The author discusses the birth of an Uil'ta writing system in the twenty fi rst century and poses a question: What is the life of a small nationality's language there for? Is the communicative function of a language being replaced by the function of ethnic identity maintenance in a multiethnic society such as Sakhalin presently is? The Uil'ta learn to speak Russian very early, yet the notion of native language is often taken to mean the language of my ancestors. This and other convoluted questions are analyzed by the author in the article.