Everything about Palaeosiberian Languages totally explained
Paleosiberian (Palaeosiberian, Paleo-Siberian) languages or
Paleoasian languages (Palaeo-Asiatic) (from Greek
palaios, "ancient")
is a term of convenience used in
linguistics to classify a disparate group
of languages spoken in remote regions of
Siberia. Their only common provenance is that they're held to have antedated the more dominant languages, particularly
Tungusic and latterly
Turkic languages, that have largely displaced them. Even more recently, Turkic (at least in
Siberia) and especially Tungusic, have been displaced in their turn by
Russian. It is possible that the
Merkits spoke a Paleosiberian language.
Three small
language families and
isolates, not known to have any linguistic relationship to each other, compose the Paleo-Siberian languages:
» 1. The
Chukotko-Kamchatkan family, sometimes known as Luoravetlan, includes
Chukchi and its close relatives,
Koryak,
Alutor and
Kerek.
Itelmen, also known as Kamchadal, is also distantly related. Chukchi, Koryak and Alutor are spoken in easternmost
Siberia by communities numbering in the thousands. Kerek is extinct, and Itelmen is now spoken by fewer than 100 people, mostly elderly, on the west coast of the
Kamchatka Peninsula.
» 2.
Yukaghir is spoken in two mutually unintelligible varieties in the lower
Kolyma and
Indigirka valleys. Other languages, including Chuvantsy, spoken further inland and further east, are now extinct. Yukaghir is held by some to be related to the
Uralic languages.
» 3.
Nivkh is spoken in the lower
Amur basin and on the northern half of
Sakhalin island. It has a recent modern literature and the
Nivkhs have experienced a turbulent history in the last century.
Ainu is sometimes added to this group though it's not, strictly speaking, a language of
Siberia. It barely survives in southern
Sakhalin where it was the main native language. It was also spoken in the
Kuril Islands and on
Hokkaidō, where a strong interest in its revival is taking place. Attempts have been made to relate it to many other language families, including
Altaic,
Austro-Asiatic,
Austronesian,
Nihali, and the putative
Indo-Pacific stock.
Together with
Japanese and
Korean which are major modern languages, these 'poor relations' resist any easy or obvious linguistic classification, either with other groups or with each other. The Palaeo-Siberian language group is thought by some to be related to the
Na-Dené and
Eskimo-Aleut families, which survive in slightly larger numbers in
Alaska and northern
Canada. This backs several theories that some of North America's aboriginal peoples migrated from present-day Siberia and other regions of Asia when the two continents were joined during the last ice age.
Ket, until recently included in this group, has been convincingly demonstrated to be related to the
Na-Dene languages of North America. It is the last survivor of a small language family on the middle
Yenisei and its tributaries. It In the past, attempts have been made to relate it to
Sino-Tibetan,
North Caucasian, and
Burushaski.
Further Information
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