Language Relations Across Bering Strait: Reappraising the Archaeological and Linguistic Evidence (Open Linguistics Series)

318 Pages·1998·18.24 MB·English

by  Michael Fortescue

Language Relations across Bering Strait
Open Linguistics Series
Series Editor
Robin Fawcett, Cardiff University
This series is 'open' in two senses. First, it provides a forum for works
associated with any school of linguistics or with none. Most practising linguists
have long since outgrown the unhealthy assumption that theorizing about
language should be left to those working in the generativist-formalist
paradigm. Today large and increasing numbers of scholars are seeking to
understand the nature of language by exploring it in terms of the
communicative use of language in social contexts, or one or other of the
various cognitive models of language - and sometimes in a combination of the
two. Over the last few years this series has played a valuable part in re-
establishing the traditional 'openness' of the study of language, and we intend
to maintain this tradition. The series includes many studies that are in or on the
borders of various functional theories of language and especially (because it
has been the most widely used of these) Systemic Functional Linguistics.
However, the series continues to be open to all approaches, including works in
the generativist-formalist tradition.
The second way in which the series is 'open' is that it encourages studies that
open out 'core' linguistics in various ways: to encompass discourse and the
description of natural texts; to explore the relationships between linguistics and
its neighbouring disciplines such as psychology, sociology, philosophy, and
cultural and literary studies; and to apply these studies in fields such as
education, language pathology and law.
Relations between linguistics and artificial intelligence are covered in a sister
series, Communication in Artificial Intelligence, while works that are primarily
descriptive are published in a new series, Functional Descriptions of Language.
Recent titles in the series:
Educating Eve: The 'Language Instinct' Debate, Geoffrey Sampson
Genre and Institutions: Social Processes in the Workplace and School, Frances
Christie and J. R. Martin (eds)
Language Policy in Britain and France: The Processes of Policy, Dennis Ager
Learning through Language in Early Childhood, Clare Painter
Pedagogy and the Shaping of Consciousness: Linguistic and Social Processes,
Frances Christie (ed.)
Summary Justice: Judges Address Juries, Paul Robertshaw
Ways of Saying: Ways of Meaning: Selected Papers of Ruqaiya Hasan, Carmel
Cloran, David Butt and Geoffrey Williams (eds)
Thematic Developments in English Texts, Mohsen Ghadessy (ed.)
Language Relations across
Bering Strait
Reappraising the Archaeological and Linguistic
Evidence
MICHAEL FORTESCUE
CASSELL
London and New York
Cassell
Wellington House, 125 Strand, London WC2R OBB
370 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10017-6550
First published 1998
© Michael Fortescue 1998
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 0-304-70330-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Fortescue, Michael D.
Language relations across Bering Strait: reappraising the
archaeological and linguistic evidence / Michael Fortescue.
p. cm. — (Open linguistics)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-304-70330-3 (hardcover)
1. Eskimo languages—Morphology. 2. Aleut languages—Morphology.
3. Uralic languages—Morphology. 4. Languages in contact—Russia
(Federation)—Siberia. 5. Languages in contact—Alaska.
6. Languages in contact—Bering Strait. 7. Eskimos—Antiquities.
8. Aleuts—Antiquities. 9. Uralic peoples—Antiquities. I. Title.
II. Series
PM50.F67 1998
497'.!—dc21 98-15092
CIP
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Bookcraft Ltd, Midsomer Norton
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Abbreviations ix
1. Introduction 1
2. Hypotheses concerning the internal and external relations
between 'Paleo-Siberian' languages 35
3. A typological overview of the region 60
4. The reconstruction of common Eskimo-Aleut and Chukotko-
Kamchatkan core morphology 96
5. Drawing Uralo-Yukagir morphology into the picture 109
6. Lexical correspondences between Uralo-Siberian languages 124
7. Who could have spoken Proto-Uralo-Siberian - and where? 178
8. Linguistic layering around the bottleneck: from Beringia to the
Diomede Islands 204
References 243
Maps 252
Index 305
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Acknowledgements
During my sabbatical semester at the University of California writing the
present book I benefited greatly from discussions with Johanna Nichols, Victor
Golla, Marianne Mithun and David Glenn Smith on issues with which it is
concerned. I am also grateful to Knut Bergsland, Larry Kaplan, Jeff Leer,
Irina Nikolaeva, Jonathan Bobaljik, Irina Muravyova, Juha Janhunen, Yvon
Csonka, and Hans Christian Gull0v for constructive comments on all or part
of the manuscript and for supplementary information willingly provided. My
use of this input does not necessarily reflect their own views as regards the
more controversial aspects of this work, but I hope that it at least does not
distort that information.
The book is dedicated to all the peoples of the Arctic amongst whom I have
had the privilege to conduct fieldwork, and to the late Kay Fortescue, without
whom it would most assuredly never have been written.
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Abbreviations
Languages
A Aleut In Inuit
AE Athabaskan-Eyak J Japanese
Ai Ainu K Koryak
Al Algonquian Ke Ket
Alt Altaic Ko Korean
Am Amuric Ku Kutenai
At Athabaskan Kwa Kwakiutl
Au Alutor L Lapp (Saami)
AY Alaskan Yupik M Mongolian (Khalkha)
B Buryat Ma Manchurian
Ba Baltic Mo Mosan
BF Balto-Finnic N Norse
C Chukchi Na Nanai
CA Coastal Athabaskan NA Northern Athabaskan
CAY Central Alaskan Yupik NAI North Alaskan Inuit
Ch Chinese (Inupiaq)
CK Chukotko- ND Na-Dene
Kamchatkan Ne Nenets (Yurak)
CP Californian Penutian Ng Nganasan (Tavgi)
CSY Central Siberian Yupik Ni Nivkh (Gilyak)
Do Dolgan OP Oregon (& Plateau)
E Eskimo Penutian
EA Eskimo-Aleut Ost Ostyak (Khanti)
Ek Evenki (Tungus) OU Ob-Ugric
Es Enets (Yenisei S) P Permic
Ev Even Pen Penutian
Ey Eyak PU Proto-Uralic
F Finnic PUS Proto-Uralo-Siberian
Fi Finnish R Russian
FU Finno-Ugric S Samoyed
G Germanic Sa Salishan
H Haida Sc Scandinavian
Ho Hokan Se Selkup
Hu Hungarian Sir Sirenikski
I Itehnen SI Slavic
IE Indo-European SPI Seward Peninsula Inuit