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7 The Yukaghir language family

  • Irina Nikolaeva
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Abstract

This chapter surveys Kolyma Yukaghir and Tundra Yukaghir, two closely related living representatives of the Yukaghir family. Both languages are spoken in north-eastern Russia and are critically endangered. The chapter provides a sociolinguistic background and then describes the phonological structure of the two languages in comparison, as well as the main properties of their morphological systems and the syntax of both simple clauses and complex sentence constructions. It also outlines the profile of the lexicon, introduces extinct linguistic varieties of Yukaghir, and presents other basic information about language history. The chapter argues that the main structural features of Yukaghir are aligned with the typological profile of the Uralic and the mainland Altaic languages. They include (but are not limited to) the predominantly agglutinating suffixing morphology, head-final syntax, person/number subject indexing, possessive agreement, genitive-marked possessors, an aspect-dominated TAME system with a binary tense opposition, the nominative-accusative alignment and differential object marking in basic sentences, as well as nominalized verbal forms which head dependent clauses. The most peculiar typological characteristic of Yukaghir is the system of grammaticalized focus constructions that originate from biclausal clefts and follow the ergative/absolutive alignment in terms of the case marking of core arguments.

Abstract

This chapter surveys Kolyma Yukaghir and Tundra Yukaghir, two closely related living representatives of the Yukaghir family. Both languages are spoken in north-eastern Russia and are critically endangered. The chapter provides a sociolinguistic background and then describes the phonological structure of the two languages in comparison, as well as the main properties of their morphological systems and the syntax of both simple clauses and complex sentence constructions. It also outlines the profile of the lexicon, introduces extinct linguistic varieties of Yukaghir, and presents other basic information about language history. The chapter argues that the main structural features of Yukaghir are aligned with the typological profile of the Uralic and the mainland Altaic languages. They include (but are not limited to) the predominantly agglutinating suffixing morphology, head-final syntax, person/number subject indexing, possessive agreement, genitive-marked possessors, an aspect-dominated TAME system with a binary tense opposition, the nominative-accusative alignment and differential object marking in basic sentences, as well as nominalized verbal forms which head dependent clauses. The most peculiar typological characteristic of Yukaghir is the system of grammaticalized focus constructions that originate from biclausal clefts and follow the ergative/absolutive alignment in terms of the case marking of core arguments.

Heruntergeladen am 21.10.2025 von https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110556216-007/html
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