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.
Angina S. V. Ul'chsko-russkiy tematicheskiy slovar' [Ulch-Russian thematic dictionary]. Saint Petersburg, 2005. (in
Russ.)
Angina S. V. Russko-ul'chskiy razgovornik [Ulch-Russian phrase book]. Bogorodskoye, 1993. (in Russ.)
Angina S. V. Literaturnoe chtenie. 2 klass [Literary reading. Grade 2]. Saint Petersburg, 2017. (in Russ.)
Balanovskaya E. V., Bogunov Yu. V., Kamenshchikova E. N., Balaganskaya O. A., Agdzhoyan A. T.,
Bogunova A. A., Skhalyakho R. A., Al'borova I. E., Zhabagin M. K., Koshel' S. M., Daragan D. M., Borisova E. B.,
Galakhova A. A., Mal'tseva O. V., Mustafin Kh. Kh., Yankovskiy N. K., Balanovskiy O. P. Demograficheskiy i
geneticheskiy portrety ul'chey [Demographic and genetic portrait of the Ulch people]. Genetika [Genetics]. Moscow,
2018, no 10 (vol. 54), pp. 1218–1227.
Val'dyu G. G. Ul'chsko-russkiy slovar' [Ulcha-Russian vocabulary]. Bogorodskoe, 2005. (in Russ.)
Vershinina O. V. Pervye shagi v ul'chskom yazyke. Sbornik skorogovorok, stikhov, pesen i skazok na ul'chskom i
russkom yazykakh [First steps in the Ulch language. A collection of tongue twisters, poems and fairy tales in Ulcha and
Russian languages]. Khabarovsk, 2006. (in Russ.)
Gerasimova A. N. Nanayskiy i ul'chskiy yazyki v Rossii: sravnitel'naya kharakteristika sotsiolingvisticheskoy
situatsii [Nanai and Ulcha languages in Russia: a comparative description of the sociolinguistic situations]. Yazyki
korennykh narodov Sibiri [Languages and folklore of the indigenous peoples of Siberia]. Novosibirsk, 2002, iss. 12, pp.
246–257. (in Russ.)
Gerasimova A. N. Nekotorye osobennosti struktury obstoyatel'stvennykh polipredikativnykh konstruktsiy ul'chskogo
yazyka v sopostavlenii s nanayskim yazykom [Some distinctive characteristics of the structure of adverbial
polypredicative constructions in the Ulch language in comparison with the Nanai language]. Yazyki korennykh narodov
Sibiri [Languages and folklore of the indigenous peoples of Siberia]. Novosibirsk, 2005, iss. 16, pp. 119–140. (in Russ.)
Gerasimova A. N. Polipredikativnye konstruktsii nanayskogo yazyka v sopostavlenii s ul'chskim [Polypredicative
constructions in the Ulch language in comparison with the Nanai language]. Novosibirsk, 2006. (in Russ.)
Dechuli K. F., Sem L.I. Bukvar' [Primer]. Saint Petersburg, 1997. (in Russ.)
Dechuli N. P., Dechuli S.P. Ul'chskiy yazyk. 4 klass [Ulch Language. Grade 4]. Saint Petersburg, 2017. (in Russ.)
Itogi Vserossiyskoy perepisi naseleniya 2002 goda [Results of 2002 All-Russia population census]. Moscow, 2004,
vol. 4, 13. (in Russ.)
Itogi Vserossiyskoy perepisi naseleniya 2010 goda [Results of 2010 All-Russia population census]. Moscow, 2012,
vol. 4. (in Russ.)
Loginovskiy K. D. Ob ekspeditsii [Regarding the expedition]. Zapiski Obshchestva izucheniya Amurskogo kraya
[Records of the Amurskiy krai studies society]. Vladivostok, 1908, vol. XII, pp. 29–33. (in Russ.)
Matveeva T. B. Ul'chskiy yazyk. 3 klass [Ulch language. Grade 3]. Saint Petersburg, 2018. (in Russ.)
Petrova T. I. Ul'chskiy dialekt nanayskogo yazyka [The Ulch dialect of the Nanai language]. Moscow; Leningrad,
1936. (in Russ.)
Stoynova N. M. Glagoly ‘iskat'’ i ‘nakhodit'’ i ikh derivaty v dialektakh nanayskogo i ul'chskogo yazykov [Verbs
‘search’ and ‘find’ and their derivatives in the Nanai dialects and Ulch language]. EVRika! Sbornik statey o poiskakh i
nakhodkakh k yubileyu E. V. Rakhilinoy [EUReka! A collection of articles exploring the topic of searches and findings
in celebration of E.V. Rakhilina’s anniversary]. Moscow, 2018, pp. 218–244. (in Russ.)
Sunik O. P. Ul'chskiy yazyk: issledovaniya i materialy [The Ulch language: studies and materials]. Leningrad, 1985.
(in Russ.)
Grube W. Goldish-Deutches Wörterverzeichniss, mit vergleichender Berücksichtigung der űbrigen tungusischen
Dialekte. Reisen und Forschungen im Amur Lande von Schrenck. Petersburg, 1900.
Lopatin I. A. Material on the Orochee Language, the Goldi (Nanai) Language, and the Olchi (Nani) Language.
Posieux; Fribourg, Anthropos Institute, 1957.
Kazama S. Basic vocabulary (A) of Tungusic languages. Osaka, ELPR, 2003.
Kazama S. The suffix -ča in Tungusic languages. Asian and African Languages and Linguistics, 2010, no. 5,
pp. 17–34.
Kazama S. Ulcha oral literature 2: a collection of texts. Kyoto, Nakanishi, 2002.
Schmidt P. The language of the Olchas. Acta Universitatis Latviensis. Riga, 1923.
Trends in Linguistics Documentation. Collected Works of Bronislaw Pilsudski. Vol. 4. Material for the Study of
Tungusic Languages and Folklor. Berlin; New York, Mouton de Gruyter, 2011, pp. 747–1007.