러시아에 존재하는 언어는 180여 개이다. 언어는 민족의 정체성을 나타내는 핵심이다. 이런 관점에서 러시아에 분포된 언어에 대한 이해는 러시아의 민족적 정체성을 이해하기 위한 필수 과정이다. 본 논문은 러시아의 개방적 언어 정책에 힘입어 생존과 발전을 지속하고 있는 소수민족 언어의 실태를 살펴보고 있다. 아울러 언어와 민족의 관계, 언어와 언어의 관계를 제시해 보고자 한다.
인도유럽 어족의 일파인 이란어족은 러시아 남서부에 많은 소수민족 언어들을 가지고 있다. 동시에 알타이 어족의 일파인 투르크 어족도 많은 소수민족 언어들과 이웃해 있다. 이 지역의 민족 갈등의 심층에는 종교 이전에 언어와 문화의 충돌이라는 요인도 자리 잡고 있다. 시베리아 지역에는 알타이 어족의 일파인 만주-퉁구스 어와 투르크 어가 공존하고 있다. 또한 우랄 어족이 정착해 있다. 이들 언어들이 분포되어 있는 상황을 이해하면, 러시아 내의 갈등 구조를 이해하게 되고, 이 지역에 대한 심층적인 접근 방법도 도출될 것이다.
In the territory of Russian Federation more than 180 languages are spoken. Language is a core element representing the identity of a nation. From this aspect the understanding of languages dispersed in Russia provides an essential clue to clarify the national identity of Russia, intermingled with many minority peoples. This paper purposes to examine the situation of minority languages and their relations, which have survived and developed through open policies of Russian Federation.
The majority of Iranian language family is found within the limits of Russian Federation. These are Tadjik, Ossetian, Kurdish, Tati and others. In the neighboring territory, the Caucasus, which has been described as "a mountain of languages and peoples," around 50 languages coexist. They are Ibero-Caucasian Languages: Georgian, Abhaz, Adygei, Abaza, Kabardian-Circassian, and Ubykh. In the vicinity the ethnic group of Nakh-Daghestanian languages(North-East Caucasian) divides territories, causing cultural and political conflicts with the ethnic groups of Iranian and Ibero-Caucasian languages. They are: Ingush, Chechen, Avar, Andi, Tsez(Dido), Lezgin, Daegin, Lak, Khinalug and others.
In the North-West of the European part of Russia, in the Urals and in Western Siberia peoples speaking the Uralic languages are dispersed in small groups. They are in the ancient times separated into the two groups: Finno-Ugric and Samodic. Finno-Ugric is conventionally divided into the five groups: a)Baltic-Finnic, b) Volga, c) Perm, d) Ugric(its branch Ob-Ugric) and e) Saamic. Main languages of this family are: Estonian, Karelian, Livonian; Moksha, Erzya, Mari; Udmurt, Komi; Khanty, Mansi; Nenets, Selkup.
The Altaic family occupies the vast territory from the west slope of the Urals to the Far North. It includes the Turkic, Mongolic, Manchu-Tungus languages. The Turkic language family has the most numerous languages, around 25 languages and dialects: Azerbaijani, Kumyk, Karachai-Balkar, Nogai, Tatea, Bashkir, Chubash, Yakut, Tuvinian, Altaic, Khakas, and in the territory of CIS Uzbek, Kazakh, Turkmen, Kirghiz, Karakalpak. Approximately 25 million people speak these languages in the territory of Russian Federation.
Within the limits of Russian Federation the Mongolic language family has two languages: Buryat and Kalmyk. The Tungus-Manchu language family is represented in various small groups: Evenki(Tungus), Nanai, Even, Negidal, Ulcha, Orok, Oroch, Udege.
In the Far North there are several isolated languages, faced with extinction: Chukchi(Luorawetlan), Koryak(Nymyllan), Itelmen(Kamchdal), Kerek, Alyutor, Nivkh(Gilyak), Ket and Yukagir.
Since the Soviet regime the government of Russian Federation has maintained the open policy to support the minorities to produce literatures with their own languages. But in reality they are losing the ground for languages and cultures by centralization and industralization. There have been internal conflicts between the Center and the regional minorities, who have struggled to keep their integrity intact against the influences, especially socio-cultural, from the Center. The in-depth approach to these problems, related to languages, will provide important clues to understand the overall conditions of Russia.