The Udmurts ( udm, Удмуртъёс, ) are a
Permian
The Permian ( ) is a geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system which spans 47 million years from the end of the Carboniferous Period million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Triassic Period 251.9 Mya. It is the last ...
(
Finnic)
ethnic group in
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whic ...
, who speak the
Udmurt language
Udmurt is a Permic language spoken by the Udmurt people who are native to Udmurtia. As a Uralic language, it is distantly related to languages such as Finnish, Estonian, Mansi, Khanty, and Hungarian. The Udmurt language is co-official with Ru ...
. In the course of history,
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
-speakers have referred to them as ' (), Otyaks, Wotyaks
[ or Votyaks.
]
Etymology
The name ''Udmurt'' comes from * 'meadow people,' where the first part represents the Permic
The Permic or Permian languages are a branch of the Uralic language family. They are spoken in several regions to the west of the Ural Mountains within the Russian Federation. The total number of speakers is around 950,000, of which around 550,00 ...
root * 'meadow, glade, turf, greenery', and the second part, ''murt'' means 'person' (cf. Komi , Mari ), probably an early borrowing from an Iranian language
The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau.
The Iranian languages are grouped ...
(such as Scythian
The Scythians or Scyths, and sometimes also referred to as the Classical Scythians and the Pontic Scythians, were an ancient Eastern
* : "In modern scholarship the name 'Sakas' is reserved for the ancient tribes of northern and eastern Centra ...
): * or * 'person, man' (cf. Persian ), which is thought to have been borrowed from the Indo-Aryan term * 'man', literally 'mortal, one who is bound to die' (< PIE 'to die'), compare Old Indic
The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in India, P ...
'young warrior' and Old Indic 'chariot warrior', both connected specifically with horses and chariots. This is supported by a document dated 1557, in which the Udmurts are referred to as ''lugovye lyudi'' 'meadow people', alongside the traditional Russian name .
On the other hand, in the Russian tradition, the name 'meadow people' refers to the inhabitants of the left bank of river in general. Recently, the most relevant is the version of V. V. Napolskikh and S. K. Belykh. They suppose that ethnonym was borrowed from the Iranian entirely: 'resident of outskirts, border zone' (cf. '' Antes'') → Proto-Permic * → Udmurt .
Distribution
Most Udmurt people live in Udmurtia
Udmurtia (russian: Удму́ртия, r=Udmúrtiya, p=ʊˈdmurtʲɪjə; udm, Удмуртия, ''Udmurtija''), or the Udmurt Republic (russian: Удмуртская Республика, udm, Удмурт Республика, Удмурт ...
. Small groups live in the neighboring areas of Kirov Oblast and Perm Krai
Perm Krai (russian: Пе́рмский край, r=Permsky kray, p=ˈpʲɛrmskʲɪj ˈkraj, ''Permsky krai'', , ''Perem lador'') is a federal subject of Russia (a krai) that came into existence on December 1, 2005 as a result of the 2004 re ...
of Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
, Bashkortostan
The Republic of Bashkortostan or Bashkortostan ( ba, Башҡортостан Республикаһы, Bashqortostan Respublikahy; russian: Республика Башкортостан, Respublika Bashkortostan),; russian: Респу́блик ...
, Tatarstan
The Republic of Tatarstan (russian: Республика Татарстан, Respublika Tatarstan, p=rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə tətɐrˈstan; tt-Cyrl, Татарстан Республикасы), or simply Tatarstan (russian: Татарстан, tt ...
, and Mari El
The Mari El Republic (russian: Респу́блика Мари́й Эл, ''Respublika Mariy El''; Meadow Mari: ; Hill Mari: ) is a republic of Russia. It is in the European Russia region of the country, along the northern bank of the Volga Rive ...
.
The Udmurt population is shrinking; the Russian Census reported 552,299 in 2010, down from the 2002 Russian census
The Russian Census of 2002 (russian: Всеросси́йская пе́репись населе́ния 2002 го́да) was the first census of the Russian Federation since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, carried out on October 9 through O ...
figure of 637,000, in turn down from 746,562 in 1989.
The 2010 census counted fewer Udmurts than had the 1939 census.
Culture
The Udmurt language belongs to the Uralic
The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian (w ...
family.
The Udmurts have a national epic called ''Dorvyzhy Dorvyzhy ( udm, Дорвыжы, lit. "homeland roots" or "homeland generation") is the Udmurt literary national epic. It was originally compiled and written in Russian by Mikhail Khudiakov in the 1920s with the title ''Песнь об удмурт ...
''. Their national musical instruments include the '' krez'' zither (similar to the Russian ''gusli
''Gusli'' ( rus, гусли, p=ˈɡuslʲɪ) is the oldest East Slavic multi-string plucked instrument, belonging to the zither family, due to its strings being parallel to its resonance board. Its roots lie in Veliky Novgorod in Novgorodian Ru ...
'') and a pipe-like wind instrument
A wind instrument is a musical instrument that contains some type of resonator (usually a tube) in which a column of air is set into vibration by the player blowing into (or over) a mouthpiece set at or near the end of the resonator. The pitc ...
called the .
A chapter in the French from 1776 is devoted to the description of the Wotyak people.
James George Frazer also mentions a rite performed by the people in his book '' The Golden Bough''.
Many Udmurt people have red hair, and a festival to celebrate the red-haired people has been held annually in Izhevsk since 2004.
The Udmurts used to be semi-nomadic forest dwellers that lived in riverside communities. However, most Udmurts now live in towns. Although the clan-based social structure of the Udmurts no longer exists, its traces are still strong and it continues to shape modern Udmurt culture.
See also
* Besermyan (considered a subgroup of the Udmurts)
References
Further reading
* .
Сто сказок удмуртского народа
hundred fairy tales from the Udmurt people Ижевск: Удмуртское книжное издательство, 1961.
* . "III. Forschungsberichte: Die Volkserzählungen der Wotjaken (Udmurten) (Mit Beiträgen von Walter Anderson)". In: '' Fabula'' 5, no. Jahresband (1962): 101-155. https://doi.org/10.1515/fabl.1962.5.1.101
* Shushakova, Galina.
The Idea of Earthly and Unearthly worlds in the Udmurt fairy-tales
. In: ''Folk Belief Today''. Edited by Mare Kõiva and Kai Vassiljeva. Tartu: Estonian Academy of Sciences; Institute of Estonian Language; Estonian Museum of Literature, 1995. pp. 442-446. .
External links
Udmurtology
, ''a site devoted to the Udmurt language and online resources''.
* Udmurt language Wikipedia
{{authority control
Permians
Ethnic groups in Russia
History of Ural
History of Udmurtia
Indigenous peoples of Europe
Indigenous peoples of Russia
People from Udmurtia