Survey of Language-cultures in Amur-Sakhalin District

在萨哈林岛和流经俄罗斯和中国之间的阿穆尔河沿着，居住着许多少数民族，包括尼夫赫、乌勒塔、那乃（中国的赫哲族）、内吉达尔、乌勒奇等。有人指出，由于俄罗斯或中国等主要文化的力量，他们的母语和传统文化处于濒危境地。1997年，我们开始对阿穆尔河中国一侧沿着的和真语言状况进行研究。为了了解这些民族的语言状况，我们邀请了俄罗斯和日本的学者到千叶大学进行了几次会议。在这些会议上，我们交换了关于西伯利亚小语种的信息，并为明年的考察做好了准备。1998年，我们去了位于阿穆尔河河口附近的尼古拉耶夫斯克和马戈，研究了尼夫赫和内吉达尔的语法和社会语言学情况。1999年，我们把研究重点放在尼夫赫，收集了他们语言的声学数据和他们传统美食的视觉数据。俄罗斯目前的经济萧条和交通系统的破坏迫使他们生活在自给自足的状态中，在某种意义上，生活在传统的生活方式中。但同样的经济问题也使他们难以学习和教育自己的语言。我们研究的目的之一是收集有用的材料，教他们的语言给自己的孩子。为此，我们还试图与这些地区的几所小学或学者建立联系。

In Sakhalin Island and along the Amur River, which flows between Russia and China, many ethnic minorities inhabit, including Nivkh, Uilta, Nanay (Hozhen in China), Negidal, Ul'chi, etc. It has been pointed that their mother tongues and traditional cultures are in endangered situation because of the powers of major cultures such as Russian or Chinese. In 1997 we started to research the language situation of Hozhen along the Chinese side of the Amur River. And to share the recognition of the linguistic situations of those ethnic groups, we invited Russian and Japanese scholars to Chiba Univ. and held several sessions. In those sessions we exchanged the information each other on those Siberian minor languages and prepared the expeditions to be made from next year on. In 98' we went to Nikolaevsk and Mago, which are situated near the mouth of the Amur River, and researched the grammar and sociolinguistic situations of Nivkh and Negidal. In '99 we focused our research to Nivkh and collected the acoustic data of their language and the visual data of their traditional cuisine. Current economic depressions and destruction of the transportation system in Russia force them to live in a state of self-sufficiency and to live, in a sense, in a traditional life style. But the same economical problems also make them difficult to study and educate their own language. One of the purposes of our research was to collect materials useful for teaching their languages to their own children. For the purpose we also tried to make connections with several primary schools or scholars in those areas.