Language groups in Northern Eurasia

1. Language groups inNorthern Eurasia F. Jacquesson Lacito-CNRS

2. 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.

4. 1. The situation now • 2. Documentary evidence

5. The situation now Eastern Siberian Fenno-Ugric Eskaleut Tungusic Samoyedic Ainu Japanic Koreanic Nivx Turkic Mongolic Yukagir Ket

6. Uralic Uralo-Altaic ?? • Finno-ougric • Samoyedic • Tungusic • Mongolic • Turkic • Eastern Siberic (Chukchee) • Eskaleut (Eskimo+Aleut) • Nivx • Ket • Yukagir • Ainu • Japanese • Korean Altaic ? ???

7. 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 study historical documents • 2.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.

8. Studying historical documents • They give precious indications about the history of populations. • But : Do older names indicate the ‘same people’ as to-day ?

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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

12. 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 :

13. Yukagir in the 17th century acc. to Dolgix Kets to-day Yukagirto-day Ieniseian in the 17th century according to Dolgix

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. Talas: a passage between China and the West

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. Herding and the steppe corridor

24. 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.

25. Timur’s tombinSamarcand

26. Older linguistic data

27. 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)

28. 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.

29. From west to east : the Semitic alphabet Manchu script Mongol script Sogdian script Syriac script, beginning of CE Uigur script

30. From east to west: the name for the yoke André Haudricourt : Géographie et ethnologie de la voiture, 1948.

31. 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.

32. 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.

33. 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.

34. Merci