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GEOGRAPHY OF MULTILINGUALISM OF PEOPLES OF KOLYMA-ALAZEIA TUNDRA IN THE LATE 19TH TO THE EARLY 20TH CENTURIES // Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2019. Issue 1 (23). P. 69-82

The paper opens a cycle of articles concerned to the emergence and development of multilingualism of peoples inhabited Kolyma-Alazeia tundra, the region where Yukaghir, Even, Chukchi, Yakut and Russian areas intersected. One of these peoples will be a starting point of investigation in each article of the cycle. The starting point of this paper is Chukchi, their arrival to the area mentioned, their contacts with neighbours, the languages they spoke. The pasture areas of Chukchi in the late 19th to the early 20th centuries were discovered on base of the sources (works of anthropologists, travelers, missionaries). As a result, the area in Kolyma-Alazeia tundra inhabited by Chukchi was in the first time mapped in every detail. Besides, the places where Chukchi contacted to the neighboring peoples and languages probably used there were specified. One of the important places for contacts were seasonal fairs which were mapped as full as possible. The evaluation of the data led to the conclusion that in the Western part of the area the Chukchi were multilingual despite the fact that they possessed large reindeer herds and hold higher economic position comparing to other inhabitants of the region discussed. In the same time, that in the Eastern part of the area the Chukchi kept traditional monolingualism and often did not speak even Russian, using Chukchi-Russian jargon to communicate to the Russian-speaking population. The possible reasons for emergence of multilingualism in the Western area were large amount of interethnic marriages and the fact that many Evens and Yukaghirs sought to live near or with the rich Chukchi. The eastern monolingualism was apparently supported by close contacts with Chukchi of “Chukotskaya zemlitsa” predominantly monoethnic area. The exact situation in some interjacent areas is not quite clear due to scarcity of sources.

Keywords: multilingualism, Chukchi language, historical sociolinguistics, language maps, Kolyma- Alazeia tundra

GEOGRAPHY OF MULTILINGUALISM OF PEOPLES OF KOLYMA-ALAZEIA TUNDRA IN THE LATE 19TH TO THE EARLY 20TH CENTURIES // Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2020. Issue 1 (27). P. 44-60

This study is the second one in a series of studies devoted to the emergence and development of multilingualism in the Kolyma-Alazeya tundra area, a region where the territories of Yukaghir, Even, Chukchi, Yakut, and Russian settlements overlap. The starting point of this study are Evens, their arrival to the area, their contacts with the neighbors, and the languages they spoke. Based on the various sources (the works and reports of ethnographers, travelers, and missioners) we trace the migration routes of Even nomadic groups from the end of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th centuries in this region. We discovered that the Even clans found to the west of Kolyma spoke Yukaghir and most of them considered Yukaghir to be their native language. Apparently, many Evens spoke two languages (Even and Yukaghir), some of them were trilingual (in Even, Yukaghir and Yakut), and quatrolingualism and quintolingualims were also attested. There were also some nomadic Even groups near the Southeastern border of Kolyma-Alazeya tundra, and there is evidence that some of their members could speak Chukchi, Even and Russian. The article briefly compares two dialects of Even which are spread out in the west and east of this region. This comparison confirms intensive language contact between Evens, Yukaghirs, and Yakuts in the Great Western Tundra in the past. At the same time, we did not observe any Chukchi influence in the dialect of the Eastern part of Kolyma-Alazeya tundra.

Keywords: multilingualism, Even language, historical sociolinguistics, language maps, Kolyma-Alazeya tundra

EVIDENCE OF LANGUAGE CONTACT IN KOLYMA-ALAZEIA TUNDRA IN THE 19TH AND THE EARLY 20TH CENTURIES. TUNDRA YUKAGHIRS AND THEIR CONTACTS WITH THE NEIGHBOURS // Tomsk Journal of Linguistics and Anthropology. 2022. Issue 1 (35). P. 56-77

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).

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