Language groups in Northern Eurasia

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Language groups inNorthern Eurasia

• F. Jacquesson
• Lacito-CNRS

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Proviso

• In order to present here a clear description, we
  will exclude two massive components
• Indo-European languages in the west
• Chinese languages in the East
• and will focus on the lesser known groups whose
  speakers have had, and often still have, a major
  role in the linguistic geography of Northern
  Eurasia.

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• 1. The situation now
• 2. Documentary evidence

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The situation now
Eastern Siberian
Fenno-Ugric
Eskaleut
Tungusic
Samoyedic
Ainu
Japanic
Koreanic
Nivx
Turkic
Mongolic
Yukagir
Ket
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• Finno-ougric
• Samoyedic
• Tungusic
• Mongolic
• Turkic
• Eastern Siberic (Chukchee)
• Eskaleut (EskimoAleut)
• Nivx
• Ket
• Yukagir
• Ainu
• Japanese
• Korean

Uralic
Uralo-Altaic ??
Altaic ?
???
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Looking into the past

• We can
• 1. study historical documents
• 2. analyse older linguistic data
• 3. compare present linguistic data
• We will give here an idea of points 1 and 2.

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Studying historical documents

• They give precious indications about the history
  of populations.
• But Do older names indicate the same people
  as to-day ?

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Population layers in recent northern Eurasia

• The Russian colonization, since the 17th century
• The Muslim influence, since the 8th century
• The Chinese influence, since the beg. of CE.
• All these foreign intruders brought languages
  and significantly modified the cultural landscape.

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Before Russian colonization the Dolgix map

• V. O. Dolgix specialized in Samoyeds.
• He studied the first Russian documents about
  Siberian populations
• in administration reports and merchants
  narratives.
• He organized his results in a famous map, that he
  first published in 1960.

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Dolgix map Siberia in the 17th century
Light pink Yukagir
Eastern Siberian is red
Blue Samoyedic
Green Uralic
Yellow Turkic
Light green Tungusic
Dark pink Ieniseian
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According to Dolgix map

• Yakuts were few in Yakutia
• Yukagirs were numerous and far into the east
• Southern Samoyeds were still alive as such
• Yeniseian people were southerners
• Let us compare the 17th century situation with
  present time in two striking cases

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Yukagir in the 17th century acc. to Dolgix
Kets to-day
Yukagir to-day
Ieniseian in the 17th century according to Dolgix
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Language change

• Of course, it does not mean that all these people
  were assassinated.
• It means they encouraged their children in
  learning the language of the more powerful
  people,
• and in forgetting their own language.
• In such cases, which have been fairly widespread
  at all times, but have become more on more
  frequent recently, the lineages remain on the
  spot, while the older languages disappear.

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Muslim and Chinese influence in Central Asia

• The first Turkic documents (inscriptions on
  stone) give a detailed account of the relations
  with Chinese, in the 8th century.
• Chinese reports and annals help the understanding
  of what happened in the steppe belt.

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Muslim Chinese clash in Talas 751 CE

• Mediaeval geographers and historians, writing in
  Chinese, Arabic and later in Persian, make us
  realize how different the distribution of power
  then was,
• and along which lines local populations were
  intrumentalized, and sometimes transported.
• For instance, it is important to realize that the
  famous battle opposing Chinese and Muslim armies,
  each with different Turkic allies, was fought not
  so far from present Tashkent.

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Talas a passage between China and the West
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Talas 751 CE
Aral Lake
TALAS
Toshkent
Samarkand
Kashgar
The technique for making paper is supposed to
have been transmitted from China to the West by
Chinese prisonners at Talas.
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At that time

• Documents in Turkic languages are known only from
  Mongolia.
• Mongolian speaking peoples were maybe living
  in eastern Mongolia and present Manchuria.
• Most (known) people in Central Asia before the
  Chinese/Muslim conflict were speaking Iranian
  languages.
• Muslim influence introduced Persian, an Iranian
  language from the west. It slowly superseded the
  eastern Iranian languages like Sogdian the
  famous language of the Silk Road merchants.

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The other teaching

• Although the historical detail is fairly
  complicated,
• chronicles also bring to light a number of
  reasons for the cultural shifts and/or population
  movements.
• These deeper factors help us understanding what
  forces were shaping the human landscape in a more
  remote past before the time of our documents.

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Herding and mobility

• All pieces of evidence, from the inner Asian
  groups themeselves or from their neighbours,
• underline the contrast between mobile herders,
  mounted on horses, and sedentary dwellers.
• This contrast at first sight is graphically
  summed up in the Great Walls of China.

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The steppe

• Although the steppe corridor is not the only
  important geographical feature in our zone,
• it played a major role in the population
  movements.
• This was reinforced by the asymmetry between the
  rich grazing in the west,
• and the more dangerous climate of the eastern
  steppe
• provoking the so-called Great Invasions that
  ruined the (western) Roman Empire.

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Herding and the steppe corridor
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Yet

• The nomadic / sedentary contrast does not mean
  the Wall was always high enough.
• The influence of the cities of the south was
  clearly felt in the north, as we see from the
  graves, or from the ruins in the steppes
• And the northern barbarians have been several
  times in control of the south, in China as in
  Russia.
• This led to episodes of symbiosis.

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Timurs tombinSamarcand
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Older linguistic data
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Older linguistic data in Northern Eurasia

• Chinese
• Germanic (runic inscr. since the 3rd c. CE
• Turkic (c. 5th c., Orkhon inscr. are 8th c.)
• Tibetan (since 7th c.)
• Hungarian (since c. 1200)
• Mongolian (13th c., the Secret History is known
  from a Chinese transcription)

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Cultural shift

• The development, in time and space, of cultural
  and/or linguistic factors does not always imply
  population movement.
• This is exemplified by the borrowing of the
  Semitic writing, which crossed the whole
  continent from the Mediterranean to the Pacific.
• And by the yoke and its name, which crossed the
  whole continent from east to west.

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From west to east the Semitic alphabet
Manchu script
Mongol script
Sogdian script
Syriac script, beginning of CE
Uigur script
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From east to west the name for the yoke
André Haudricourt Géographie et ethnologie de
la voiture, 1948.
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To sum it up in 3 steps 1st step

• The present day linguistic map is far from being
  a sufficient basis for reconstructing the
  linguistic past of Northern Eurasia.
• Even in the 17th c. a period quite close to
  ours the situation was very different.

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To sum it up 2nd step

• The history of language distribution in Eurasia
  is heavily dependant on ethnological factors
• herding has been a major factor since the
  domestication of the horse
• the grazing areas are not evenly distributed
• relations between the steppe and the cities did
  exist, either on a predatory or a trading mode
• language replacement was a frequent feature,
  linked with specific views about mobile
  federations.

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To sum it up 3rd step

• The community of language (for instance the fact
  that citizens of Turkey speak Turkic, or are
  supposed to) captures only a part of the past
  history sometimes a deceptive part.
• The political innuendoes, or trumpets, behind
  lanuage mapping are certainly not new.
• A language community should then be seen with
  some feeling for historical details and, when
  possible, with some tact.

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Merci