Also Known As:
Ulta, Ujlta, орокский язык, ульта, уйльта, Uilta, Sprache der Oroken
Dialects & Varieties
- Poronaisk
- Val-Nogliki
A Preliminary Study of Language Contacts around Uilta in Sakhalin
Yamada, Yoshiko. 2010. A Preliminary Study of Language Contacts around Uilta in Sakhalin. Journal of the Center for Northern Humanities 3, 59-75. http://hdl.handle.net/2115/42939
Critically Endangered
80 percent certain, based on the evidence available
<50
Native Speakers Worldwide
Speaker Number Trends
Speaker Number Trend 5
A small percentage of the community speaks the language, and speaker numbers are decreasing very rapidly.
5
Transmission
Transmission 5
There are only a few elderly speakers.
5
Speakers
Native or fluent speakers:
No results found.
Second-language speakers and learners
No results found.
Semi-speakers or rememberers
24
Children:
No results found.
Young adults
0
Older adults
No results found.
Elders
No results found.
Ethnic or community population
87 (as of 2005) estimated by the Sakhalin Energy Investment Company Ltd. (SEIC)
Year information was gathered
No results found.
Location and Context
Countries
Sakhalin, Russia
Location Description
the north-eastern part of Sakhalin
Government Support
No results found.
Institutional Support
No results found.
Speakers' Attitude
No results found.
Other Languages Used By The Community
Russian
Number of Other Language Speakers:
all
Domains of Other Languages:
all
Writing Systems
Standard orthography:
No results found.
Writing system:
yes
Other writing systems used:
No results text.
Comments on writing systems:
"Measures have since been put in place to revive Uilta and use it in education. In the 1990s a writing system for the Uilta language was devised,which paved the way for the first primer (Ikegami et al.2008). This book is now being used to teach Uilta in Poronaisk in the south,and classes are due to begin in Val in the north(according to the data acquired in September 2009)." (p. 70)
Recent Resources
Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Uilta
This picture shows the contents of the Orok alphabet.
This image is a language map of the area where Orok is spoken.
In general, Ainu used to be a local lingua franca in the mid 19th century, but it is unclear whether the southern Uilta were capable of speaking Ainu. The nothern Uilta might be able to speak Nivkh before the 20th century. The Uilta were also in a long term contact with the Evenki in terms of economy and culture.
During the WWII, the northern Uilta had to learn Russian in school whereas the southern group were influenced by Japanese. After the WWII, the island has been governed by the URSS, leading to language shift to Russian among the indigenous groups ("Russification"). A small portion of the southern Uilta had moved to Hokkaido (Japan) but they failed to pass down Uilta to the following generations.