Taz people
Тазы | |
|---|---|
Traditional Taz clothing and artifacts in a Russian museum | |
| Total population | |
| 235 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Russia | 235 |
| Languages | |
| Russian, Mandarin Chinese (Taz dialect) | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Han Chinese, Udege, Nanai, Oroch | |
The Taz (Russian: Та́зы, romanized: Tázy; Chinese: 塔兹; pinyin: Tǎzī) are a mixed Sinitic and Tungusic ethnic group who primarily live in Primorsky Krai, Russia. The Taz people emerged from intermarriages between Han Chinese men and Tungusic women of the Udege, Nanai, and Oroch ethnic groups in Outer Manchuria. Today, the Taz primarily speak Russian, but their traditional language is the Taz dialect, a variety of Northeast Mandarin with loanwords from Udege and Nanai. The modern ethnonym "Taz" is a Russified version of the Chinese term tazi (meaning "indigenous, native").