Article

Name: Language contacts in the history of the Yakut language

Authors: Natalya N. Shirobokova

Institute of Philology of the Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russian Federation

In the section Linguistics

Abstract: The differences between Yakut and other Turkic languages are primarily due to the linguistic contacts of Yakut speakers during migration towards their current residence and land development. Because of various language contacts, Yakut has a number of phonetic and grammatical traits that form interlinguistic areas. The broadest linguistic area is the one described by E. I. Ubryatova, namely the area of ‘ancient areal phenomena in Siberian languages’. It is defined according to the principle of systemic consonant organization in several Northern Siberian languages (more specifically, their relatively small number of flowing obstruent consonants). Apart from Yakut, this area also includes languages from Tungus-Manchurian and Paleo-Asian groups, as well as Yukaghir and Eskimo. The nature of these shifts may be explained by the presence of a paleosubstrate. The presence of other language traces in this area is also proved by toponymic data (Yukagir and Chukchi toponyms are widely used in this area). During the earlier stages of their migration to the north, the Yakuts lived in the area that V. M. Nadelyaev called the ‘Circum-Baikal’. In this territory, Samoyedic, Tungus-Manchurian, Mongolian, and Yenisei languages were used and interacted. Also, in this territory, the Yakut shift from s (< s, š, z) to t took place: Yak. итии < Turc. isig, Yak. отут < otuz in Yenisei languages. The s > t, s > h shifts are typical for most Buryat dialects, as well as some Samoyedic languages. The ancestors of Yakut inhabited Baikalia at the same time with the proto-Buryats. Therefore it was possible for the same substrate to influence them. Perhaps they left this area earlier, so these processes failed to become fully systemic in their language (compared to Buryat), as they lost contact with this substrate, and the s > t shift was interrupted. It remains still unclear whether the s > h shift was caused by the Tungus > Yakut influence or vice versa. Areas involving the Yakut language were formed by various types of language interaction: 1) areas formed by languages influenced by the same substrate without direct contacts; 2) areas with direct language interaction; 3) areas formed as a result of the transition of any group of speakers from one language to another. This paper aims to describe several phonetic phenomena developed in the Yakut language as a result of various language contacts.

Keywords: linguistic area, phonetic correspondences, diphthong, reconstruction, language contact

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