Udmurts

{{Infobox ethnic group

| group = Udmurts
{{lang|udm|Удмуртъёс}}

| image = Sep, Italmas Nuk - 48012139112.jpg

| image_alt =

| caption = Udmurt children wearing traditional outfits during a flower festival in Igrinsky, Udmurtia, Russia (2019)

| flag = File:Flag of Udmurtia.svg

| flag_caption = Flag of Udmurtia

| pop = 396,000 (2021)

| popplace = Udmurtia

| region1 = {{flag|Russia}}

| pop1 = 386,465 (2021)

| ref1 =

| region2 = {{flag|Kazakhstan}}

| pop2 = 5,824 (2009)

| ref2 =

| region3 = {{flag|Ukraine}}

| pop3 = 4,712 (2001)

| ref3 = [http://2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua/results/nationality_population/nationality_popul1/select_5/?botton=cens_db&box=5.1W&k_t=00&p=100&rz=1_1&rz_b=2_1%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20&n_page=5 State statistics committee of Ukraine - National composition of population, 2001 census] (Ukrainian)

| region4 = {{flag|Estonia}}

| pop4 = 193 (2011)

| ref4 = [http://pub.stat.ee/px-web.2001/Dialog/varval.asp?ma=RL0428&ti=RAHVASTIK+RAHVUSE%2C+SOO+JA+ELUKOHA+J%C4RGI%2C+31%2E+DETSEMBER+2011&path=../Database/Rahvaloendus/REL2011/07Rahvastiku_demograafilised_ja_etno_kultuurilised_naitajad/08Rahvus_Emakeel_ja_keelteoskus_Murded/&lang=2 RL0428: Rahvastik rahvuse, soo ja elukoha järgi, 31. detsember 2011]

| region5 = {{flag|Latvia}}

| pop5 = 179–197 (2023)

| ref5 = {{Cite web|url=https://data.stat.gov.lv/pxweb/en/OSP_PUB/START__POP__IR__IRE/IRE010/table/tableViewLayout1/|title=Population by ethnicity at the beginning of year – Time period and Ethnicity | National Statistical System of Latvia |website=data.stat.gov.lv}}[https://www.pmlp.gov.lv/lv/media/9756/download?attachment Latvijas iedzīvotāju sadalījums pēc nacionālā sastāva un valstiskās piederības, 01.01.2023. - PMLP]

| rels = Majority:
Russian Orthodoxy
Minority:
Udmurt Vos
Protestantism
Pentecostalism{{Cite web|url=http://sreda.org/arena|title = Главная страница проекта "Арена" : Некоммерческая Исследовательская Служба "Среда"}}
Islam{{cite web | url=http://www.iz-article.ru/islam_8.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180201024731/http://www.iz-article.ru/islam_8.html | archive-date=2018-02-01 | title=IZ-article }}

| langs = Udmurt, Russian

| related = Other Permians, especially Besermyan

}}

The Udmurts ({{langx|udm|Удмуртъёс}}, {{Transliteration|udm|Udmurtjos}}) are a Permian (Finno-Ugric){{Cite web |title=Udmurtiya {{!}} Republic in Russia, Culture & History {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Udmurtiya |access-date=2024-01-05 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}} ethnic group in Eastern Europe, who speak the Udmurt language. They mainly live in the republic of Udmurtia in Russia.

Etymology

The name Udmurt comes from *{{Lang|mis|odo-mort}} 'meadow people,' where the first part represents the Permic root *{{Lang|mis|od(o)}}{{cite web | url=https://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/vasmer/49476/уд | title=уд | это... Что такое уд? }} meaning 'meadow, glade, turf, greenery'. The second part, murt, means 'person' (cf. Komi {{Lang|kv-latn|mort}}, Mari {{Lang|chm-latn|mari}}, Mordvin mirď-), probably an early borrowing from an Iranian language (such as Scythian): *{{Lang|xsc|mertä}} or *{{Lang|xsc|martiya}} meaning 'person, man' (cf. Persian {{Lang|fa-latn|mard}}). This, in turn, is thought to have been borrowed from the Indo-Aryan term *{{Lang|inc-latn|maryá-}} 'man', literally 'mortal, one who is bound to die' (< PIE {{Lang|ine-x-proto|mer-}} 'to die'), compare Old Indic {{Lang|mis|márya}} 'young warrior' and Old Indic {{Lang|mis|marut}} 'chariot warrior', both connected specifically with horses and chariots.Christopher I. Beckwith. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 2009. Page 397. This is supported by a document dated 1557, in which the Udmurts are referred to as lugovye lyudi 'meadow people', alongside the traditional Russian name {{Lang|ru-latn|otyaki}}.A.G. Ivanov, "Udmurty – 'Lugovye lyudi'", Linguistica Uralica Vol. 27, No. 3 (1991), pp. 188–92.

On the other hand, in the Russian tradition, the name 'meadow people' refers to the inhabitants of the left bank of a river in general. Most relevant in this regard is the recent theory proposed by V. V. Napolskikh and S. K. Belykh, who suppose that the ethnonym was borrowed from Proto-Iranian entirely: {{Lang|ira-x-proto|anta-marta}} meaning 'resident of outskirts, border zone' (cf. Antes) → Proto-Permic *{{Lang|mis|odə-mort}} → Udmurt {{Lang|udm-latn|udmurt}}.Белых С. К., Напольских В. В. [http://www.udmurt.info/library/belykh/udmetn.htm Этноним удмурт: исчерпаны ли альтернативы?] Linguistica Uralica. T. 30, № 4. Tallinn, 1994.

During the course of the Russian Empire, Udmurts have been referred to mainly as {{Transliteration|ru|Chud Otyatskaya}} ({{lang|ru|чудь отяцкая}}), Otyaks, Wotyaks or Votyaks, all being exonyms. Today such exonyms are considered offensive by Udmurts themselves and are mainly used against those who have forgotten the Udmurt language. The Udmurts are closely related to Komis to their north, both linguistically and culturally.{{citation needed|date=July 2024}}

Distribution

File:Ареал расселения удмуртов в Волго-Уральском регионе. По данным Всероссийской переписи населения 2010 года..png (Volga-Ural) region (data based on the 2010 Russian Census]]

Most Udmurt people live in Udmurtia. Small groups live in the neighboring areas of Kirov Oblast and Perm Krai, Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, and Mari El.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}

The Udmurt population is shrinking; the Russian Census reported 552,299 in 2010, down from the 2002 Russian census figure of 637,000, in turn down from 746,562 in 1989.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}

The 2021 census counted fewer Udmurts than had the 1926 census.

class="wikitable"

|+Udmurts in Russia (1926–2021)

!Census

!1926

!1939

!1959

!1970

!1979

!1989

!2002

!2010

!2021

Population

|503,970

|599,893

|615,640

|678,393

|685,718

|714,883

|636,906

|552,299

|386,465

Percentage

|0.54%

|0.55%

|0.52%

|0.50%

|0.49%

|0.45%

|0.40%

|0.30%

Culture

File:Wotyaks (Udmurts).jpg

File:Кузебай Герд.jpg (1898–1937)]]

The Udmurt language belongs to the Uralic family.

The Udmurts have a national epic called Dorvyzhy. Their national musical instruments include the krez zither (similar to the Russian gusli) and a pipe-like wind instrument called the {{Lang|udm-latn|chipchirghan}}.{{cite book|author=Vitaly Michka|title=Inside the New Russia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_IMrAQAAMAAJ|access-date=17 June 2012|date=1 October 1994|publisher=SC Publishing|isbn=978-1-885024-17-6}}

A chapter in the French {{Lang|fr|Description de toutes les nations de l'empire de Russie}} from 1776 is devoted to the description of the Wotyak people.{{cite book|last1=Müller|first1=C. G.|title=Description de toutes les nations de l'empire de Russie | date=1776|location=St. Petersburg|page=65 |chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/descriptiondetou01geor#page/65/mode/1up| language=fr|chapter=Les Wotyaks}}

James George Frazer also mentions a rite performed by the people in his book The Golden Bough.{{cite book|last=Frazer|first=James George|title=The Golden Bough|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1_guyav82qQC&pg=PA155|year=1913|publisher=Cambridge U. Press|isbn=978-1-108-04738-8|page=155|quote= Annual expulsion of Satan among the Wotyaks of Russia}}

Many Udmurt people have red hair,[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/maps-and-graphics/country-with-the-most-redheads-gingers/ Mapped: Which countries have the most redheads?] - The Telegraph[https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29950844 The people with the reddest hair in the world] - BBC News and a festival to celebrate the red-haired people has been held annually in Izhevsk since 2004.[http://www.izh.ru/i/info/21088.html Рыжий фестиваль - 2017] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201106125815/http://www.izh.ru/i/info/21088.html |date=2020-11-06 }} - Izhevsk city portal

The Udmurts used to be semi-nomadic forest dwellers that lived in riverside communities. However, most Udmurts now live in towns. Although the clan-based social structure of the Udmurts no longer exists, its traces are still strong and it continues to shape modern Udmurt culture.{{Cite book|title=Human: The Definitive Visual Guide|publisher=Dorling Kindersley|year=2004|isbn=0-7566-0520-2|editor-last=Winston|editor-first=Robert|location=New York|pages=396}}

Genetics

According to the data gathered by Kristiina Tambets and others (2018), the majority (about 70%) of Udmurt men carry the haplogroup N. The high frequency of this East Eurasian-related haplogroup is a common pattern among Uralic-speaking peoples. Most Udmurt men belong to the subclade N1c and 16.8 percent of them belong the subclade N1b-P43. The second most common Y-DNA haplogroup among Udmurts is R1a (19%).{{Cite journal |last1=Tambets |first1=Kristiina |last2=Yunusbayev |first2=Bayazit |last3=Hudjashov |first3=Georgi |last4=Ilumäe |first4=Anne-Mai |last5=Rootsi |first5=Siiri |last6=Honkola |first6=Terhi |last7=Vesakoski |first7=Outi |last8=Atkinson |first8=Quentin |last9=Skoglund |first9=Pontus |last10=Kushniarevich |first10=Alena |last11=Litvinov |first11=Sergey |last12=Reidla |first12=Maere |last13=Metspalu |first13=Ene |last14=Saag |first14=Lehti |last15=Rantanen |first15=Timo |date=2018 |title=Genes reveal traces of common recent demographic history for most of the Uralic-speaking populations |journal=Genome Biology |language=en |volume=19 |issue=1 |page=139 |doi=10.1186/s13059-018-1522-1 |issn=1474-760X |pmc=6151024 |pmid=30241495 |doi-access=free }}

The most common maternal haplogroup for Udmurts is U (23.5%). Most Udmurts who have it belong to its subclades U2 (10.4%) and U5 (9.3%). Nearly as common is H (22.5%). Other mtDNA haplogroups among Udmurts include T (16.5%), D (11%) and Z (6%).File:Ancestry proportions of 1194 individuals.pngWhen it comes to the autosomal ancestry of Udmurts, around 30 percent of it is Nganasan-like.{{Cite journal |last1=Jeong |first1=Choongwon |last2=Balanovsky |first2=Oleg |last3=Lukianova |first3=Elena |last4=Kahbatkyzy |first4=Nurzhibek |last5=Flegontov |first5=Pavel |last6=Zaporozhchenko |first6=Valery |last7=Immel |first7=Alexander |last8=Wang |first8=Chuan-Chao |last9=Ixan |first9=Olzhas |last10=Khussainova |first10=Elmira |last11=Bekmanov |first11=Bakhytzhan |last12=Zaibert |first12=Victor |last13=Lavryashina |first13=Maria |last14=Pocheshkhova |first14=Elvira |last15=Yusupov |first15=Yuldash |date=2019 |title=The genetic history of admixture across inner Eurasia |journal=Nature Ecology & Evolution |language=en |volume=3 |issue=6 |pages=966–976 |doi=10.1038/s41559-019-0878-2 |issn=2397-334X |pmc=6542712 |pmid=31036896|bibcode=2019NatEE...3..966J }} This Siberian component is typical for Uralic-speaking peoples. The rest can be modelled to be mostly Steppe-like with a smaller eastern hunter-gatherer component, or Srubnaya-like. It is common for Northeastern Europeans to have a high level of Steppe-related admixture.