Even language

Even, also known as Lamut, Ewen, Eben, Orich, Ilqan (Russian: Эве́нский язы́к, romanized: Evénsky yazýk, historically also Ламутский язы́к, Lamutsky yazýk), is a Tungusic language spoken by the Evens in Siberia. It is spoken by widely scattered communities of reindeer herders from Kamchatka and the Sea of Okhotsk in the east to the Lena river in the west and from the Arctic coast in the north to the Aldan river in the south. Even is an endangered language with only some 5,700 speakers (Russian census, 2010). These speakers are specifically from the Magadan Oblast, the Chukot Autonomous Okrug and the Kamchatka Krai. The now-extinct Arman dialect was highly divergent and may have been a separate language.

In the regions where the Evens primarily reside, the Even language is generally taught in pre-school and elementary school alongside the national language, Russian. Where Even functioned primarily as an oral language for communication between reindeer herding brigades, textbooks began circulating throughout these educational institutions from around 1925 to 1995.

The syntax of the Even language follows the nominative case and subject–object–verb (SOV) word order, with the attribute preceding the dependent member.