Etymological and ethnohistorical aspects of the Yenisei

• Main Author: Janhunen, Juha
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Uniwersytet Jagielloński. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego 2012
• Subjects: hist; lang; samoyed*
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.4467/20843836SE.12.003.0393; https://bibliotekanauki.pl/articles/700026.pdf; https://bibliotekanauki.pl/articles/700026

The paper discusses the background of the different terms used for the river Yenisei in the aboriginal language families of the region: Mongolic, Turkic, Yeniseic, Uralic, and Tungusic. The etymological material allows, in particular, important conclusions to be drawn of the areal interrelationships and chronologies of expansion of the Samoyedic branch of Uralic and the Ewenic branch of Tungusic. The presence of Uralic speakers on the Yenisei predates that of Tungusic speakers by a minimum of two millennia. Both Yeniseic and Turkic also reached the Yenisei earlier than Tungusic.