This article examines potential directions for urban sociolinguistic research in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), with a primary focus on its capital. Yakut specialists have accomplished a great deal in this area; however, existing publications are largely situated within quantitative sociology and sociolinguistics, providing a general overview without revealing the underlying mechanisms of linguistic processes. The next logical step in the field should be qualitative research employing in-depth interviews and participant observation. This will enable the exploration of topics such as individual and group bilingualism, the linguistic landscape of urban space, sociolinguistic studies of diasporas, language contact, code-switching and code-mixing, language choice in bilingual situations, and the like. Each of these topics is discussed alongside an extensive bibliography that includes both classic theoretical works and recent publications by Yakut scholars. The article also briefly addresses methodological challenges in researching these themes: the relationship and limitations of quantitative and qualitative methods, ethical issues related to publishing collected materials, the problem of researcher influence on the data, the need to work with authentic recordings of spoken language, the distinction between scientific and normative approaches to the phenomena under study, issues of data anonymization, adherence to ethical standards when working with informants, as well as the difficulties of recording and interpreting spontaneous spoken language in an urban bilingual environment, including the “observer’s paradox”, ethical constraints in fieldwork, the need for data verification, and the development of a representative.

The article analyzes lexical borrowings from Russian recorded in educational texts in the Eskimo language during the period from the 1930s to the 1960s. This period is characterized by the establishment of Eskimo writing and the formation of a literary language, which necessitated the introduction of new concepts associated with changes in the social and cultural spheres. The scientific problem addressed by the research lies in the absence of a systematic analysis of authorial strategies in the use of lexical borrowings in educational texts in the Eskimo language during the formative period of its written tradition. The aim of the study is to identify and describe the features of Russian borrowings in educational publications in the Eskimo language from the aforementioned period, as well as to determine the factors influencing the choice of different types of borrowings. The material for the study consists of educational publications in the Chaplino dialect of the Eskimo language, including primers, reading books, and school dictionaries held in the Department of National Literatures of the Russian National Library. The study employs a descriptive-analytical method, comparative analysis, and elements of statistical data processing. The structural types of borrowings are examined: material borrowings (directly transferred from the source language) and translation borrowings (created using the resources of the Eskimo language). Special attention is paid to a comparison of the approaches of two leading scholars of the Eskimo language, E.S. Rubtsova and G.A. Menovshchikov. Two main strategies for introducing borrowings are identified, the chronological dynamics of borrowing usage are analyzed, and key patterns of change are highlighted, including the successive replacement of one type by another and the variable use of different forms. The data obtained refine our understanding of the processes involved in the formation of lexical norms in the Eskimo language. The results can be applied in the development of modern educational materials for the Eskimo language and in lexicographic practice. Future research prospects include extending the chronological scope of the analysis and comparing the findings with data from other languages of the region.

Studying the meanings embedded in proverbs of the Kildin Saami language is crucial for preserving this invaluable cultural heritage, ensuring the rights and wellbeing of the indigenous people, and enriching humanity with alternative models of thinking and interacting with the world. The aim of this article is a linguacultural analysis of proverbs in the Kildin Saami language (based on the thematic group «Food Preparation and Consumption»). The study’s data consisted of 200 Saami proverbs, selected using a continuous sample from a Saami-Russian dictionary and a questionnaire survey of native Saami speakers. In addition, the study included the results of an associative experiment conducted among native Russian speakers and responses from the DeepSeek network. The study compares proverbs from the Saami, Russian, and Chinese languages. The research methods used were propositional and comparative analysis, as well as intent analysis. The presented method of linguacultural analysis of Saami proverbs, which consists of comparing three aspects of the semantic structure – the meaning of the proverb (propositional and pragmatic) and the cultural attitude – showed that Saami proverbs of the thematic group «Food Preparation and Consumption» embody universal rules of Saami life, conditioned by the need to survive in harsh climatic conditions: care for nature and family, a sense of collectivism, the need for self-improvement and freedom of choice. A comparison of Saami proverbs with their Russian and Chinese counterparts allowed us to identify common cultural attitudes: do not commit bad (thoughtless, immoral, stupid) actions; do not lose the ability to judge soundly, choose and act rationally; one must work to be well-fed and clothed; a common meal is important; strive for a better life. The significance of this work lies in the fact that a comparative study of the proverbs of the Saami, Russian, and Chinese languages is important, first and foremost, for the preservation of linguistic heritage and for the theory of knowledge, as it shows the ways in which humanity expresses the experience of survival and social interaction in verbal form.

This article examines some features of previously inaccessible linguistic material: archival texts in Chulym Turkic collected by S.E. Malov during his 1908 trip to the middle flow of the Chulym River. It provides a brief overview of the deciphered material and a description of its texts (including the discovered information about the authors and their tribal affiliations), which include songs, riddles, fairy tales, and an epic tale. The authors examine the linguistic, historical, and ethnographic features of one text, the Narrative about Malafei (by the consultant K.P. Otkuyanov). The text reveals both clear parallels with plots and motifs of the Turkic epic tales of southern Siberia, as well as unique elements atypical of the region and the period in which it was recorded. The main historical and ethnographic features of this text are: the Christian name of the main character, a beginning characteristic of the South Siberian-Turkic epic with northeastern analogies in the description of cosmogony, an adaptation in the description of the hero’s wealth (from material values associated with the realities of a pastoral society to objects of possession characteristic of taiga peoples, etc.), epic motifs that find parallels both in other Chulym texts recorded more than half a century later, and in the folklore of the Kalmyks, Ob Ugrians, Teleuts, Shors, Khakass, and Yakuts. Linguistically distinctive features of the text under consideration include: the use of a “tsekanie” sound (ts-pronunciation), which is not typical for the Middle Chulym dialect, the use of j indicator of the phonetic alternation series, including j, ʧ, ʨ, Turkic vocabulary, which is absent in modern Middle Chulym subdialects, as well as Russian borrowings of referential and functional semantics, the verbal inflection of person in the predicative declension added directly to the adverbial participle to form the finite form of the predicate. The material under study proves to be an invaluable contribution to the Chulym Turkic corpus, and adds to the preservation of the intangible cultural heritage of the Chulym indigenous people of the North.

Digitalization, proclaimed as a tool of modernization, simultaneously generates new forms of inequality, among which ethnocultural vulnerability occupies a special place. For multi-ethnic regions such as the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), the issue of how the digital divide affects the preservation of languages, cultural practices, and identities becomes critically important. The objective is to substantiate the identification of ethnocultural vulnerability as an independent dimension of digital inequality, to determine the population groups most exposed to this risk, and to detect the differentiated sensitivity of the components of ethnocultural capital to the quality of Internet connectivity. The empirical basis is a mass survey of the population of Yakutia (n=1318, 2025), conducted by the Department of Ethnosociology of the Institute for Humanities Research and Indigenous Studies of the North, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, using a multi-stage quota sample. Factor analysis and correlation analysis were applied. The research toolkit was based on a multicomponent model of social well-being (developed by the Department of Ethnosociology of the Institute for Humanities Research and Indigenous Studies of the North, SB RAS), which includes four blocks: emotional mood, socioeconomic status, political-legal assessment, and spiritual-cultural status. Alongside infrastructural and competence-based vulnerability, ethnocultural vulnerability is identified. Ethnocultural vulnerability has a pronounced linguistic nature and is concentrated among the Indigenous Peoples of the North. It is shown that language practices and constructed identities (civic, regional, northern) are sensitive to the quality of Internet connectivity, while deep ethnic identity remains stable. The obtained results contribute to the theory of digital inequality by substantiating the identification of ethnocultural vulnerability as an independent dimension. The practical significance lies in the need for a targeted policy that includes the creation of multilingual digital content and the development of digital literacy taking into account ethnocultural specifics.

The origin of the Dolgans remains one of the most debated issues in the ethnic history of the peoples of the North and the Arctic. This is largely due to the relatively late formation of the Dolgans as a distinct Arctic ethnic community under conditions of intensive interethnic contacts, language interaction, and demographic heterogeneity. The aim of this study is to assess the explanatory potential of linguistic and genetic data for reconstructing the ethnogenesis of the Dolgans and to determine the relationship between the linguistic and population levels in the formation of this community. The material of the study includes historiographic and historical-ethnographic works on the origin of the Dolgans, descriptions of the Dolgan language, studies in the anthropology of the Taimyr population, and population-genetic research on the peoples of Siberia. The study employs the historical-comparative, structural-linguistic, comparative, and interpretative methods. The results show that the historiography of the issue contains several explanatory models, ranging from the interpretation of the Dolgans as “Yakutized Tungus” groups to more complex reconstructions taking into account Tungusic, Yakut, Russian old-settler, and Samoyedic components. Linguistic data indicate that the Dolgan language is based on a Yakut structural foundation, which is reflected in its morphological system, basic vocabulary, and regular phonetic correspondences, while also containing a substantial Evenki and Russian contact layer. Genetic data, in turn, confirm the complex composition of the Dolgan population and its connections with several Siberian populations. It is concluded that the linguistic and genetic dimensions of Dolgan ethnogenesis do not fully coincide and should be considered in correlation with one another within an interdisciplinary framework.

Beginning in the 17th century, during the Russian exploration of Siberia, the influence of the Russian language on the indigenous languages grew, including the Siberian Turkic languages, particularly Teleut, whose vocabulary acquired a layer of phonetically and semantically adapted Russian loanwords – non-equivalent names for Russian and European cultural realities. Dictionaries of Turkic languages by VV. Radlov and VI. Verbitsky, published in the second half of the 19th century, list approximately 70 and 50 Teleut words, respectively, labeled as loanwords from Russian; the modern Teleut-Russian dictionary by LT. Ryumina (1995) includes approximately 35 unmarked Russian lexical loans. Among these, a prominent layer of lexemes with ambiguous etymologies stands out, which may be Russian loanwords or have an earlier Turkic or Eurasian origin. The purpose of this article is to identify and compare existing etymologies of Teleut words with unclear origins (Russian borrowings, borrowings from other languages, or native). The materials include 19th-century dictionaries and modern explanatory and etymological dictionaries of Turkic and Slavic languages. Descriptive, comparative-historical, and contrastive methods were used. The semantics of 20 Teleut words – names of outbuildings, utensils, clothing, and food products – were analyzed. These words have sound and semantic parallels in Russian but, in our opinion, do not clearly represent borrowings from Russian dialects of Siberia into Teleut. Some lexemes are presumably of native Turkic origin, while others may have entered Russian and Teleut from other Eurasian languages. The theoretical and practical significance of this work lies in clarifying the origins of a number of words classified as Russian lexical loans in the Turkic languages of Siberia. In addition, the work makes a certain contribution to the study of Russian-Teleut cultural and historical intercourse in the 17th-19th centuries, as well as the general theory of language contacts.

The Shor language, one of the Turkic languages of Russia, is endangered. Despite the existence of several dictionaries compiled over the past century and a half, their total volume does not exceed 5,000 lexemes, failing to reflect the language’s lexical wealth. This paper aims to describe the long-term experience of compiling a new, most comprehensive to date Shor-Russian dictionary, comprising more than 9,000 words. The research is based on an extensive corpus of published and archival texts (heroic epics, other folklore materials, periodicals, translated and original literature from the 19th to 21st centuries), as well as field audio recordings of spontaneous speech and epic narratives. The methodology combines traditional philological analysis with the application of corpus linguistics tools – a specially created interactive corpus of Shor texts and an electronic version of the dictionary, which significantly accelerated the process of identifying, verifying, and contextualizing vocabulary. As a result, not only has a large-scale lexicographic resource been created, but the main sources of the Shor written tradition have also been systematized, and gaps in previous lexicographic descriptions have been identified. The practical significance of the study lies in the creation of a fundamental tool for the preservation, study, and teaching of the Shor language, as well as in demonstrating the effectiveness of integrating digital methods into anthropologically oriented lexicography. Work on the dictionary continues, and its structure, including dialectal variants, historicalethnographic comments, and extensive contextual examples, lays the groundwork for future research on Shor vocabulary and culture.