The Yukaghir texts are represented in phonological transcription, although some positional and inter-speaker variations are reflected. The latter mostly concern the pronunciation of diphthongs ej ~ eu, oj ~ ou, as well as the free variations e ~ O, jo ~ u and the like, which occur in some stems. The following transcriptional conventions are adopted.
| c' | palatal voiceless affricate | |
| d' | palatal voiced affricate | |
| s' | palatal voiceless fricative, a positional variant of c' in non-initial contexts | |
| G | uvular fricative | |
| q | uvular stop | |
| Z | voiced palato-alveolar fricative | |
| N | velar nasal | |
| S | voiceless palato-alveolar fricative | |
| l' | palatal lateral | |
| n' | palatal nasal | |
| O | mid front rounded vowel | |
| E | short non-high underspecified vowel which occurs after the first foot and is either pronounced as the central mid vowel or harmonized to other vowels | |
| I | back high unrounded vowel which occurs in loanwords |
Vowel length is denoted by a colon. Several additional symbols have been used to render the Yukaghir texts.
| {} | - | Russian words that are not fully integrated into the language |
| [] | - | repetitions and mistakes of the narrator |
| ... | - | passages that remain unclear from the recording |
| <> | - | non-etymological sounds which may be inserted in the text of songs for metrical reasons |
Commas generally indicate the boundaries of finite clauses.
The texts are provided with morpheme-by-morpheme glosses. Morphemes are separated either by a hyphen or by the equals sign. In the latter case the respective morpheme is located outside the minimal domain of stress assignment. Derivational affixes on nouns are not indicated. They are not numerous and most of them lack productivity. Verbal affixes are treated as separate morphemes if they can be analysed as such at the synchronic level. For example, the stem 'to float' exists in two bound variants: je:-Zu- and je:-rE-. The affixes -Zu- and -rE- are glossed as iterative and non-iterative, respectively. On the other hand, the final j is present in all forms of the verb peSSEj- 'to throw'. Although it is likely to go back to the perfective suffix, for modern Yukaghir it is analysed as part of the stem. Wherever possible, a morphological analysis is also provided for adverbs and postpositions. Only transparent compounds are morphologically analysed.
The glossing system is essentially based on Maslova (2003), but deviates from the latter source in several points. The most significant deviations follow.
- The term Evidential is used instead of Inferential.
- The verbal forms in -gE- are analysed as Hortative, rather than Imperative.
- The nominal form in -n/-d is termed the Genitive rather than the Attributive. The term attributive is retained for the attributive forms of numerals and demonstratives.
- The suffix -qE is analysed as an Adjectivizer.
- In the main verbal paradigm the transitive agreement affixes are overtly glossed as such. The absence of such marking indicates that the agreement affix is intransitive.
- Since the distinction between some categories is not always obvious, the label Resultative comprises both the Resultative and the Stative, the label Intransitive comprises both the Detransitive and the Intransitive, and the label Inchoative comprises both the Inchoative and the Ingressive.
- The following categories are glossed with lexical items rather than category labels: the Connective Particle, Connective Adverbial, Copula, Resumptive, and Disjunctive Particle.
- The Relative Nominal is glossed as a Nominalizer, while the Result Nominal is analysed as consisting of the Resultative and the Action Nominal.
- The null 3SG is not indicated in the glosses, while the null 1SG transitive is.
- The verbal suffix -SE-/-S- is glossed as Causative, while all other transitivizing suffixes are glossed as Transitive, although the details of their meanings may differ.
- For locative adverbs the Directional and the Lative forms are distinguished.
- The possessive marker -l'E is glossed as Possessive, while the third person possessive marker -gi/-dE is glossed as 3.
- The elements a-, an-, e-, en-, ej- in some pronominal stems are termed Pronominal.
- Active and Passive attributive forms are termed Imperfective and Perfective Participles, respectively.
The 3rd person personal pronouns, which are not marked for gender in Yukaghir, are all glossed as 'he'. The list of glossing abbreviations is presented below.
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