Uralo-Siberian languages

Uralo-Siberian is a hypothetical language family consisting of Uralic, Yukaghir, Chukotko-Kamchatkan and Eskimo-Aleut. It was proposed by Michael Fortescue in 1998 in his book "Language Relations across Bering Strait". At the present time (2008), the theory has yet to win wide acceptance.

History

Structural similarities between Uralic and Eskimo-Aleut languageswere observed early. In 1746, the Danish theologian Marcus Wöldikecompared Greenlandic to
Hungarian. In 1818, Rasmus Rask consideredGreenlandic to be related to the Uralic languages, and presenteda list of lexical correspondences. (Rask also consideredUralic and Altaic to be related to each other.) In 1959,
Knut Bergsland published the paper "The Eskimo-Uralic Hypothesis",in which he, like other authors before him, presented a number ofgrammatical similarities and a small number of lexical correspondences.In 1962, Morris Swadesh proposed a relationship between theEskimo-Aleut and Chukotko-Kamchatkan language families.In 1998, Michael Fortescue presented more detailed arguments in hisbook, "Language Relations across Bering Strait".

Evidence

Phonology

The consonant inventories of the reconstructed proto-languages of the four Uralo-Siberian families are very similar to each other. A common feature is that there are only voiceless and no voiced stops, while there is a set of voiced (but no voiceless) non-sibilant fricatives with the same places of articulation (labial, dental, palatal, and velar; in Yukaghir, Chukotko-Kamchatkan and Eskimo-Aleut also uvular). There are also nasals in the same places of articulation. In addition, there are three sibilants, as well as liquids and semivowels.

Morphology

Apparently shared elements of Uralo-Siberian morphology includethe following:

Proponents of the Nostratic hypothesis consider these apparent correspondences to be evidence in support of the proposed larger Nostratic family.

Lexicon

Fortescue (1998) lists 94 lexical correspondence sets with reflexes in at least three of the four language families, and even more shared by two of the languages. Examples are*ap(p)a 'grandfather', *kað'a 'mountain' and many others.

Below are some lexical items reconstructed to Proto-Uralo-Siberian, along with their reflexes in Proto-Uralic (sometimes Proto-Finno-Ugric), Proto-Chukotko-Kamchatkan (sometimes Proto-Chukchi), and Proto-Eskimo-Aleut (sometimes Proto-Eskimo or Aleut). (Source: Fortescue 1998:152-158.)

Urheimat

Fortescue argues that the Uralo-Siberian proto-language (or a complex of related proto-languages) may have been spoken by Mesolithic hunting and fishing people in south-central Siberia (roughly, from the upper Yenisei river to Lake Baikal) between 8000 and 6000 BC, and that the proto-languages of the derived families may have been carried northward out of this homeland in several successive waves down to about 4000 BC, leaving the Samoyedic branch of Uralic in occupation of the Urheimat thereafter.

Relationships

Some or all of the four Uralo-Siberian families have been included in more extensive groupings of languages (see links below). Fortescue's hypothesis does not oppose or exclude these various proposals. In particular, he considers that a remote relationship between Uralo-Siberian and Altaic (or some part of Altaic) is likely. However, Fortescue holds that Uralo-Siberian lies within the bounds of the provable, whereas Nostratic may be too remote a grouping to ever be convincingly demonstrated.

ources

* Bergsland, Knut. 1959. "The Eskimo-Uralic hypothesis" in "Journal de la Societé Finno-Ougrienne" 61, 1-29.
* Fortescue, Michael. 1998. "Language Relations across Bering Strait: Reappraising the Archaeological and Linguistic Evidence." London and New York: Cassell. ISBN 0-304-70330-3.

Further reading

* Künnap, A. 1999. "Indo-European-Uralic-Siberian Linguistic and Cultural Contacts". Tartu, Estonia: University of Tartu, Division of Uralic languages.

ee also

*Proto-Uralic language
*Proto-Chukotko-Kamchatkan language
*Indo-Uralic languages
*Ural-Altaic languages
*Eurasiatic languages
*Nostratic languages

External links

* [http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0105&L=nostratic&D=1&F=&S=&P=725 Linguistlist post about Uralo-Eskimo grammar] as reconstructed by Uwe Seefloth, who finds Uralic and Eskimo-Aleut to be each other's closest relatives within Uralo-Siberian
* [http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0106&L=nostratic&D=1&F=&S=&P=406 Discussion of the above] and comparisons to Indo-European
* [http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0106&L=nostratic&D=1&F=&S=&P=193 More discussion of the above]