Alternate Names: Central Selkups, Chumyl’ Khumyt, Northern Selkups, Ostyak Samoyed, Shöl Khumyt, Shösh Gulla, Syusugulla
Dialects: Narym (Central Selkup), Srednyaya Ob-Ket (Southern Sel’kup), Taz (Northern Sel’kup, Tazov-Baishyan), Tym (Kety). Dialect continuum with difficult or impossible intelligibility between extremes. Southern speakers separated geographically from others. Northern Selkup literature not usable by Southern and Central.
Genealogy:
Demographics: 1,020 (2010 census). Central Selkup: 200 speakers, Northern Selkup: 1,000 to 1,500 speakers, Southern Selkup: less than 100 speakers (Salminen 2007). Ethnic population: 3,900 (2010 census).
Language Use: In Ratta and Purovskaya Tolka almost everybody knows Selkup, including children and other ethnicities. Northern dialect spoken by 90% of people, but not mastered by young adults and children. Southern dialect spoken by 30%; 10–15 adults, all over 70, speak fluently. Most children are monolingual Russian [rus] speakers (Salminen 2007). Positive attitudes among Northern Selkups, neutral attitudes among Central and Southern Selkups. Russian [rus] also used for most key domains, except perhaps family.
Language Development: Northern dialect taught in schools through fourth grade. Grammar.
Writing System: Cyrillic
Nation of Origin: Russian Federation
Other Comments: Formerly lingua franca for Ket, Evenki, Nenets, and Khanty. Traditional religion.