Distribution Area of the Naukan Language: Geography of Multilingualism and Dynamics of Contacts

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Abstract

The article examines the distribution area of the Naukan Yupik language and linguistic contacts of speakers of the Naukan language with speakers of the Chukchi, Inupiaq and Central Siberian Yupik languages. According to the literature sources, supplemented by data obtained during field work in Chukotka, the distribution area of the Naukan language is described in the context of the Naukan-Chukchi-Inupiaq multilingual zone, where all three languages were widespread to varying degrees. This area includes, in addition to the village of Naukan, the Diomede Islands, as well as the Chukchi villages of Uelen and Inchoun. The article also provides a description of the historical development of this zone over the past few centuries, during which residents of several separate Naukan speaking villages resettled into one large village, Naukan. The Central Siberian Yupik language, despite its genetic proximity to Naukan, was not part of this contact zone. The article provides linguistic data comparing borrowings from Chukchi into the Naukan and Central Siberian Yupik languages, indicating that Naukan had been in contact with Chukchi for quite a long time, regardless of the Central Siberian Yupik language.

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About the authors

Maria Yu. Pupynina

Institute for Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Author for correspondence.
Email: pupynina@gmail.com

Cand. Sci. (Philol.), Researcher; Researcher

Russian Federation, 9 Tuchkov Lane, St. Petersburg, 199053; 1 bld.1 Bolshoy Kislovsky Lane, Moscow, 125009

Yury B. Koryakov

Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences; National Research University “Higher School of Economics”

Email: ybkoryakov@gmail.com

Cand. Sci. (Philol.), Senior Researcher; Senior Researcher of the International Laboratory for Language Convergence

Russian Federation, 1 bld.1 Bolshoy Kislovsky Lane, Moscow, 125009; 21/4 bld. 5 Staraya Basmannaya Str., Moscow, 105066

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Supplementary files

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2. Fig. 1. Map of ancient Naukan settlements, from where the resettlement to Naukan took place in the 18th – early 20th centuries (according to [12, pp. 48–49]; [11, pp. 34–35]).

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3. Fig. 2. Languages ​​of the eastern end of Chukotka in the late 19th – early 20th centuries [17]; [11].

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4. Fig. 3. "Yupik ring". Hypothetical distribution of Yupik languages ​​and their migration routes during different periods of their history.

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5. Fig. 4. Multilingual zones at the eastern end of Chukotka in the late 19th – early 20th centuries.

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6. Fig. 5. Multilingual zones in the extreme north-east of Eurasia at the end of the 19th century [4]; [5]; [27].

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