Alternate Names: Nivkh, Nivkhi
Dialects: Amur, East Sakhalin Gilyak, North Sakhalin Gilyak. Amur and East Sakhalin dialects have difficult inherent mutual intelligibility. North Sakhalin is between them linguistically.
Genealogy:
Demographics: 200 (2010 census). A few hundred active users (Salminen 2007). Ethnic population: 4,650 (2010 census).
Language Use: Seriously endangered (2000 A. Kibrik). Forced resettlement weakened use. Some scattered without regular contact with other speakers. No younger speakers in Amur region and very few on Sakhalin (Salminen 2007). Home. Mainly older adults. Neutral to mildly positive attitudes. Ethnic group bilingual or monolingual in Russian [rus].
Language Development: Taught through second grade in settlements at Nogliki and Nekrasovka. Not taught at Amur. Dictionary. Grammar.
Writing System: Cyrillic, Latin
Nation of Origin: Russian Federation