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Extensive borrowing of reindeer terminology in north-eastern Siberia

Peter Sauli Piispanen


Pages 240 - 258

DOI https://doi.org/10.13173/TL/2015/2/240




This paper presents borrowings, mostly related to reindeer husbandry in the far northeastern Siberian area, between several non-genealogically affiliated languages. The semantics, phonology and chronology are discussed. The following are etymologized as Ewenki borrowings: Yukaghiric moll’e ‘small wild reindeer’, oŋul ‘reindeer’, šaqala ‘fox’, ugur ‘spine’ and joγul ‘nose’; and (Pre-)Yakut borrowings: Yukaghiric saa-laaγare ‘south, lit. tree left’, saaγare ‘left side of a yurt; West’, šajγəәr ‘aside’. A possible Turkic borrowing is found with (Proto-)Turkic *qan ‘blood’ – Proto-Samoyed *ke̬ m ‘blood’. Lastly, Uralic cognates or borrowings in Yukaghiric consist of kedie- ‘obstinate (of a tied reindeer)’, petčigije ‘reins’, a:čəә ‘domestic reindeer’ and sierdiid-ile ‘reindeer not selected for slaughter’.



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