Nanai

Nanai (Нанай in Russian) is a Southern Tungusic language of the lower Amur River valley, the closest living relative of Manchu within the Manchu-Nanai branch. The Nanai people are traditional Amur River fisher-hunters whose culture features bird-skin clothing and elaborate fish-skin parkas. The Russian Nanai population is ~12,000 but only ~1,500 retain L1 fluency, with most younger generations Russian-dominant. In China, the closely related Hezhen population is ~5,000 with even fewer fluent speakers. Reverberates in early Soviet anthropology through Vladimir Arsenyev's Dersu Uzala (1923).