Selkup

Selkup (autonymously "Шöльӄумыт әты" Šöl'kumyt ëty, "people's language") is the only living Southern Samoyedic Uralic language, severely endangered with ~1,000-1,500 speakers across northern/central western Siberia. The Selkup are traditionally taiga reindeer-and-fishing semi-nomads of the Taz, Yenisei, and Ob river basins. Two major dialect groups exist: Taz (Northern, with established literacy) and Tym/Ket (Central/Southern, more endangered). Selkup retains the Samoyedic 12-vowel system with vowel harmony and a complex case system (~7 cases plus locative suffixes). Northern Selkup has Cyrillic-based literacy materials; Southern dialects survive only orally.