Nanai language

Nanai
Hezhe, Gold
на̄най, на̄ни
Native toRussia, China
RegionRussian Far East, Heilongjiang
EthnicityNanai people
Native speakers
1,400 (2010)[1]
Tungusic
Dialects
  • Nanai
  • Akani
  • Birar
  • Samagir
Cyrillic
Language codes
ISO 639-3gld
Glottolognana1257
ELPNanai
Nanay is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
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Hezhe (Namai) family in traditional costumes
Hezhe (Nanai) family

The Nanai language (also called Gold, Goldi, or Hezhen) is spoken by the Nanai people in Siberia, and to a much smaller extent in China's Heilongjiang province, where it is known as Hezhe. The language has about 1,400 speakers out of 17,000 ethnic Nanai, but most (especially the younger generations) are also fluent in Russian or Chinese, and mostly use one of those languages for communication.[2]

  1. ^ Nanai at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Lewis 2009 (Nanai)