Komi Peoples

The Komi ( kv, комияс, ''komijas'' also ''комі-войтир, komi-vojtyr)'', also called Komi-Zyryans or Zyryans, are an indigenous Permian ethnic group whose homeland is in the northeast of European Russia around the basins of the Vychegda, Pechora and Kama rivers. They mostly reside in the Komi Republic, Perm Krai, Murmansk Oblast, Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, and Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug in the Russian Federation.

Name

There have been at least three names for the Komis: ''Permyaks'', ''Zyrians'' ( rus, пермяки, зыряне) and ''Komi'', the last being the self-designation of the people.

The name Permyaks firstly appeared in the 10th century in Russian sources and came from the ancient name of the land between the Mezen River and Pechora River – ''Perm'' or "''Great Perm''" (russian: Пермь Великая). Several origins of the name have been proposed but the most accepted is from Veps ''Peräma'' "back, outer or far-away land" from Veps ''perä'' "back, extreme" and ''ma'' "land". In Old Norse and Old English, it was known as ''Bjarmaland'' and ''Beormas'' respectively but those Germanic names might designate some other place than the Russian ''Perm''. Since the 20th century, the name has been applied only to the southern Komi (Komi-Permyaks) in Perm Krai. In Russian ''permyak'' also means "an inhabitant of Perm or Perm Krai" independently from ethnicity.

The name for the northern Komis – Zyrians – has a more contradictory origin. It exists since the 14th century and it had many different forms in various Russian sources such as ''Seryan, Siryan, Syryan, Suryan'' and ''Ziryan, Zyryan'' (russian: серьяне, сирьяне, сыряне, суряне, зиряне, зыряне), but the latter finally became predominant. Turkin believed that it may come from a small local tribe of the Komis (probably named ''saran'') which first met the Russians, hence the name became default for all the northern Komis. The neighbouring Uralic-speaking peoples call the Komis with similar names: Khanty ''sərän, sərån, săran, sārån'', Mansi ''sarän'', Nenets ''sānnğr, saran'', Udmurt ''sara-kum''.

The name Komi is the endonym for all groups of the people. It was first recorded by ethnographers in the 18th century. It originates from a Finno-Ugric word meaning "man, human": Komi ''kom'', Udmurt ''kum'', Mansi ''kom, kum'', Khanty ''xum'', Selkup ''qum'', Hungarian ''hím'' "male". The origin from the name of the Kama River is disproved though some scholars (like Paula Kokkonen) favour this version.

Subgroups and geographic distribution

Komi people are divided into two main groups, which are the Zyryans (northern Komi) & the Permyaks (southern Komi). They are divided into 8 major subgroupings (9 if counting the nearly-assimilated Komi of the Upper Kama), of which they are divided into several even smaller subgroups. The Komi have been traditionally named after the rivers where they live:
*Komi-Zyryans
** Komi-Izhma of the Izhma River ( Komi: Изьватас, ''Iźvatas''; Nenets: нысма, ''nysma'')
***Komi of the Kola Peninsula
***Komi of Nenets Autonomous Okrug
***Komi of the Lower Ob and Lyapin Rivers
**Komi of the Vashka and Mezen Rivers (Komi: Удораса, ''Udorasa'')
**Komi of the Vym River (Komi: Емватас, ''Emvatas'')
**Komi of the Lower Ob River
**Komi of the Pechora River (Komi: Печораса'', Pećorasa'')
**Komi of the Vychegda River (Komi: Эжватас, ''Ežvatas'')
**Komi of the Sysola River (Komi: Сыктывсаяс, ''Syktyvsayas'')
**Komi of the Letka and Luza Rivers (Komi: Лузса, ''Lusza'')
*Komi-Permyaks
**Komi of the Yazva River
**Komi of the Upper Kama River (nearly fully assimilated into Russians)
The majority of Komi (who numbered 256,000 as of the beginning of the 2000s) live in the Komi Republic as a separate national-administrative entity of the Russian Federation. Although the majority of the Komi population live in the Komi Republic, they make up only 30% (256,000) of the total population there as a noticeable minority population. About 60% (607 thousand) are Russians, about 6% (62 thousand) are Ukrainians, 1.5% (15.5 thousand) are Tatars, and 1.4% (15 thousand) are Belarusians. Most of the population of the Republic of Komi resides in urban centres, a notable minority continues to live in villages. The Komi population in the countryside tends to be higher than that of Komi in urban areas, where ethnic Russians make up the majority of the population. Like the rest of the Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia, the population continues to steadily decrease - the 2010 census recorded only 228,235 people who indicated their nationality as "Komi", as compared to the 336,309 recorded as Komi in the 1989 census.

Language

The Komi language