Nenets (yurak), here of the tundra, one of the two Samoyed dialects (is closely related to Nganasan and Enets) of the Nenets (Nenetz), who live near the polar circle. Nenets is spoken in the northernmost Russia, in an area extending from the White sea to the Yenisei river. Its is an Uralic language, which divides into two dialects, that of the forest and that of the tundra for about 30,000 speakers. Nenets is the most widely spoken of the Samoyed anguages.
The Nenets
The Nenets (Nenetz) are nomads, and live by fishing and reindeer herding. They live on the side of the Yamal peninsula a life that has not changed for a millennium. Reindeer is at the heart of their culture: clothing, food, leisure (reindeer races). It is so necessary and emblematic that its importance goes even to the sacred! Their nomadic life, being very difficult, many of them flee this nomadism and are assimilated by the Russian society.
