The Taz Language

I. Sociolinguistic data

The Taz have some of the smallest numbers among ethnic groups in the Russian Federation. They are a people of mixed origins living mostly in little villages in the south of the Primorye area. Related to the Taz are small Chinese-speaking groups that are officially listed as the Nanai and the Udege, and also people who had been recorded as “Goldes” in their passports.

Existing alternative names.

Language name variants (endonyms, exonyms).       

The official name is the Taz language . It is used by the Taz people themselves in all fields. The ethnonym “Taz” is currently applied to a small people living mostly in little villages in the south of the Primorye area. The Taz descended from the mixed population of the south of Primorye that switched to a Northern Chinese dialect in the early 20 ^th century; the Taz also borrowed many elements of the Chinese spiritual and material culture.

Previously, the name “Taz” applied to any indigenous people of the Ussuri area, most frequently to the Udege and the Oroch, and also to the Nanai who lived along the southern tributaries of the Ussuri and had not necessarily switched to Chinese. The first detailed ethnographic description of the Taz made by Sergey Brailovsky was titled The Taz or the Udihe with the words Udihe and Taz used synonymously.

Vladimir K. Arseniev consistently distinguished the Udege and the Taz. He described the Taz as “Sinicized” Udege who led a settled life in Chinese-style houses and had nearly lost their native language. Nonetheless, he deemed it wrong to confuse these people with the Chinese and, on the contrary, believed it expedient to treat them as a separate people. Thus the ethnonym Taz was attached to the indigenous population that had switched to Chinese.

Vladimir K. Arseniev’s works largely prevented the Taz from being deported from the USSR: by 1936, not only foreign nationals, but also ethnically Chinese Soviet citizens were deported from the USSR.

At the same time, the Taz became an officially recognized ethnic minority only in 2000; consequently, the data on their numbers were not recorded in censuses, the Taz were recorded as other peoples, either the Nanai or the Udege. Some Taz were recorded as “Golde.” This ethnonym had indeed existed before the 1920s; that was the name used for the Nanai in pre-revolutionary Russia. The Nanai living in the upper reaches of the Ussuri continued to use this ethnonym after the 1920s, and it was also entered in their passports. During collectivization, Goldes were gathered together and moved to the village of Sandagou (today’s Bulyga-Fadeyevo); after the war, they were moved to Mikhailovka. Goldes did not oppose themselves to the Taz, and until recently, they were only distinguished by the entry in their passports. In official censuses, Goldes were most likely recorded as the Nanai. In 1990, Mikhalovka had 115 Taz and 25 Goldes accounting for about 60% of its population.

The history of the ethnic group

Before being integrated into Russia, the Ussuri area was part of the historical Manchuria, its remote periphery. The Chinese population proper ( the Han ) were not allowed into Manchuria by the Manchurian Imperial administration that apparently feared large numbers of ethnic Chinese and sought to preserve the Manchurian people.

After Primorye was integrated into Russia, the prohibition on the Chinese entering this region disappeared on its own since the Russian administration did not pursue such a policy, and the Chinese began to enter Primorye in increasingly greater numbers. Only men were coming from China since Chinese laws prevented women from leaving the country. The Chinese arriving in Russia were traders, buyers of ginseng, elk antlers, and furs, and also fringe elements, criminals running from the law, etc. Some of them settled in Primorye and started families; the Chinese men married local Udege and Nanai women. Many Chinese thus married and started families. Children born into these families were considered Chinese since both the Chinese and the indigenous population of Primorye were patrilineal.

At home, these mixed families spoke Chinese. This fact evidences the Chinese language and culture enjoying greater prestige. The Chinese did not learn the skills and occupations of the local population, but managed their households in the Chinese style: they built fanzas (houses with earthen floor and thatched roof) heated by kangs ; they started vegetable gardens, bred pigs and cows, grew opium poppies, and distilled khanshin (moonshine). They worshipped their deities, set up shrines, celebrated the Oriental New Year. The local population was rapidly borrowing these traditions. Locals began using new tools and instruments and clothes. The Udege’s and the Nanai’s diet now had new foods and a new balance of meat and fish on the one hand and plant-based foods on the other. However, the Udege and the Nanai continued to hunt, fish, cure fish, and engaged in gathering. Many indigenous families continue to lead a semi-nomadic life.

By the 1930s, the Udege and the Nanai living south of the Iman valley had fully switched to Chinese and borrowed Chinese ways of keeping house, their customs, beliefs, etc. These groups formed the foundations of the Taz ethnic group. The Taz were different from the Chinese themselves in many elements of their life and continued to ply their trades. Thus, they still hunted, and women were active hunters, too; the Taz ate raw meat and fish, and sun-cured fish, etc.

The Nanai living along the river Vaku were also mostly assimilated, lost their native tongue, and some of them who were listed as Goldes in their passports were subsequently moved to Mikhailovka with the Taz. Today, these two groups merged and are now different only in their passport entries.

General characteristics

Numbers of native speakers and the corresponding ethnic group

The first relatively reliable information on the numbers of the Taz was recorded in 1872. At that point, there were 638 Taz in the Ussuri area. The Taz lived in separate families in southern Primorye. In 1938, the Taz were gathered together and moved to the village of Mikhailovka that was “freed up” after Koreans had been deported. In 1948-49, as yet non-collectivized Taz from the Lazo district were moved there, too, and in 1951-52, Goldes living in the village of Bulyga-Fadeyevo in the upper reaches of the Ussuri joined them in Mikhailovka. Officially, the Taz were recognized in 2000 when they were put on the list of indigenous small-numbered peoples of the Russian Federation (Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 255 of March 24, 2000).

The Taz were recorded in censuses as Taz only starting in 2002; prior to that, they had apparently been recorded as the Nanai or the Udege.

Table 1. The Taz numbers’ dynamics

Today, the Taz use Russian names and patronymics, and their last names frequently are full Chinese names of their grandfather or great-grandfathers. For instance, the last names Ulaisi and Ubolin ( Ubolina for women) were derived from complete Chinese names Wu Lai Xi and Wu Bo-ling where “Wu” is a Chinese last name.

Taz is extinct. The Taz use Russian in all fields. The 2002 Census recorded only 5 Taz who reported speaking Taz. The 2010 Census did not record a single Taz speaking their mother tongue.

Use in various fields.

Currently, Taz is not used even in family life. It is not taught as a subject. The Khabarovsk region regularly holds further education courses for native tongue teachers, there are no courses on Taz. Taz is not used in the media (radio, TV, the press) or on the internet.

The Taz dialect was the language of traditional religion: ancestor worship, belief in spirits, worshipping them in special shrines, celebrations of the Chinese New Year. These practices are to some degree preserved. At the same time, many Taz are converting to Christianity, some consider themselves Buddhists.

There is no fiction written in Taz.

Information on the writing system (if applicable).

Taz is an unwritten language. Yuri A. Sem and Lidia I. Sem developed a recording system used in compiling the Taz dictionary and in setting down Taz words in academic works. This Cyrillic-based system had additional letters and also used diacritics.

Geographic characteristics

Traditionally, the Taz were dispersed through the southern Primorye, they lived as individual families along the rivers Suchan, Sudzukhe, Vangou, Pkhusun, Avvakumovka, Tadushi, Tetyukhe. In 1938, the Taz were brought together and moved to the village of Mikhailovka in the Olga district.

Constituent entities of the Russian Federation with ethnic communites: Primorye area.

Total number of traditional native settlements: 4.

List of principal settlements with Taz population

The majority of the Taz live in the Olga district of the Primorye area: in the villages of:

Mikhailovka  - 105 persons

Vesyoly Yar - 55 persons

Olga (district center) and Permskoye -18 persons

Historical dynamics

Table 2. Command of the Taz language and number of speakers.

Taz has to be considered extinct.

Table 3. The urban and rural Taz

Over 40% of the Taz live in cities, they are urbanized to a greater degree than many other indigenous peoples of Russia. There is one Taz person living in Moscow and St. Petersburg each.

II. Linguistic data.

Position in the genealogy of world languages.

Taz is a dialect of Chinese.

Dialects.

There are no dialects identified in Taz.