EVIDENCE OF LANGUAGE CONTACT IN KOLYMA-ALAZEIA TUNDRA IN THE 19TH AND THE EARLY 20TH CENTURIES. TUNDRA YUKAGHIRS AND THEIR CONTACTS WITH THE NEIGHBOURS

This paper is the third one within the series of studies devoted to the linguistic situation in the Kolyma-Alazeia tundra, a region of intense ethnic and linguistic contacts, in the late 19th — early 20th centuries. The study focuses on Tundra Yukaghirs and the Tundra Yukaghir language, which was in contact with Chukchi, Even, Yakut and Russian. First, we provide a brief historical review on Yukaghirs in the 17–19th centuries, which shows that the region in question became a contact area only since the 18th century. Then, using the literature on the Yukaghir loanwords and our own field data, we consider the phenomena in Tundra Yukaghir that were caused by the influence of other languages of the Kolyma-Alazeia tundra. This overview displays that the number of lexical borrowings in the modern Yukaghir language is the lowest from Chukchi (less than 5), and comprises about 50 words from Even, more than 60 words from Yakut and, finally, more than 150 words from Russian. Based on the various sources (ethnographic literature, eyewitness accounts), we describe the social conditions that accompanied contacts between the representatives of various peoples in the Kolyma-Alazeia tundra. These data are compared with the data on linguistic evidence of the contacts. Contacts with Chukchis in the Kolyma-Alazeia tundra were quite recent, which explains the small number of borrowings in Yukaghir. On the contrary, marital and neighborly ties between Yukaghirs and Evens were very tight (for example, there were mixed Even-Yukaghir clans, and Even-Yukaghir bilingualism was most likely widespread). The relations between Yakuts and Yukaghirs were mainly of a commercial nature (Yakuts possessed valuable products of horse and cattle breeding). Contacts with Russians have ancient history, and in many cases they involved control over the state duties that was exercised by Russians, which indicates the hierarchical nature of these contacts. Thus, the study shows that a large number of borrowings can be explained both by the long-term history and cultural mixing (Evens and Yukaghirs), and the hierarchical nature of the relations between the communities in contact (Yakuts and Yukaghirs, Russians and Yukaghirs).

Yukaghir languages, Tundra Yukaghir, Yukaghirs, language contact, multilingualism, lexis, loanwords, kinship terms