SAMOYEDIC LANGUAGES

group of languages spoken in Siberia and the Russian Arctic that, together with the Finno-Ugric languages, constitute the family of Uralic languages (q.v.). There are five Samoyedic languages, which are divided into two subgroupsNorth Samoyedic and South Samoyedic. The North Samoyedic subgroup consists of Nenets (Yurak), Enets (Yenisey), and Nganasan (Tavgi). The South Samoyedic subgroup comprises Selkup and the practically extinct Kamas language. None of these languages was written before 1930, and they are currently used only occasionally for educational purposes in some elementary schools.