Vanishing Karelian in Murmansk Oblast: Toward a comprehensive documentation and description

在摩尔曼斯克州使用的卡累利阿语变体几乎没有文献记载，因此与俄罗斯西北部其他地区使用的同源变体相比，研究不足。考虑到卡累利阿语属于摩尔曼斯克州严重濒危的少数民族语言，迫切需要对这些变体进行广泛的记录和描述。该项目的具体目标是：i）尽可能多地记录和存档当代自然语言，这些语言在地理因素、说话者的血统、年龄、教育背景、与该地区其他语言使用者的接触以及其他语言外变量方面具有最大的代表性，以及ii）描述和分析在所收集的语言数据中证明的与这些变量相关的结构变化。摩尔曼斯克州最后一批说卡累利阿语的人是不同移民潮的后裔，他们经历了不同的社会条件和语言接触，并分散在一个巨大的地区，对当代土著社区的语言变异和语言衰退研究具有挑战性。

The Karelian varieties spoken in Murmansk Oblast are barely documented, and as a consequence understudied, compared to their cognate varieties spoken in other parts of northwestern Russia. Considering that Karelian belongs to the severely endangered minority languages of Murmansk Oblast, an extensive documentation and description of these varieties is a matter of urgency. The specific aims of this project are i) to document and archive as much as possible contemporary natural speech, which is maximally representative in relation to geographical factors, descent of speakers, age, educational background, contacts with speakers of other languages of the area, and other extra-linguistic variables, and ii) to describe and analyze the structural variation attested in the collected linguistic data relative to these variables. As descendants of different migration waves, which have been exposed to various social conditions and language contacts, and are scattered across a huge area, the last Karelian-speaking individuals in Murmansk Oblast are a challenging source of insight for contemporary research on linguistic variation and language decay in indigenous communities.