Mansi - Orientation

Identification. The Mansi, known in older literature as the "Voguls," are one of two Ugrian peoples who live in northwestern Siberia, just east of the Urals in the lowlands crossed by a number of rivers, many of which are tributaries of the Ob.

Location. The Mansi live from about 60° N to 65° N, primarily along rivers: the northern regions of the Sosva and Lyapin, the Konda and its tributaries, and the upper reaches of the Lozva and Pelym, although today many live among ethnic Russians along the Ob. The rivers provide a rich variety of fish, including sturgeon, lingcod, taimen, tugun, and others. Pike and chebak are found everywhere. Much of the area in which the Mansi live, including the highlands, is bog or swamp. Snow cover lasts more than half the year, and when it finally melts it fills the flood plains of the rivers. The forests are both coniferous—with cedar, pine, fir, and larch—and deciduous, with birch and aspen. Long days in the summer provide enough warmth for a brief but rich growth of vegetation, including berries. Common wildlife includes squirrels, elks, brown bears, and forest and aquatic birds; some regions abound in muskrat, beavers, and wild northern reindeer. Bitter-cold temperatures in the winter, dropping at times to near —50° C, contrast with summer temperatures that reach over 33° C and average 15.5° C in July.

Demography. The census of 1926 recorded 6,311 Mansi, of whom 5,219 (82.7 percent) spoke Mansi as their native language. In 1989, of the 8,500 Mansi recorded, only 37.1 percent spoke the language as their native tongue. Most live in the Berezovsk and Kondinsk regions of the Khanty-Mansiisk Autonomous District ( okrug ) and in Tiumen Province (oblast). Some Mansi live in relatively large, planned central Soviet villages such as Saranpaul' and Niaksymvol among Komi, Nenets, Russians, and others. In these towns they have access to schools, post offices, hospitals, and stores that sell food and industrial and consumer goods. Others live in moderate-sized villages (150 to 300 residents), populated mostly by fellow Mansi (50 to 90 percent), that have services such as medical stations, in some cases primary schools, and more limited stores selling foods and industrial goods. Finally, there are smaller groups of Mansi who live in isolated settlements of less than 75 people. They travel to the central villages for trade and services.

Linguistic Affiliation. The Mansi language, along with the neighboring Ob-Ugrian language, Khanty, combines with Hungarian to make up the Ugrian Branch of the Finno-Ugric Language Family. Mansi speakers are traditionally divided into four dialectal groups designated by cardinal directions—north, south, east, and west—but more accurately into about eighteen subdialects associated with the residence patterns along the rivers. The principal speakers of Mansi today are the northern and eastern groups. The first lexicons and dictionaries of the Mansi language were compiled by missionaries and travelers in the first half of the eighteenth century. Schools were organized for the Konda Mansi in the last half of the nineteenth century, and a Gospel in the Konda dialect was published in London in 1868. A practical written language was created in the early 1930s, and the first Mansi language primer was published in 1932. In 1937 the Latin script was replaced by the Cyrillic.