Nanai language
| Nanai | |
|---|---|
| Hezhe, Gold | |
| На̄най хэсэни, на̄ни | |
| Native to | Russia, China |
| Region | Russian Far East, Heilongjiang |
| Ethnicity | Nanai people |
Native speakers | 1,400 (2010) |
| Dialects |
|
| Cyrillic | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | gld |
| Glottolog | nana1257 |
| ELP | Nanai |
Nanay is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
The Nanai language (also called Gold, Goldi, or Hezhen) is spoken by the Nanai people in Siberia, and to a much smaller extent in China's Heilongjiang province, where it is known as Hezhe. The language has about 1,400 speakers out of 17,000 ethnic Nanai, but most (especially the younger generations) are also fluent in Russian or Chinese, and mostly use one of those languages for communication.