Words Like Birds is the most recent English-language volume dedicated to identity in the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) in the Russian Federation that has been released in the last several years. Following on the heels of Rane Willerslev’s On the Run in Siberia (2012) and Robin Harris’s Storytelling in Siberia (2017), it adds another perspective on the examination of minority voices in this vast region of eastern Siberia. Given the ethnic diversity of Russia, this study is a welcome contribution to the literature, which, like the country itself, is largely Russo-centric. Unlike Willerslev and Harris, Jenanne Ferguson does not primarily focus on cultural practices, but rather on Sakha language use and beliefs about it. However, her study is grounded in the question of how language and culture are tied together; thus, portions of the book would be of great interest to folklorists.
Unlike many languages native to the former USSR, Sakha has thrived despite official language policies that strongly favored Russian during much of the Soviet period from 1917 to 1991. In the introduction and first three chapters Ferguson, lays out her research question and approaches. She seeks to provide reasons for the anomaly of Sakha as compared to many other languages spoken in the country. She focuses on the city of Yakutsk, where Sakha has been used in public and official contexts and where it was largely absent before the fall of the Soviet Union. She frames her argument on the basis of demographic data about Yakutia (where Sakha speakers have always been the majority), adaptability (serving as a lingua franca among other ethnic groups in the region, including, at least in the tsarist period, among Russians), and intelligibility among dialects, despite the huge distances involved. However, she argues that these factors alone, while playing an important role, are not sufficient conditions for this minority language to thrive. She contends that the association between the Sakha language and its bond with the land and its spiritual forces have ensured its survival. In order to demonstrate this hypothesis, she examines the question of religious ritual and its association with the Sakha language, itself perceived as a spiritual entity, relying on the concept of the ontologies of language, i.e., “how language is situated in relation to culturally shaped ideas and being” (6). Ferguson makes a compelling argument, drawing on sociolinguistic theory and, in particular, on studies of other minority languages from other countries in this region as well as those in Africa, the Americas, and Australia.
The one defect in the early part of the book is Ferguson’s claim that government policies had “frozen” folklore, particularly, but not only, oral genres, through the process of folklorization. She makes much of the fact that Soviet officials had to approve all texts of folk songs designed for public consumption, thereby harming the tradition. Nevertheless, she highlights an annual event during the Soviet era when a communist party member performed the traditional rite of Yhyakh (welcoming of summer) at his dacha with his family. It has been well documented that public ritual celebrations and improvised performances may have been forbidden (or coopted) by governmental authorities in the USSR and its satellites. However, since Ferguson stresses the importance of the agency of Sakha speakers in its maintenance, this wholehearted assumption that folklorization was thoroughly effective represents a significant shortcoming. She overlooks the important work of folklorists and ethnomusicologists like John McDowell (2010), Ana Hoffman (2011), and Robin Harris (2017), to name but a few, who have demonstrated that folklorization was met with resistance, subversion and, ultimately, reclamation and innovation, just as Ferguson argues about Sakha speakers. In sum, she falls victim to the binary categories she strenuously challenges in her analysis of language use when discussing the folk culture so central to her thesis.
Chapters 4-7 offer case studies based on the author’s fieldwork that elaborate on the linguacultural connections she has outlined. Chapter 4 discusses how the tie between land (and spirituality) is preserved as higher levels of in-migration to cities occur in the wake of rural economic crises. As a result of this fact, as well as of regional governmental policies supporting minority language education and their use in official contexts, Sakha speech in Yakutsk is significantly more common than it was in 1991. Chapter 5 turns to questions of linguistic purity and examines how rural speech not only contributes to revitalization of the language in the city, but also how urban speakers stake a claim to the legitimacy of their register, which often contains more Russian forms than rural dialects. Chapters 6 and 7 are the highlights of the volume, both in terms of the analytical approach and the fascinating data linking culture, language, and identity. Chapter 6 presents case studies of Sakha speakers and how their life trajectories and shifting values influence language use and ethnic identity. While Ferguson does not use the term intersectionality to describe her framework, it certainly encapsulates the rich interconnected linguistic biographies presented in this section. The final chapter addresses the role of digital media and cellphone technology in expressing Sakha identity through language and cultural practices. Of particular note is Ferguson’s treatment of popular music in Sakha, comedic music videos and their subtexts, texting practices, and the use of the Internet to increase interest and fluency in traditional folk genres and holiday practices (as well as in language).
One minor quibble with the book is that it lacks a glossary. While Ferguson defines Sakha words important to her argument when they first appear, those not familiar with Turkic languages will often need a reminder of their meaning when they occur later. A glossary (or a more thorough index that enables the reader to search for the first iteration) would solve this problem. The book is best suited to advanced courses on anthropological linguistics or sociolinguistics. However, I would gladly assign the last two chapters in my undergraduate courses on folklore or linguistics given their insightful approach to interconnections between minority language and culture.
Works Cited
Harris, Robin. Storytelling in Siberia: The Olonkho Epic in a Changing World. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2017.
Hoffman, Ana. “Questioning Socialist Folklorization: The Beltinci Folklore Festival in the Slovenian Borderland of Prekmurje.” In Audiovisual Media and Identity Issues in Southeastern Europe , edited by Eckehard Pistrick, Nicola Scaldaferri, and Gretel Schwörer, 238-57. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012.
McDowell, John. “Rethinking Folklorization in Ecuador: Multivocality in the Expressive Contact Zone,” Western Folklore 69 (2010):181-209.
Willerslev, Rane. On the Run in Siberia. Translated by Coilín ÓhAiseadha. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2012.
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[Review length: 1091 words • Review posted on October 31, 2019]