Abstracts
Ante Aikio
New and Old Samoyed Etymologies
The paper discusses etymological equations between Samoyedic and Finno-Ugric languages. The presentation includes both new etymologies and comments on previously presented comparisons that have been ignored or rejected in the strictest treatments of Uralic historical phonology. A total of 28 Samoyedic word families are subjected to etymological analysis, and several other etymologies are briefly commented upon. It is argued that even in a framework of relatively strict sound laws, the number of Proto- Uralic etymologies with Samoyedic cognates turns out to be higher than the most critical estimates presented earlier.
Peter A. Michalove
The Classification of the Uralic Languages: Lexical Evidence from Finno-Ugric
The internal classification of the Uralic languages, which has recently been the subject of renewed discussion, can be clarified by a lexical comparison of the inherited Uralic vocabulary shared among the various subgroupings. The 123 bisyllabic forms listed in Sammallahti (1988) comprise a useful corpus of essentially uncontroversial Uralic forms, whose distribution suggests a division into four primary branches of Uralic: Finno-Permic, Ob-Ugric, Hungarian, and Samoyed. The placement of Sámic as a member of Finno-Permic is confirmed, but the notion of a Volgaic subbranch (consisting of Mordvin and Mari) is not justified.
Jussi Ylikoski
Zu den adverbialen Nominalkonstruktionen im Nordlappischen
This article presents a survey of adverbial non-finite constructions in the contemporary North Sámi literary language, the main focus being on those non-finites expressing events simultaneous to those expressed by their main clauses. In addition to the converbs in -dettiin, -Ø and -keahttá, special attention has been given to the formation previously analysed as the comitative form of the action nominal (verbal noun). With reference to the syntax of action nominal constructions in Sámi as well as in other languages, it is asserted that a new converb in -miin has branched off the inflectional paradigm of the verbal noun. Moreover, the so-called actio essive in -min ~ -me(n) – together with its relations to other non-finites – is also discussed at length, as these forms are used, among many other functions, as more or less optional adverbial modifiers in sentences governed by motion or posture verbs.
Rigina Turunen
Die Farbbezeichnungen im Mokscha-Mordwinischen
According to the hypothesis of Berlin and Kay words for colours evolve in a crosslinguistically consistent way, and there are certain criteria for distinguishing the basic colour terms. This paper seeks to define the basic colour terms in Moksha Mordvin, determine their origin and meaning, and outline the development of the colour term system in Moksha. The basic colour terms include both old words with cognates in the related languages and newer loanwords. In addition to these, Moksha also uses valencyconditioned colour terms. The system of basic colour terms is further extended with moderative, composite and comparison-based colour terms. The author concludes that the evolution of colour terms in Moksha does not confirm Berlin and Kay’s theory; although the words for primary colours are older than the names of non-primary ones, they have obviously not appeared in the order predicted by Berlin and Kay’s model.
Marja Leinonen
Influence of Russian on the syntax of Komi
This article is concerned with the influence of Russian on the syntax of Komi-Zyryan, more specifically, on sentential sub- and co-ordination. At first, a general overview of Russian interference at all levels of language is given, based on existing research. The next section deals with Russian conjunctions borrowed into Komi-Zyryan, drawing its material from different stages of the language, written and spoken, during the 20th century. The section on subordination reveals a “shallowing” of the morphosyntax (gerundials) as a result of the use of indigenous and borrowed conjunctions by young soldiers in their speech, noted down in the 1940s, with a background drawn from earlier written sources. The subsection on co-ordination concerns those copulative conjunctions borrowed from Russian and their frequencies of occurrence, mainly in written sources. The special clause-final “conjunctions” and their enclitic nature leads on to a comparison of repeated additive particles in Komi-Zyryan with those in neighbouring languages. This provides a rationale for a hypothesis respecting adstrate development in the area, possibly supported by substrate and/or universal tendencies of particle positioning in the utterance. Finally, certain trends in the syntax of written Komi are found to coincide with the recent revitalisation of the language.