Peter Sauli Piispanen

Turkic Languages, Jahrgang 27 (2023), Ausgabe 2, Seite 186 - 229

In this paper, a total of sixty-two new etymologies of Dolgan, the northernmost Turkic language spoken around the Taimyr Peninsula, are discussed. The etymologies are discussed with phonological and semantic details, and are either loanword etymologies from Evenki, Mongolic, Russian or Yukaghir, or continuations from Pre-Yakut, Common Turkic or Proto-Turkic. These analyses add to the already fairly well researched field of Dolgan etymologies.

Keywords: etymology, lexical borrowing, Tungusic, Turkic, Russian, (Pre-)Yakut, Mongolic, Evenki, Dolgan, Yukaghir

Peter Sauli Piispanen

Turkic Languages, Jahrgang 23 (2019), Ausgabe 2, Seite 222 - 249

In this paper, a group of thirty-five Yukaghir words describing fairly recently borrowed Russian cultural vocabulary is re-etymologized. Most of these words, which are from vari¬ous Yukaghir languages and dialects, but mainly of the Tundra Yukaghir variety, have pre¬viously been given loanword etymologies as direct Russian borrowings. However, phono¬logical considerations clearly demonstrate that this is a false assumption, and it is suggested that instead all of these words have been borrowed into Yukaghir from Yakut as an inter¬mediary language. All the Yukaghir words show signs of Yakut phonology, but are ulti-mately of Russian origin, sometimes from north-eastern dialectal forms (having earlier been borrowed into Yakut). Schematically, all of these re-etymologized words can be described as: Russian > Yakut > Yukaghir. Semantically, the words describe various modern concepts covering areas such as the household, cooking, culture and society, bureaucracy and healthcare. This amply demonstrates that Yukaghirs, in particular Tundra Yukaghirs, have lived in a bi-, tri- or even more diverse multilingual environment (of Yukaghir, Yakut, Rus¬sian, etc.) at least during the last few centuries. Further, some of the Yakut words for Rus¬sian concepts have been borrowed into Ewen or Ewenki, instead of directly from Russian, which is evident from both the phonology and semantics.

Peter Sauli Piispanen

Turkic Languages, Jahrgang 22 (2018), Ausgabe 1, Seite 107 - 137

This paper presents twenty-five newly found suggested borrowings from the Turkic, Tungusic and Mongolic languages into the Yukaghiric languages of far northeastern Siberia. The chronology of the borrowings is considered, and solid phonological and semantic considerations are given for each suggestion. Several of the new borrowings are quite recent and the majority relate to technological terms, social life and elementary actions. This would speak for a situation in far northeastern Siberia of intimate tribal contacts where multilingualism was the norm historically, hunting techniques were shared and inter- tribal marriages were commonplace. Additionally, two prospective borrowings related to reindeer terminology are discussed. Furthermore, borrowings from Yukaghiric into other languages, barely discussed in scientific literature, are also analyzed and commented upon briefly.

Peter Sauli Piispanen

Turkic Languages, Jahrgang 19 (2016), Ausgabe 2, Seite 240 - 258

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’.