Southern Yukaghir language
Encyclopedia
The Southern, Kolyma or Forest Yukaghir language is one of only two Yukaghir languages
.
Last spoken in the forest zone near the sources of the Kolyma, divided between the Sakha Republic and the Magadan Oblast
(around 65°N 153°E), previously in the wider area of the upper Kolyma region.
, thus forming the putative Uralic–Yukaghir language family.
Kolyma and Tundra Yukaghir are the only two remnants of what used to be one of the dominant languages/language families of northeastern Siberia, spreading from the River Anadyr
in the east to the River Lena
in the west. On the basis of the evidence of early sources, it can be assumed that there existed a Yukaghir dialect continuum, with what is today Kolyma Yukaghir and Tundra Yukaghir at the extremes.
Kolyma Yukaghir and Tundra Yukaghir are not mutually intelligible. Kolyma Yukaghir has residual vowel harmony
and a complex phonotactics of consonants, rich agglutinative morphology and is strictly head-final
. It has practically no finite subordination and very few coordinate structures. Kolyma Yukaghir has a split intransitive alignment system based on discourse-pragmatic features. In absence of narrow focus, the system is organised on a nominative–accusative basis; when focused, direct objects and subjects of intransitive verbs are co-aligned (special focus case, special focus agreement).
Other phonemes (not listed) are written the same as in Russian.
Long vowels are written as digraphs: аа, ии, оо, уу, (э)
Recorded by Ljudmila Zhukova from Ljubov' Demina in 1988.http://ling.uni-konstanz.de/pages/home/nikolaeva/documentation/texts/start1.html
Yukaghir languages
The Yukaghir languages are a small family of two closely related languages – Tundra and Kolyma Yukaghir – spoken by the Yukaghir in the Russian Far East living in the basin of the Kolyma River. According to the 2002 Russian census, both Yukaghir languages taken together have 604 speakers...
.
Last spoken in the forest zone near the sources of the Kolyma, divided between the Sakha Republic and the Magadan Oblast
Magadan Oblast
Magadan Oblast is a federal subject of Russia in the Far Eastern Federal District. Its administrative center is the city of Magadan....
(around 65°N 153°E), previously in the wider area of the upper Kolyma region.
Classification and grammatical features
The relationship of the Yukaghir languages with other language families is uncertain, though it has been suggested that they are distantly related to the Uralic languagesUralic languages
The Uralic languages constitute a language family of some three dozen languages spoken by approximately 25 million people. The healthiest Uralic languages in terms of the number of native speakers are Hungarian, Finnish, Estonian, Mari and Udmurt...
, thus forming the putative Uralic–Yukaghir language family.
Kolyma and Tundra Yukaghir are the only two remnants of what used to be one of the dominant languages/language families of northeastern Siberia, spreading from the River Anadyr
Anadyr River
Anadyr is a river in the far northeast Siberia which flows into Anadyr Bay of the Bering Sea and drains much of the interior of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. Its basin corresponds to the Anadyrsky District of Chukotka....
in the east to the River Lena
Lena River
The Lena is the easternmost of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean . It is the 11th longest river in the world and has the 9th largest watershed...
in the west. On the basis of the evidence of early sources, it can be assumed that there existed a Yukaghir dialect continuum, with what is today Kolyma Yukaghir and Tundra Yukaghir at the extremes.
Kolyma Yukaghir and Tundra Yukaghir are not mutually intelligible. Kolyma Yukaghir has residual vowel harmony
Vowel harmony
Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance assimilatory phonological process involving vowels that occurs in some languages. In languages with vowel harmony, there are constraints on which vowels may be found near each other....
and a complex phonotactics of consonants, rich agglutinative morphology and is strictly head-final
Head directionality parameter
In linguistics, the head directionality parameter is a proposed parameter that classifies word order accordingly to the placement of the head stem, which can be either:* Head-final : Heads follow phrases in forming larger phrases...
. It has practically no finite subordination and very few coordinate structures. Kolyma Yukaghir has a split intransitive alignment system based on discourse-pragmatic features. In absence of narrow focus, the system is organised on a nominative–accusative basis; when focused, direct objects and subjects of intransitive verbs are co-aligned (special focus case, special focus agreement).
Phonology
- Чч t͡ʃ
- Җҗ d͡ʒ
- Сь сь ç, a positional variant of c' in non-initial contexts ɣ
- Ққ q
- Зз z ŋ
- Шш ʃ
- Ль ль ʎ
- Нь нь ɲ
- Өө ø
- Әә (short non-high underspecified vowel which occurs after the first foot and is either pronounced ə or harmonized to other vowels)
- Ы ы ɯ (occurs in loanwords)
Other phonemes (not listed) are written the same as in Russian.
Long vowels are written as digraphs: аа, ии, оо, уу, (э)
Sample
YarqadanRecorded by Ljudmila Zhukova from Ljubov' Demina in 1988.http://ling.uni-konstanz.de/pages/home/nikolaeva/documentation/texts/start1.html
| пэ | аан-дә-пә-гәт | йарқә | поҗольә-гәт | пойньаа-сьии-л | туде | оозии-гәлә | Йарқәдән | емей | ой | миидә | чурууҗә | қон-таа-сьии-ну-м. |
| mountain | under-3-PL-ABL | ice | shining-ABL | white-DEL-AN DEL=delimitative AN=action nominalizer |
he.GEN | water-ACC | Yarqadan (*йарқә-д-ун lit. "ice river") |
mother | stream | along | quietly | go-TR-DEL-IMPF-TR.3SG |
- "From the bottom of the mountains, from the whiteness of the ice our mother Yarqadan quietly carries its shining water downstream."