Old Man and Old Woman: More on Yukaghir Lexical Etymologies

Goals. The study attempts an insight into the lexicon denoting age and gender categories in Tundra and Forest Yukaghir idioms, focusing on their etymological origins and semantic development. Special attention is given to the heterogeneity of lexical composition, encompassing both native elements and borrowings from Chukchi-Kamchatkan, Uralic, and Russian languages. Methods. The methodological framework combines tools of comparative historical analysis, semantic reconstruction, and language contact research. The work is grounded on hypotheses suggesting potential connections between Yukaghir and Uralic, Chukchi-Kamchatkan and other languages. Results. The paper establishes that the previously unetymologized Tundra Yukaghir апаналаа ‘old woman; wife’ (from an idiom) displays reliable parallels in Chukchi-Kamchatkan languages indicating its borrowed status. Of particular interest is the etymological distinction between the roots пэл ~ пул: the Yukaghir пэлдудиэ ~ пулундиэ ‘old man’ is traced back to the Chukchi-Kamchatkan *pelqet- ‘to grow old (of objects)’, while пэлур ~ пулут ‘suitor; husband; old man’ is considered a reflex of the Uralic *pälä ‘half; side’. A key aspect of the study is the analysis of semantic shifts whereby lexemes denoting age categories (апаналаа, пэлдудиэ) acquired social meanings (‘wife’, ‘husband’). This phenomenon systematically mirrors the connection between age and social roles in traditional Yukaghir society. Based on the analysis, the target lexicon is stratified into three groups: probable Yukaghir-Uralic correspondences (пэлур ~ пулут ‘suitor; husband; old man’, куойпэ ~ куойпэ ‘man’); late borrowings from Chukchi-Kamchatkan (апаналаа ‘old woman; wife’, пэлдудиэ ‘old man; husband’) and Russian (тэрикэ ‘old woman; wife’); isolated lexemes reconstructed within Yukaghir (лугэ- ~ лигэ- ‘to be old’, паайпэ ‘woman’, мирийэ ~ мидосьо ‘caravan; wife’). The findings contribute to the further understanding of language contacts and ethnocultural history of the Yukaghir, clarify mechanisms of semantic change in situations of cross-linguistic interaction.

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