THE PALEOSIBERIAN LANGUAGES 1

Abstract

A GREAT majority of native languages in Siberia belong to families repre-senting the Ural-Altaic type. On the other hand in the extreme North-East of the country we find small shoots of the Eskimo family. In Siberia there are also some native languages which do not form a part of either of these groups and are classed conventionally under the name of Paleosiberian lan-guages. All Paleosiberian languages actually skirt the Tunguse domain-some in the North-East and the East, others in the direction of the West. For some centuries they have been in progressive retreat, at first dispersed and displaced under the pressure of the Altaic world and afterwards yielding ground before Russian expansion. Formerly, these languages occupied a large part of Siberia, and in the seventeenth century, up to the time of the Russian conquest, their territory was still considerably larger than now. One can, then, properly use the name "Paleosiberian languages" without giving any answer to the always doubtful question of whether these languages are really autochthonic, as is the plausible assumption, for example, of Bogoras, or else were introduced long ago from America according to the theory espe-cially supported by Jochelson. The term "Paleoasiatic languages" is less ac-curate, just as the name "Hyperborean languages" is scarcely suitable in par-ticular for the Gilyak and the Cottian, both situated at the latitude of Eng-land. The Eastern Paleosiberian languages comprise three distinct genealogical units: a) Chukchee, Koryak, which is most closely related to it, and Kamchadal form together, as S. Krasheninnikov had already pointed out for the first two languages in 1775 and N. Cherepanov for all three in 1798 (cf. 47) and as Rad-loff has shown (2) and above all Bogoras (3), a closely connected family sur-named Luorawetlan in modern Russian linguistics, following the name the Chukchees, the largest of the three peoples in question, give themselves.2 b) The Yukaghir family comprises, besides Yukaghir proper, Chuvantzy, which is very closely related to it. c) Gilyak has not a sure relationship with the other Paleosiberian languages, although Sternberg is inclined to connect it with Yukaghir (37). All the Eastern Paleosiberian languages show certain similarities of struc-1 In accordance with the desire of the editors in transcribing native words we follow the prin-ciples of the Committee of the American Anthropological Association (cf. Smithsonian Miscel-laneous Collections Vol. 66. No. 6 and American Anthropologist XXXVI), in transliterating Russian names and titles-the rules of the Library of Congress, and in rendering the traditional designations of Siberian languages-the usage of American scientific literature. 2 The term "hyperborean family" is sometimes used in the same sense. 602