37.1260, Books: I Always Migrated by Reindeer: Pakendorf (2026)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-37-1260. Mon Mar 30 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.1260, Books: I Always Migrated by Reindeer: Pakendorf (2026)

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Date: 25-Mar-2026
From: Sebastian Nordhoff [support at langsci-press.org]
Subject: I Always Migrated by Reindeer: Pakendorf (2026)


Title: I always migrated by reindeer
Subtitle: Lamunkhin and Bystraja Even narratives about their
traditional way of life
Series Title: Open Text Collections
Publication Year: 2026

Publisher: Language Science Press
           http://langsci-press.org
Book URL: https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/562

Author(s): Brigitte Pakendorf

eBook

Abstract:

Even is an endangered Northern Tungusic language spoken in numerous
small settlements by formerly completely nomadic hunters and reindeer
herders dispersed over northeastern Siberia, from the Lena-Yana
watershed in the west to the Sea of Okhotsk and Kamchatka in the east.
This geographical spread has led to considerable dialectal
fragmentation, with substantial differences between the peripheral
dialects, not least due to differential contact influence.
This text collection contains a selection of monological narratives
from two geographically distant and linguistically divergent Even
dialects: Lamunkhin Even spoken in the village Sebjan-Küöl in the
Kobjaj district of Central Yakutia, and Bystraja Even spoken in two
villages of the Bystraja district of Central Kamchatka. Of these, the
Lamunkhin dialect is still relatively viable, being spoken by some
children and adolescents, while Bystraja Even is highly endangered,
with no fluent speakers younger than 50 years.
The overall theme of the volume is the traditional Even way of life,
namely reindeer herding and hunting and, in Kamchatka, fishing.
Reindeer herding has always been a defining way of life of the Evens
and other so-called Indigenous Small-numbered Peoples of the North;
this is reflected in their language, culture, and identity. However,
it is becoming increasingly endangered, making its documentation
important for anthropologists and community members alike.
The collection comprises excerpts from 16 recordings made between 2007
and 2010 and amounting to nearly 8,000 words in total. Excerpts were
chosen to be maximally informative with respect to the traditional way
of life, but also to be interesting to read and to include
linguistically interesting and important features of Even. In order to
make the texts usable for the Even communities, a vernacular version
of each text is included. This consists of the Cyrillic transcription
used in the communities with a parallel Russian translation.
The preparation of the data for this text collection and further
transformation into the CLDF format was supported by the DFG grant
#517860213 “Open Text Collections”.

Linguistic Field(s): Typology

Subject Language(s): Even (eve)

Language Family(ies): Tungus

Written In: English (eng)



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