A case-study in historical sociolinguistics beyond Europe: Reconstructing patterns of multilingualism in a linguistic community in Siberia
Abstract A collection of traditional and ‘old life’ stories recorded in the late 1940s is used to reconstruct the sociolinguistic situation of the Enets community in Northern Siberia from the 1850s until the 1930s. The Enets had regular contacts with a number of neighbouring indigenous peoples (Ngan...
Published in: | Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Walter de Gruyter GmbH
2018
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/jhsl-2017-0016 https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/jhsl/4/2/article-p221.xml https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/jhsl-2017-0016/xml https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/jhsl-2017-0016/html |
id |
crdegruyter:10.1515/jhsl-2017-0016 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crdegruyter:10.1515/jhsl-2017-0016 2023-05-15T17:14:37+02:00 A case-study in historical sociolinguistics beyond Europe: Reconstructing patterns of multilingualism in a linguistic community in Siberia Khanina, Olesya Meyerhoff, Miriam 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/jhsl-2017-0016 https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/jhsl/4/2/article-p221.xml https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/jhsl-2017-0016/xml https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/jhsl-2017-0016/html en eng Walter de Gruyter GmbH Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics volume 4, issue 2, page 221-251 ISSN 2199-2908 2199-2894 Linguistics and Language Language and Linguistics journal-article 2018 crdegruyter https://doi.org/10.1515/jhsl-2017-0016 2022-04-14T05:10:06Z Abstract A collection of traditional and ‘old life’ stories recorded in the late 1940s is used to reconstruct the sociolinguistic situation of the Enets community in Northern Siberia from the 1850s until the 1930s. The Enets had regular contacts with a number of neighbouring indigenous peoples (Nganasans, Tundra Nenets, Selkups, Evenkis, Dolgans) and later with Russian newcomers. The oral histories often comment on language use, and as a result we can reconstruct not only the languages that the Enets people used in this period, but also the contexts in which they used them. The Enets community’s multilingualism was typically characterized by command of key neighbouring languages, with the occasional command of other more (geographically and socially) remote ones. With close neighbours, language choice seems to have had limited social load, while in cases of trade or agonistic contact, the choice of language in interethnic communication seems to have followed a principle of asymmetric convergence towards the language of the party with the greatest contextual social power. The analysis is founded on a database of dozens of communicative events mentioned in the oral stories (over 50 are analyzed). Ongoing fieldwork on the modern sociolinguistic situation suggests that until quite recently there was considerable stability in the sociolinguistic norms governing multilingual interaction among the Enets. Article in Journal/Newspaper nenets Nganasan* Tundra Siberia De Gruyter (via Crossref) Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics 4 2 221 251 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
De Gruyter (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crdegruyter |
language |
English |
topic |
Linguistics and Language Language and Linguistics |
spellingShingle |
Linguistics and Language Language and Linguistics Khanina, Olesya Meyerhoff, Miriam A case-study in historical sociolinguistics beyond Europe: Reconstructing patterns of multilingualism in a linguistic community in Siberia |
topic_facet |
Linguistics and Language Language and Linguistics |
description |
Abstract A collection of traditional and ‘old life’ stories recorded in the late 1940s is used to reconstruct the sociolinguistic situation of the Enets community in Northern Siberia from the 1850s until the 1930s. The Enets had regular contacts with a number of neighbouring indigenous peoples (Nganasans, Tundra Nenets, Selkups, Evenkis, Dolgans) and later with Russian newcomers. The oral histories often comment on language use, and as a result we can reconstruct not only the languages that the Enets people used in this period, but also the contexts in which they used them. The Enets community’s multilingualism was typically characterized by command of key neighbouring languages, with the occasional command of other more (geographically and socially) remote ones. With close neighbours, language choice seems to have had limited social load, while in cases of trade or agonistic contact, the choice of language in interethnic communication seems to have followed a principle of asymmetric convergence towards the language of the party with the greatest contextual social power. The analysis is founded on a database of dozens of communicative events mentioned in the oral stories (over 50 are analyzed). Ongoing fieldwork on the modern sociolinguistic situation suggests that until quite recently there was considerable stability in the sociolinguistic norms governing multilingual interaction among the Enets. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Khanina, Olesya Meyerhoff, Miriam |
author_facet |
Khanina, Olesya Meyerhoff, Miriam |
author_sort |
Khanina, Olesya |
title |
A case-study in historical sociolinguistics beyond Europe: Reconstructing patterns of multilingualism in a linguistic community in Siberia |
title_short |
A case-study in historical sociolinguistics beyond Europe: Reconstructing patterns of multilingualism in a linguistic community in Siberia |
title_full |
A case-study in historical sociolinguistics beyond Europe: Reconstructing patterns of multilingualism in a linguistic community in Siberia |
title_fullStr |
A case-study in historical sociolinguistics beyond Europe: Reconstructing patterns of multilingualism in a linguistic community in Siberia |
title_full_unstemmed |
A case-study in historical sociolinguistics beyond Europe: Reconstructing patterns of multilingualism in a linguistic community in Siberia |
title_sort |
case-study in historical sociolinguistics beyond europe: reconstructing patterns of multilingualism in a linguistic community in siberia |
publisher |
Walter de Gruyter GmbH |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/jhsl-2017-0016 https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/jhsl/4/2/article-p221.xml https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/jhsl-2017-0016/xml https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/jhsl-2017-0016/html |
genre |
nenets Nganasan* Tundra Siberia |
genre_facet |
nenets Nganasan* Tundra Siberia |
op_source |
Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics volume 4, issue 2, page 221-251 ISSN 2199-2908 2199-2894 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1515/jhsl-2017-0016 |
container_title |
Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics |
container_volume |
4 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
221 |
op_container_end_page |
251 |
_version_ |
1766072010011574272 |