Samoyed piece to the Uralic puzzle: tracing lexical and grammatical retention and replacement in the Samoyed languages

Application summary

The Samoyed languages are a subgroup of the Uralic language family that split off from Proto-Uralic approximately 4000 years ago. Their common proto language, Proto-Samoyed, presents with a paradoxical combination of archaic and innovative features, which has perplexed scholars of Uralic language history for decades. Applying the historical-comparative method of linguistics on newly available documentative materials, our project aims to investigate the history of Samoyed lexicon and grammar with more precision than ever before, resolving some of the most pressing issues of Uralic historical linguistics and forming a solid basis for future research. Our project is divided into two intertwined work packages that complement each other to form a fuller picture of the investigated phenomena. Work package 1 addresses the history of Samoyed lexicon and comprises the compilation of an etymological dictionary of the Samoyed languages. Work package 2, focusing on historical grammar, entails a series of research papers on the origin and development of Proto-Samoyed nominal and verbal morphology and derivation. Together, the two packages will examine the Uralic and non-Uralic elements of Proto-Samoyed, ultimately bringing us closer to solving the question: When, where, and how did Proto-Uralic begin to diversify? The results of our investigation represent the culmination of the past decades’ research into Uralic historical linguistics and language documentation. Drawing from a vast pool of linguistic data, we strive to accomplish a more complete understanding of Samoyed language history than ever before, at the same time creating resources for future generations of linguists and other scholars of the human past for decades to come.