hearth, fish, fishermen, fishing, sleigh, camp, traditional way of life, chum, yntyka, yt, etc.

There are also a lot of reactions with the semantics of "learning" 28%, such as: ABC, abc, letter, dictation, USE, knowledge, books, tests, lessons, textbook, teacher, teacher, teach, school, language, etc.; with the semantics of "own" 30%: grandmother, children, children and adults, mom, mother, ancestors, parents, relatives, relatives, family, bayebit tylbyt, bayem kiene, bayen tyla, diem, doydum, dionum, my language, we are dolgans, settlement, homeland, saham tyla, hakabyt, hirim, tabalarbyt, dolganin, dolganka, dolgan patterns, dolgan, dolgan language, dolgans, dokhor, friends, people, sakha rear, neighbors, house, house in the village, etc.

Reactions that directly reflect the communicative function of the language are not numerous and account for only 20%: to speak, dialogue, capsetii, capseter tylym, kergatterbit, communication, offer, conversation, speech, sa?arar.

Interestingly, the lexico-semantic group "landscape, territory" is 29%, these are reactions such as: coast, tya, muora, haya, mountain, earth, ice, snow, dark, tundra, Russia, Yakutia, Sakha Republic, Yuryung-Khaya, Saskylakh, Syndassko, Popigai, Hat, Taimyr et al . At the same time, a quarter of the words of this group are included in the core of the NATIVE LANGUAGE concept. The largest number of reactions of them is "tundra" - 256, and "tya" - 230 reactions.

Thus, empirically based data allow us to clarify the picture of the linguistic competencies, practices and orientations of the Dolgan Khatango-Anabar region. The native Dolgan language is the main (dominant) the primary language of the inhabitants of the village of Khatanga and the village of Popigai and acts as the main marker of the ethnic identity of Dolgan Taimyr. The survey revealed mainly fluency in the native language and stable positions in all spheres as the main language of communication in the studied settlements.

The native-speaking Dolgans of Taimyr and the Dolgans of Yakutia, whose language has been strongly influenced by the Yakut language, have the same images. The Dolgan concept of the NATIVE LANGUAGE consists mainly of a figurative component. Native speakers describe their native village, national traditions and culture of their people, the connection of generations (grandmother, mother, ancestors, children) is clearly traced. Dolgans associate their native language and culture with their immediate place of residence and territory of residence. The communicative function of language is represented in reactions with the meaning "to conduct a conversation, a dialogue". Evaluation reactions are single, such as: pride, joy, respect, uchugei, etc. Reactions in Russian predominate, they are present in the Dolgan and Yakut languages.

In Yakutia, the study revealed the processes of language shift in favor of the Yakut language and the priority of traditional culture as one of the system-forming components of ethno-cultural identity against the background of a decrease in language competence and a narrowing of the spheres of use of the Dolgan language. At the same time, the importance and value of the native language holds priority for the next generations of Dolgans: both in Yakutia and in Taimyr, the Dolgan language is among the three most promising and relevant in the future, along with Russian, Yakut and English.