The Nanai language, one of the Manchu-Tungusic languages of the so-called Altaic language family, is seriously endangered with only a few fluent native speakers, as well as with no intergenerational language transmission, making its documentation an extremely urgent undertaking for linguists.
In this book we present the transcriptions, linguistic annotations, and translations of a fluent Nanai speaker’s spontaneous narratives on the life cycle of the Nanai people, which are divided into the following four topics: Childhood Education and Child Rearing rituals, Birth rituals, Wedding rituals, and Funeral rituals. In addition, we provide an English translation of the abridged Russian version of the materials, as well as an alphabetical list of lexical and grammatical forms with their meanings.
The goal of our research is, on the one hand, to help understand the cultural practices of the Nanai people and their language, and on the other hand, to contribute to the revitalization of the Nanai language

Juwon Kim

Department of Linguistics, Seoul National University, Korea

Dongho Ko

Department of Korean Language and Literature, Chonbuk National University, Korea

Antonina KILE
Department of Art and Crafts, Far Eastern State University of Humanities, Russia

CHOI Moonjeong
Department of Russian Language and Literature, Kyung Hee University, Korea