The Yukaghir languages are a small family of two closely related languages—Tundra and Kolyma Yukaghir—spoken by the Yukaghir in the Russian Far East living in the basin of the Kolyma River. At the 2002 Russian census, both Yukaghir languages taken together had 604 speakers. More recent reports from the field reveal that this number is far too high: Southern Yukaghir had maximum 5 fluent speakers in 2009, while the Tundra Yukaghir language had around 60–70. The entire family is thus to be regarded as moribund.
Classification and grammatical features
The relationship of the Yukaghir languages with other language families is uncertain, though it has been suggested that they are distantly related to the Uralic languages, thus forming the putative Uralic–Yukaghirlanguage family. Tundra and Kolyma Yukaghir are the only two remnants of what used to be one of the dominant languages/language families of northeastern Siberia, spreading from the River Anadyr in the east to the River Lena in the west. On the basis of the evidence of early sources, it can be assumed that there existed a Yukaghir dialect continuum, with what is today Tundra Yukaghir and Kolyma Yukaghir at the extremes. These two languages share only a relatively small part of the vocabulary and are not mutually intelligible. The basic grammatical structures, however, are very similar. Both languages have residualvowel harmony and a complex phonotactics of consonants. Both have rich agglutinative morphology and are strictly head-final. There is practically no finite subordination and very few coordinate structures. The most spectacular feature of TY and KY grammar is the split intransitivealignment system based on discourse-pragmatic features. In absence of narrow focus, the system is organised on the nominative–accusative basis; when focused, direct objects and subjects of intransitive verbs are co-aligned.
Members
The two extant varieties of Yukaghir are:
Tundra Yukaghir : 30 to 150 speakers in 1989. Last spoken in the tundra belt extending between the lower Indigirka to the lower Kolyma basin. Formerly spoken in a much wider area extending to the Lena basin in the west.
Kolyma Yukaghir : 5 to 10 speakers in 2009. Last spoken in the forest zone near the sources of the Kolyma, divided between the Sakha Republic and the Magadan Oblast, previously in the wider area of the upper Kolyma region.
Some lexical differences between Kolyma Yukaghir and Tundra Yukaghir:
Sample (Northern Yukaghir)
Latin: Ködeng ten - n'idite band'e parawaan'ereng tude chungden n'ild'ilek ennulngin'- med'uolnuni. Ködeng enmun chunde me l'ey, taatl'er lukund'ii n'inemd'iyilpe dite ennuyuol-morawn'engi. Translation: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
