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Irina Nikolaeva
A grammar of Kolyma Yukaghir
Elena Maslova,
1. General
Kolyma Yukaghir and Tundra Yukaghir are closely related languages spoken in the north-eastern part of Russia. Kolyma Yukaghir at present has about 40 speakers. The language is not entirely undescribed: Jochelson (1905) and especially Krejnovi? (1979, 1982) are useful accounts of morphology and give basic phonological and syntactic information, while Nyikolajeva (2000) is a short overview of Yukaghir grammar in historical perspective. There are a number of articles by various authors focusing on particular grammatical points. Several folklore text collections have been published (Jochelson 1898, 1900; Nikolaeva (ed.) 1989, 1997; Maslova 2002). These works provide essential facts about the language. However, most of them are written in Russian or Hungarian and use terminology and representational conventions that do not always correspond to modern scholarly practice, with examples presented less than transparently, often lacking morpheme-by-morpheme glossing. Most importantly, previous descriptions have many gaps by modern standards and for the most part ignore syntax. Described incompletely, idiosyncratically, and somewhat inaccessibly, Yukaghir grammar has played little or no role in considerations of modern theoretical linguists and typologists.
Linguistic Typology, Walter de Gruyter
Print ISSN: 1430-0532
Volume: 9, 11/2005
Pages: 299 - 325