The Samoyedic peoples (sometimes Samodeic peoples) are a group of closely related peoples who speak

Samoyedic languages The Samoyedic () or Samoyed languages () are spoken around the Ural Mountains, in northernmost Eurasia, by approximately 25,000 people altogether, accordingly called the Samoyedic peoples. They derive from a common ancestral language called Pr ...

, which are part of the Uralic family. They are a linguistic, ethnic, and cultural grouping. The name derives from the obsolete term ''Samoyed'' used in

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

for some of the

indigenous peoples of Siberia Siberia is a vast region spanning the North Asia, northern part of the Asian continent and forming the Asiatic portion of Russia. As a result of the Russian conquest of Siberia (16th to 19th centuries) and of the subsequent Special settlements in ...

, see Samoyedic languages#Etymology for comments of the etymology.

Peoples

Contemporary

Extinct

* Yurats, who spoke YuratsUnesco Red Book on Endangered Languages
/ref> * Mators or Motors, who spoke

Mator Mator or Motor is an extinct Uralic languages, Uralic language belonging to the group of Samoyedic languages, extinct since around 1839. It was spoken in the northern region of the Sayan Mountains in Siberia, close to the Mongolian north bord ...

Classification

Traditionally, Samoyedic languages and peoples have been divided into two major areal groups: Northern Samoyedic (Nenets, Yurats, Enets, Nganasans), and Southern Samoyedic (Selkups) with a further subgroup of Sayan-Samoyedic (Kamasins, Mators) named after the

Sayan Mountains The Sayan Mountains (, ; ) are a mountain range in southern Siberia spanning southeastern Russia (Buryatia, Irkutsk Oblast, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Tuva and Khakassia) and northern Mongolia. Before the rapid expansion of the Tsardom of Russia, the mou ...

. This classification does not reflect linguistic relations, being purely geographical. The most numerous of the Samoyedic peoples are the Nenets, who mainly live in two autonomous districts of Russia: Yamalo-Nenetsia and

Nenetsia The Nenets Autonomous Okrug (; ) also known as Nenetsia ( ) is a federal subject of Russia and an autonomous okrug of Arkhangelsk Oblast. Its administrative center is the town of Naryan-Mar. It has an area of and a population of 42,090 as ...

. Some of the Nenets and most of the Enets and Nganasans used to live in the

Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District () is an administrativeLaw #10-4765 and municipalLaw #2-54 district (raion), one of the forty-three in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is located in the north of the krai above the Arctic Circle on the Taymyr P ...

. Most of the Selkups live in Yamalo-Nenetsia, but there is also a significant population in

Tomsk Oblast Tomsk Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). It lies in the southeastern West Siberian Plain, in the southwest of the Siberian Federal District. Its administrative center is the types of inhabited loca ...

Gallery

Historical pictures

File:058 Description of all the Russian state-dwelling peoples.jpg, Samoyed in summer dress, in 1781, by

Johann Gottlieb Georgi Johann Gottlieb Georgi (31 December 1729 – 27 October 1802) was a German-Russian botanist, naturalist and geographer. A native of Pomerania, Georgi accompanied both Johan Peter Falk and Peter Simon Pallas on their respective journeys through S ...

File:057 Description of all the Russian state-dwelling peoples.jpg, Samoyed in 1781 by

File:Habit of a Samoyede woman and child subject to Russia in 1768. Femme Samoyèd (NYPL b14140320-1638306) (cropped).jpg, Habit of a Samoyed woman and child in 1768, by

Jean-Baptiste Chappe d'Auteroche Jean-Baptiste Chappe d'Auteroche (; 23 March 1722 – 1 August 1769) was a French astronomer, best known for his observations of the Transit of Venus, transits of Venus in 1761 and 1769. Early life Little is known of Chappe's early life. He was ...

File:Samojede_in_Winterdress.jpg, Samoyed winter dress (before 1906) File:Ice-bound on Kolguev - a chapter in the exploration of Arctic Europe to which is added a record of the natural history of the island (1895) (14595270719).jpg, A reindeer herd in Kolguyev Island in 1895.

Modern

File:P253b Group of Yenisei Samoyedes at Sumarokova.jpg, Yenisei Samoyedes (Enets people) around a campfire (1914) File:Ngasani.jpg, Nganasans, 1927 File:Dentedie from Taimyr (43768724740).jpg, Nganasan folkloric group, 2018 File:No-nb bldsa 3f048 Nentser (folkegruppe) kvinner og barn foran inngangen til teltet sitt. (6435260555).jpg, Nenets group, 1913 File:Nenets.jpg,

Nenets The Nenets (; ), in the past also called 'Samoyeds' or 'Yuraks', are a Samoyedic ethnic group native to Arctic Russia, Russian Far North. According to the latest census in 2021, there were 49,646 Nenets in the Russian Federation, most of them l ...

family File:Самая лучшая фотография 2.jpg, Nenets children, 2016 File:Selkups.jpg, Northern Selkups, 2012 File:MoWm9cA3slY.jpg, Kamasin family, 1925

Notes

References

External links

* {{ethno-stub