It is reasonable to assume that the formative period for the speech of the Doukhobors was the first four decades of the 19th century. It was in 1802 that many
heterodox groups, self-labeled as
spiritual Christians including Doukhobors, were encouraged to migrate to the
Molochna River region, around
Melitopol near
Ukraine's
Sea of Azov coast, where they could be controlled, isolated from contaminating Orthodox Russians with their heresies, and converted to Orthodoxy. Over the next 10–20 years, thousands arrived, most speaking a
Southern Russian dialect. Now concentrated, they were exposed to a variety of somewhat similar people who could learn the other's
dialect koiné, based on Southern Russian and Eastern Ukrainian dialects. Starting in 1839, Spiritual Christians tribes were enticed to resettle to
Transcaucasia to further isolate them from Orthodox, and to establish a Russian presence in the conquered non-Russian-speaking territory. The invading villages from Russia were surrounded by mostly indigenous non-Russian-speaking peoples. Here, in relative isolation from the rest of the Empire, their dialects and singing distinctly evolved. With the migration of some 7,500 Doukhbors from Transcaucasia to Saskatchewan in 1899, and some smaller latecomer groups (both from Transcaucasia and from places of exile in Siberia and elsewhere), the dialect spoken in the Doukhobor villages of
Transcaucasia was brought to the plains of
Canada. From that point on it experienced influence from the
English language of Canada and, during the years of
Doukhobor stay in
Saskatchewan, the speech of Doukhobor's
Ukrainian neighbors. A split in the Doukhobor community resulted in a large number of Doukhobors moving from Saskatchewan to south-eastern
British Columbia around 1910. Those who moved (the so-called "Community Doukhobors" – followers of
Peter Verigin's
Christian Community of Universal Brotherhood – continued living a communal lifestyle for several more decades, and preserved their Russian language more the "Independent Doukhobors", who assimilated by staying in Saskatchewan, most as individual farmers. By the 1970s, most Russia-born died along with their language Their English speech is not noticeably different from that of other English-speaking Canadians of their provinces. Russian is used primarily during religious meetings and psalm singing. Practising Doukhobors are declining, about 3,800 counted in the
Canada 2001 Census. It was reported that only a few hundred elderly speakers of Doukhobor Russian remained by 2019. == Features ==