Language Information

Fvenki, also known as Tungus, is spoken over a vast expanse of territory extending from central Siberia to the Pacific Ocean. Its speakers number only 15,000, about one-fifth of whom live in the Evenki National District, an area of some 286,000 square miles astride the Lower Tunguska and Stony Tunguska rivers. The remainder live in scattered settlements to the east, a few even as far as Sakhalin Island.

The Evenki live by hunting, fishing, and reindeer-herding. Their language is of the Tungusic group, which forms a branch of the Altaic family.

Family: Altaic
Subgroup: Tungusic
Branch: Northern

Writing Sample

Translation

My mother died when I was small. Until 1933 I lived with my father. Then I began studying at the Baikit school. I studied until l935. I finished the fourth grade in that school. Then I went to Tura. I began working at a printing plant in Tura. The printing plant put out an Evenki newspaper. The name of the newspaper was "New Life." I worked there for three years. Then the Ilimpea regional committee of the Komsomol sent me to study in Igarka.