Northern Yukaghir language
Encyclopedia
The Tundra Yukaghir language (also known as Northern Yukaghir; self-designation: wadul) is one of only two Yukaghir languages
.
Last spoken in the tundra
belt extending between the lower Indigirka to the lower Kolyma
basin (69°N 154°E). Formerly spoken in a much wider area extending west to the Lena
basin.
, thus forming the putative Uralic–Yukaghir language family.
Tundra and Kolyma 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 Tundra Yukaghir and Kolyma Yukaghir at the extremes.
Tundra Yukaghir and Kolyma Yukaghir are not mutually intelligible. Tundra 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. Tundra 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).
The long mid vowels /eː øː oː/ are realized as diphthong
s when stressed
: they are [ie uø uo], respectively.
¹The uvular fricative /ʁ/ is realized as a stop [ɢ] after /ŋ/.
Case
assignment for core participants behaves in a broadly split-intransitive manner, though actual assignment is very complex, involving semantic role, focus, relative animacy of the participants (first or second person
versus third), and nature of the noun itself. The assigned cases are primary (used for focused or high animacy nominative
arguments), neutral (for low animacy nominative arguments and high animacy accusative
ones), and focus case (most focused accusative arguments). Indexation
of arguments on the verb is similarly conditioned by focus and animacy, as well as mood.
Oblique cases include dative
, instrumental
, comitative
, locative
, ablative
, prolative
, and transformative, the latter indicating the intended use or function of an argument.
There is limited incorporation
, used in reflexive
constructions.
Tundra Yukaghir verbs are marked for switch reference
. Besides indicating whether the verb of a following clause shares the same subject, the switch-reference markers also describe the temporal relationship between clauses, the connection between the actions involved, and in the case of different subjects, the person (first or second versus third) and number of the subject.
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 tundra
Tundra
In physical geography, tundra is a biome where the tree growth is hindered by low temperatures and short growing seasons. The term tundra comes through Russian тундра from the Kildin Sami word tūndâr "uplands," "treeless mountain tract." There are three types of tundra: Arctic tundra, alpine...
belt extending between the lower Indigirka to the lower Kolyma
Kolyma River
The Kolyma River is a river in northeastern Siberia, whose basin covers parts of the Sakha Republic, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, and Magadan Oblast of Russia. Itrises in the mountains north of Okhotsk and Magadan, in the area of and...
basin (69°N 154°E). Formerly spoken in a much wider area extending west to the 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...
basin.
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.
Tundra and Kolyma 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 Tundra Yukaghir and Kolyma Yukaghir at the extremes.
Tundra Yukaghir and Kolyma Yukaghir are not mutually intelligible. Tundra 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. Tundra 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).
Orthography
| А а | Аа аа | Б б | В в | Г г | Ғ ғ | Д д | Дь дь |
| Е е | Ё ё | Ж ж | З з | И и | Ии ии | Иэ иэ | Й й |
| К к | Л л | Ль ль | М м | Н н | Нь нь | Ң ң | О о |
| Оо оо | Ӧ ӧ | П п | Р р | С с | Сь сь | Т т | У у |
| Уу уу | Уӧ уӧ | Ф ф | Х х | Ц ц | Ч ч | Ш ш | Щ щ |
| Ъ ъ | Ы ы | Ь ь | Э э | Ю ю | Я я |
Vowels
| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|
|---|---|---|
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
i, iː | u, uː |
| Mid Mid vowel A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel... |
e, eː ø, øː |
o, oː |
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
a, aː | |
The long mid vowels /eː øː oː/ are realized as diphthong
Diphthong
A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
s when stressed
Stress (linguistics)
In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...
: they are [ie uø uo], respectively.
Consonants
| Bilabial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Uvular | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | p | b | t | d | tʲ | dʲ | k | ɡ | q | |
| Fricative | s | ʁ¹ | ||||||||
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n | nʲ | ŋ | ||||||
| Lateral Lateral consonant A lateral is an el-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth.... |
l | lʲ | ||||||||
| Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular.... |
r | |||||||||
| Semivowel Semivowel In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:... |
w | j | ||||||||
¹The uvular fricative /ʁ/ is realized as a stop [ɢ] after /ŋ/.
Phonotactics
Syllable structure is CVC, i.e. up to one consonant can occur at the beginning or end of a word, and up to two in the middle.Grammar
Tundra Yukaghir is largely head-final and dependent-marking: the default position for the verb is at the end of the clause, nouns are marked for case, adjectives precede nouns and relative clauses precede main clauses.Case
Grammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
assignment for core participants behaves in a broadly split-intransitive manner, though actual assignment is very complex, involving semantic role, focus, relative animacy of the participants (first or second person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
versus third), and nature of the noun itself. The assigned cases are primary (used for focused or high animacy nominative
Nominative case
The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...
arguments), neutral (for low animacy nominative arguments and high animacy accusative
Accusative case
The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...
ones), and focus case (most focused accusative arguments). Indexation
Agreement (linguistics)
In languages, agreement or concord is a form of cross-reference between different parts of a sentence or phrase. Agreement happens when a word changes form depending on the other words to which it relates....
of arguments on the verb is similarly conditioned by focus and animacy, as well as mood.
Oblique cases include dative
Dative case
The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given, as in "George gave Jamie a drink"....
, instrumental
Instrumental case
The instrumental case is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action...
, comitative
Comitative case
The comitative case , also known as the associative case , is a grammatical case that denotes companionship, and is used where English would use "in company with" or "together with"...
, locative
Locative case
Locative is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by"...
, ablative
Ablative case
In linguistics, ablative case is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic is that they mark motion away from something, though the details in each language may differ...
, prolative
Prolative case
The prolative case is a declension of a noun or pronoun that has the basic meaning of "by way of"....
, and transformative, the latter indicating the intended use or function of an argument.
There is limited incorporation
Incorporation (linguistics)
Incorporation is a phenomenon by which a word, usually a verb, forms a kind of compound with, for instance, its direct object or adverbial modifier, while retaining its original syntactic function....
, used in reflexive
Reflexive verb
In grammar, a reflexive verb is a verb whose semantic agent and patient are the same. For example, the English verb to perjure is reflexive, since one can only perjure oneself...
constructions.
Tundra Yukaghir verbs are marked for switch reference
Switch reference
In linguistics, switch-reference describes any clause-level morpheme that signals whether certain prominent arguments in 'adjacent' clauses co-refer...
. Besides indicating whether the verb of a following clause shares the same subject, the switch-reference markers also describe the temporal relationship between clauses, the connection between the actions involved, and in the case of different subjects, the person (first or second versus third) and number of the subject.