Linguistics

Language contact and migrations have both had heavy influence on the language situation of Siberia. As noted before, many of the languages represented in Siberia are part of larger language families. Therefore, there is much insight to be gained in comparative studies of these languages in illuminating the origin and history of their families. Furthermore, the effects of contact in these areas, including development of pidgin languages, are also of interest to linguists.

As often occurs in regions where a dominant ethno-linguistic group is in contact with other groups, pidgin and creole languages developed in Siberia (Wurm). For example, in the Taymyr Peninsula a pidgin language developed which used Russian vocabulary with influences from local Uralic and Turkic languages. Phonology is largely unchanged, though consonant clusters were often simplified (Rus. “skazat”, becomes “kazat”). Lexical items often acquire much broader meaning than in Russian (“rezat”, to cut, can also mean to pass time). Many aspects of Russian grammar and morphology, such as reflexive verbs and gender and tense inflection are lost. Interestingly, the word “mesto”, meaning place, acquires a multitude of novel grammatical functions: as a postposition serves to replace both instrumental and dative cases, as well as indicating in comparative statements the object being compared to.

Dene-Yeniseian Cognate Set

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Den%C3%A9%E2%80%93Yeniseian_languages

The Ket language, an isolate within Siberia, is a very interesting case. As with Basque (another language isolate) many hypotheses have been postulated for possible relations to Ket, including Sino-TIbetan (Wurm 1993). Unlike Basque, one of these hypotheses has gained serious traction, and it is a seemingly unlikely one. Ket has been linked, most notably by linguist Edward Vajda, to the Na-Dene languages of North America, which include Navajo. According to Merritt Ruhlen (1998), the Ket are descended from an offshoot of the original proto-Dene-Yeniseian group which would eventually migrate to the New World. In his article, he notes several cognates, including body parts (head, foot), objects (boat, stone) and other basic vocabulary (hungry, word). The enigma presented by the Ket language exemplifies a major reason why study and preservation of languages is important. By learning more about these populations, major insights can be made about human history and migration. The exact details of migration and settlement of Native American peoples is still debated, and if the Dene-Yeniseian theory proves correct, it could be very illuminating in solving the mystery.

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