{"id":66103,"date":"2023-11-29T14:00:39","date_gmt":"2023-11-29T12:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fennougria.ee\/?p=66103"},"modified":"2023-11-29T14:00:40","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T12:00:40","slug":"udmurt-language-day-celebrated-grandiosely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fennougria.ee\/en\/udmurt-language-day-celebrated-grandiosely\/","title":{"rendered":"Udmurt Language Day celebrated grandiosely"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 27 November 2001, the State Council of the Republic of Udmurtia adopted a decision on the state languages of the Republic of Udmurtia, and Udmurt became the state language. However, as of 2020, Udmurt Language Day has been a national holiday in the Russian Federation.<\/p>

Udmurt Language Day was widely celebrated again this year, with major events starting on 21 November, when the 125th anniversary of the births of the greatest Udmurt poets Ashalchi Oki<\/strong> (1898-1973) and Kuzebay Gerd<\/strong> (1898-1937) was celebrated at the Udmurt National Theatre. Events took place at the Udmurt National Library, where an exhibition of contemporary Udmurt literature was opened and a new book by Svetlana Potorochina<\/strong>, written in collaboration with local scholar Alexei Korobeinik<\/strong>, was presented. In the evening, a Udmurt music evening was organised at the Friendship of Nations House, with a keynote performance by the Estonian Udmurt poet and rapper Bogdan Anfinogenov<\/strong>.<\/p>

However, the highlight of 27 November was the first live broadcast of the evening internet radio Daur FM.<\/p>

Throughout the week, both in the capital of Udmurtia, Izhevsk, and in the districts, there was a variety of events dedicated to the Udmurt Language Day, including lectures, educational games, excursions, as well as, for example, Udmurt dance evenings.<\/p>

The tone of all the events was positive, and the greetings from the leaders of the various Finno-Ugric peoples, as well as the greeting from Pyotr Tultaev<\/strong>, Chairman of the Association of Finno-Ugric Peoples of Russia, which included three speeches, underlined the positive tone: ‘the Udmurt language lived’, ‘the Udmurt language lives’ and ‘the Udmurt language will live’.<\/p>

In reality, the Udmurt language is in a very bad shape, as pointed out by the scholar Albert Razin (1940-2019), who set himself on fire holding a poster with a poem by the Avar poet Rasul Khamzatov: ‘And if tomorrow my language disappears, I am ready to die today’. The number of Udmurt speakers fell from 324,000 in 2010 to 256,00o in 2021, a decrease of 21%. 69.2% of Udmurts consider Udmurt as their mother tongue. Last year, only eight books were published in Udmurt.<\/p>

On the occasion of the Udmurt Language Day, the situation and problems of the Udmurt language were not discussed at any of the events, judging by the media coverage.<\/p>

For those who are more interested in the Udmurt people and culture, we offer further reading on the Udmurt National Library’s website (in Russian, link below).<\/p>

\r\n \n