Enets-Russian language contact
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Olesya Khanina
Abstract
This paper explores the topic of Enets-Russian language contact from two perspectives: via a thorough description of sociolinguistic details of the contact (based on sociolinguistic interviews performed by the author in 2017, complemented by ethnographic data from the 1920s–1940s) and via an overview of its linguistic consequences for the lexicon, phonology, syntax, and discourse structures of Enets (based on an extensive corpus of Enets speech). All consecutive stages of Enets-Russian interaction are described: very limited contacts with Russian (before the end of the 1930s), start of the russification campaign (1940s–1950s), a transitional period (1960s), and the victory of Russian (from the 1970s onwards). Then all known instances of linguistic traces of this interaction for Enets are summarized. They represent both instances of negative borrowing (loss of phonotactic restrictions in phonology, reduced frequency of complex structures in subordination) and positive borrowing (loanwords, new phonemes, reduction as added phonetic realizations of some vowel phonemes, clause-combining strategies involving Russian conjunctions). Overall, the linguistic changes that Enets has undergone under the influence of Russian are not numerous, in particular if the lexicon is set aside, and this is explained by the very limited duration of the transition period, when both languages were in active use by the same individuals.
Abstract
This paper explores the topic of Enets-Russian language contact from two perspectives: via a thorough description of sociolinguistic details of the contact (based on sociolinguistic interviews performed by the author in 2017, complemented by ethnographic data from the 1920s–1940s) and via an overview of its linguistic consequences for the lexicon, phonology, syntax, and discourse structures of Enets (based on an extensive corpus of Enets speech). All consecutive stages of Enets-Russian interaction are described: very limited contacts with Russian (before the end of the 1930s), start of the russification campaign (1940s–1950s), a transitional period (1960s), and the victory of Russian (from the 1970s onwards). Then all known instances of linguistic traces of this interaction for Enets are summarized. They represent both instances of negative borrowing (loss of phonotactic restrictions in phonology, reduced frequency of complex structures in subordination) and positive borrowing (loanwords, new phonemes, reduction as added phonetic realizations of some vowel phonemes, clause-combining strategies involving Russian conjunctions). Overall, the linguistic changes that Enets has undergone under the influence of Russian are not numerous, in particular if the lexicon is set aside, and this is explained by the very limited duration of the transition period, when both languages were in active use by the same individuals.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Nominal borrowings in Tsova-Tush (Nakh-Daghestanian, Georgia) and their gender assignment 15
- Lexical convergence reflects complex historical processes 35
- The ideological background of language change in Permic-speaking communities 59
- Enets-Russian language contact 85
- Izhma Komi in Western Siberia 119
- From head-final towards head-initial grammar 143
- Russian influence on Surgut Khanty and Estonian aspect is limited but similar 183
- Quotative indexes in Permic 217
- Some structural similarities in the outcomes of language contact with Russian 259
- Why do two Uralic languages (Surgut Khanty and Erzya) use different code-switching strategies? 289
- Analyzing Modern Chinese Pidgin Russian 315
- The choice of forms in contact varieties 345
- Language data and maps 369
- Languages & language families 381
- Subject index 383
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Nominal borrowings in Tsova-Tush (Nakh-Daghestanian, Georgia) and their gender assignment 15
- Lexical convergence reflects complex historical processes 35
- The ideological background of language change in Permic-speaking communities 59
- Enets-Russian language contact 85
- Izhma Komi in Western Siberia 119
- From head-final towards head-initial grammar 143
- Russian influence on Surgut Khanty and Estonian aspect is limited but similar 183
- Quotative indexes in Permic 217
- Some structural similarities in the outcomes of language contact with Russian 259
- Why do two Uralic languages (Surgut Khanty and Erzya) use different code-switching strategies? 289
- Analyzing Modern Chinese Pidgin Russian 315
- The choice of forms in contact varieties 345
- Language data and maps 369
- Languages & language families 381
- Subject index 383
