The Yugh people (pronounced ; often written Yug) are a critically endangered

Yeniseian people The Yeniseian people refers either to the modern or ancient Siberian populations speaking Yeniseian languages. Despite evidence pointing to the historical presence of Yeniseian populations throughout Central Siberia and Northern Mongolia, only ...

, an

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology) In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often populari ...

group who originally lived throughout central

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

. The Yugh people live along the

Yenisei River The Yenisey or Yenisei ( ; , ) is the list of rivers by length, fifth-longest river system in the world, and the largest to drain into the Arctic Ocean. Rising in Mungaragiyn-gol in Mongolia, it follows a northerly course through Lake Baikal a ...

from

Yeniseisk Yeniseysk ( rus, Енисейск, p=jɪnʲɪˈsʲejsk) is a town in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located on the Yenisei River. Population: 20,000 (1970). History Yeniseysk was founded in 1619 as a stockaded town—the first town on the Yenisei ...

to the mouth of the . The Yughs speak the Yugh language, which is believed to be extinct.

Recent history

Previously the Yughs were considered part of the northern group of

Ket people Kets (; Ket: кето, кет, денг) are a Yeniseian-speaking people in Siberia. During the Russian Empire, they were known as Ostyaks, without differentiating them from several other Siberian people. Later, they became known as ''Yenisei ...

, but in the 1960s the Yugh were distinguished from the Ket, having their own distinct, although related, Yugh language and customs. By the late 1980s the Yugh people, along with their language, had effectively disappeared as a separate ethnic group. By the early 1990s the Yugh language was considered extinct, as only two or three non-fluent Yugh language speakers remained. The Yugh people, along with their relatives the Ket and other extinct branches are referred to as ''Yeniseians'' by linguists and ethnographers. In 1991, the ethnic population consisted of 10 to 15 individuals in the

Turukhansky District Turukhansky District () is an administrativeLaw #10-4765 and municipalLaw #13-2925 district (raion), one of the forty-three in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is located in the west of the krai and borders with Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District i ...

of the

Krasnoyarsk Krai Krasnoyarsk Krai (, ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (a krai) of Russia located in Siberia. Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Krasnoyarsk, the second-largest city in Siberia after ...

at the Vorogovo settlement. The 2002 Census recorded 19 ethnic Yugh in all of Russia.2002 Russian census data
/ref> In the 2010 census, only one ethnic Yugh was counted,2010 Russian census data
/ref> while in the 2020 census, 7 ethnic Yugh were counted. Yenisean languages

Notes

References

*Gordon, Raymond G., Jr. (ed.) ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'', Fifteenth edition SIL International, Dallas, Tex.: 2005 . *Vajda, Edward J., Yeniseian Peoples and Languages : A History of Yeniseian Studies with an Annotated Bibliography and a Source Guide, Curzon Press: 2002 .

External links

Ethnologue: Yugh
{{Ethnic groups of Russia Ethnic groups in Russia Nomadic groups in Eurasia Indigenous peoples of Siberia