New book: Historical Dict. of Yukaghir

[Johanna Laakso]

Sent by Irina Nikolaeva (irina_a_nikolaeva at yahoo.com):

------

A new book has just been published:

Author: Irina Nikolaeva
Title: A historical dictionary of Yukaghir.
Hardcover: 500 pages
Publisher: Mouton de Gruyter (June 2006; Berlin)
Language: English
Synopsis:

The book has two main purposes. First, it is intended as a relatively
complete source of information on the lexicon of Yukaghir. Tundra and Kolyma
Yukaghir are closely related, highly endangered languages spoken in the
extreme North-East of Siberia. No modern comprehensive lexicographic
description of these languages is available for the international linguistic
community. The dictionary presents all known varieties of Yukaghir in
comparative format. Some of the materials included come from published
sources, others were obtained by the author through fieldwork and are
published for the first time. The dictionary also contains examples of now
extinct early forms of Yukaghir, which began to be recorded in the late 17th
century. Second, the dictionary provides a first reconstruction of the
common ancestor of all known Yukaghir varieties. The proto-Yukaghir stems
are established based on internal reconstruction, comparison between various
Yukaghir idioms, and external data. Although the dictionary does not attempt
to provide etymologies for all Yukaghir words, it includes possible cognates
of some Yukaghir stems from other languages, mainly Uralic and Altaic. Since
Yukaghir forms are not only cited in their modern shape but are
reconstructed, the dictionary will provide a foundation for future
etymological work and contribute to investigating the genetic affiliation of
Yukaghir, usually classified as isolated. The book will also be useful for
linguists interested in the distant genetic relations between language
families and the reconstruction of the ethnic and linguistic situation in
prehistoric northern Asia.
-- 
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Johanna Laakso
Universität Wien, Institut für Europäische und Vergleichende Sprach- und
Literaturwissenschaft (EVSL) | Abteilung Finno-Ugristik
Universitätscampus Spitalgasse 2-7 Hof 7, A-1090 Wien
Tel. +43 1 4277 43019 | Fax +43 1 4277 9430
johanna.laakso at univie.ac.at | http://homepage.univie.ac.at/Johanna.Laakso/



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