Universal Declaration of Human Rights - Even
SOURCE
Amnesty International, UK
Even
Language Profile
TOTAL SPEAKERS
7,170 (1979)
USAGE BY COUNTRY (OFFICIAL LANGUAGE)
Officially Recognized Language: Yakutia and the Kamchatka Peninsula, widely scattered over the entire Okhotsk Arctic coast.BACKGROUND
Even belongs to the Altaic family, Tungusic group, and is spoken by 7,000 mother tongue speakers (56%) out of an ethnic population of over 13,000. There is some literature available. "Ola" is the basis for the literary language, but that is not accepted by speakers of other dialects. Use of Even indicates solidarity. It was incorrectly reported to be a Yukagir dialect, in fact it is used as literary language, together with Russian, by the Yukagir ethnic group.