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Northern Yukaghir language

Tundra Yukaghir
Native to Russia
Region Yakutia
Ethnicity 1,600 all Yukaghir people (2010 census)
Native speakers
370 all Yukaghir (2010 census)
Yukaghir
  • Tundra Yukaghir
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottolog nort2745
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The Tundra Yukaghir language (also known as Northern Yukaghir; self-designation: wadul) is one of only two extant Yukaghir languages. Last spoken in the tundra belt extending between the lower Indigirka to the lower Kolyma basin (69°N 154°E / 69°N 154°E / 69; 154), Tundra Yukaghir was formerly spoken in a much wider area extending west to the Lena basin.

The relationship of the Yukaghir languages with other language families is uncertain, though it has been suggested that they are distantly related to the Uralic languages, thus forming the putative Uralic–Yukaghir language family.

Tundra and Kolyma Yukaghir are the only two remnants of what used to be one of the dominant languages/language families of northeastern Siberia, spreading from the River Anadyr in the east to the River Lena in the west. On the basis of the evidence of early sources, it can be assumed that there existed a Yukaghir dialect continuum, with what is today Tundra Yukaghir and Kolyma Yukaghir at the extremes.

Tundra Yukaghir and Kolyma Yukaghir are not mutually intelligible. Tundra Yukaghir has residual vowel harmony and a complex phonotactics of consonants, rich agglutinative morphology and is strictly head-final. It has practically no finite subordination and very few coordinate structures. Tundra Yukaghir has a split intransitive alignment system based on discourse-pragmatic features. In absence of narrow focus, the system is organised on a nominative–accusative basis; when focused, direct objects and subjects of intransitive verbs are co-aligned (special focus case, special focus agreement).


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