Yakut Language (or Sakha)

Where? — In the Russian Federation. Mainly in North Eastern Siberia; in the autonomous Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), as well as in the Amur, Magadan, Sakhalin regions, the Evenki and Taimyr autonomous districts and others in the North and Far Eastern Russian Federation.

Language Family — Yakut belongs to the Northern Turkic group of the Turkic branch. Some linguists consider the Turkic languages to be a part of the Altaic language family. But the existence of an Altaic language family remains a matter of debate among historical linguists. Other Turkic languages are Turkish (the Turkic language with the most speakers), Azeri, Kazakh & Uzbek.

How many? — A total of roughly 363,000 Yakut speakers in the Russian Federation.

Did you know? In the Yakut language there is a word for camel, as opposed to the other indigenous Siberian languages which use the Russian word verblyud. This implies that ancestors were familiar with this animal, suggesting more southern roots to the language.