Udmurt Language
The Udmurt language is a Finno-Ugric language. Many people would assume that the Udmurt language most closely mirrors Russian, however, it is actually most similar to Finnish or Hungarian. Currently, there are less than 350,000 people worldwide that speak Udmurt, and fewer every year. As Russian influence spreads throughout Udmurtia, Udmurt speakers are fewer and farther between. For this reason, we thought it essential during our trip to learn some of this language to help in its preservation.
Although this language was extremely difficult to learn, we were able to read and write some phrases. Some of the most common words we used were “тау” pronounced “tau” which means ‘thank you’. The Udmurt people are the kindest people we have met, and we found ourselves using this phrase all day long! Listen to the video above to hear a traditional Udmurt "Goodbye" song. |
It was really exciting for us to be able to take a few Udmurt language lessons. One thing I admired is that in many schools they are trying to revive the Udmurt language courses, as many young Udmurt children do not know this language and only speak Russian. Therefore, we were joined together with Udmurt teens to learn Udmurt and, of course, to sing Udmurt songs!
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