Dené–Yeniseian languages

Dené–Yeniseian is a proposed language family or language stock consisting of the Yeniseian languages of central Siberia and the Na-Dené languages of northwestern North America. If valid, it would be the first proven linguistic connection between the Old and New Worlds, not counting a few Yupik languages found on either side of the Bering Strait.

Evidence

At a symposium in Alaska in 2008, Edward Vajda of Western Washington University summarized ten years of research, based on verbal morphology and reconstructions of the proto-languages, indicating that the Yeniseian and Na-Dené families might be related. The summation of Vajda’s research was published in June 2010 in The Dene–Yeniseian Connection in the Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska (ISBN 978-0-615-43296-0). This 369-page volume, edited by James Kari and Ben Potter, contains papers from the Feb. 26–29, 2008, symposium plus several contributed papers. Accompanying Vajda’s lead paper are primary data on Na-Dene historical phonology by Jeff Leer, along with critiques by several linguistic specialists and articles on a range of topics (archaeology, prehistory, ethnogeography, genetics, kinship, and folklore) by experts in these fields.

The evidence offered by Vajda includes over 110 proposed cognate morphemes and about ten homologous prefix and suffix positions of the verbs.

At the time of publication Vajda’s proposals had been favorably reviewed by several specialists of Na-Dené and Yeniseian languages—although at times with caution—including Michael Krauss, Jeff Leer, James Kari, and Heinrich Werner, as well as a number of other respected linguists, such as Bernard Comrie, Johanna Nichols, Victor Golla, Michael Fortescue, Eric Hamp, and Bill Poser (Kari and Potter 2010:12).^[1] One significant exception is the critical review of the volume of collected papers by Lyle Campbell^[2] and a response by Vajda^[3] published in late 2011 that clearly indicate the proposal is not completely settled at the present time. Two other reviews and notices of the volume appeared in 2011 by Keren Rice and Jared Diamond.

Vajda and others also note that no compelling evidence has been found linking Haida with either Na-Dené or Yeniseian (Vajda 2010b:115, Kari and Potter 2010:4). Some of the evidence for this relationship resembles a school of broader proposals for a Dené–Caucasian language family, which adds to the proposal Burushaski and the Sino-Tibetan and North Caucasian language families. While Vajda did not find the kinds of morphological correspondences with these other families that he did with Yeniseian and Na-Dené, he urges that more work be done on the Dene–Caucasian hypothesis (Vajda 2010b). Indeed, his preliminary negative findings serve to reinforce the earlier research by providing some standards of comparison.

The putative relationship between the families was first proposed by Alfredo Trombetti in 1923.^[4] The first peer-reviewed publication to propose the existence of a distinct Dené–Yeniseian family was written by macrofamily supporter Merritt Ruhlen (1998) in Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences, USA.^[5] However, Vajda (2010a:34) states (without specifying which ones) that 26 of the 34 sets of words offered by Ruhlen are coincidental look-alikes, whereas 8 of Ruhlen's word sets follow Vajda's rules of sound correspondences. Michael Fortescue independently suggested the possible existence of a Dené–Yeniseian family in his 1998 book Language Relations Across Bering Strait^[6] (see pages 213–215). He writes, "I have attempted throughout to find a middle way between the cavalier optimism of 'lumpers' and the pessimism of orthodox 'splitters' on the matters of deep genetic relationship between the continents" (page 1).

Classification

Ket & Navajo word pairs

See also Appendix:Swadesh lists for Dené–Yeniseian languages.

Below is a table of Ket^[7] and Navajo words.

Notes: Navajo, inalienable nouns are attached with the prefix a-, which means "someone's".

References

• Campbell, Lyle (2011): "Review of The Dene-Yeniseian Connection, ed. by James Kari and Ben A. Potter". International Journal of American Linguistics 77.3:445-451.
• Diamond, Jared (2011). "Linguistics: Deep relationships between languages." Nature. 476 (7360): 291-292.
• Fortescue, Michael (1998). Language Relations across Bering Strait: Reappraising the Archaeological and Linguistic Evidence. London and New York: Cassell.
• Kari, James and Ben A. Potter. (2010). "The Dene–Yeniseian Connection, Bridging Asia and North America." The Dene–Yeniseian Connection, ed. by J. Kari and B. Potter, 1–24. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, new series, vol. 5. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Fairbanks, Department of Anthropology.
• Rice, Keren. (2011). Review of The Dene-Yeniseian Connection, ed. by James Kari and Ben A. Potter. Diachronica 28:2:255-271.
• Rubicz, R., Melvin, K.L., Crawford, M.H. (2002). "Genetic Evidence for the phylogenetic relationship between Na-Dene and Yeniseian speakers." Human Biology, 43(6):743–60.
• Ruhlen, Merritt (1998). "The Origin of the Na-Dene". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 95(23):13994-6.
• Vajda, Edward J. (2010a). "A Siberian Link with Na-Dene Languages." The Dene–Yeniseian Connection, ed. by J. Kari and B. Potter, 33–99. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, new series, vol. 5. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Fairbanks, Department of Anthropology.
• Vajda, Edward J. (2010b). "Yeniseian, Na-Dene, and Historical Linguistics." The Dene–Yeniseian Connection, ed. by J. Kari and B. Potter, 100–118. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, new series, vol. 5. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Fairbanks, Department of Anthropology.
• Vajda, Edward J. (2011) "A Response to Campbell." International Journal of American Linguistics 77.3:451-452.
• Wilson, Joseph A.P. (2008). "A New Perspective on Later Migration(s): The Possible Recent Origin of Some Native American Haplotypes". Critique of Anthropology 28(3):267–78.

Notes

1. ^ Language Log » The languages of the Caucasus
2. ^ Lyle Campbell, 2011, "Review of The Dene-Yeniseian Connection (Kari and Potter)," International Journal of American Linguistics 77:445-451. "In summary, the proposed Dene-Yeniseian connection cannot be embraced at present. The hypothesis is indeed stimulating, advanced by a serious scholar trying to use appropriate procedures. Unfortunately, neither the lexical evidence (with putative sound correspondences) nor the morphological evidence adduced is sufficient to support a distant genetic relationship between Na-Dene and Yeniseian." (pg. 450).
3. ^ Edward Vajda, 2011, "A Response to Campbell," International Journal of American Linguistics 77:451-452. "It remains incumbent upon the proponents of the DY hypothesis to provide solutions to at least some of the unresolved problems identified in Campbell's review or in DYC itself. My opinion is that every one of them requires a convincing solution before the relationship between Yeniseian and Na-Dene can be considered settled." (pg. 452).
4. ^ see Vajda 2010a:34 who quotes Trombetti, Alfredo. 1923. Elementi di glottologia. Bologna. pp.486, 511)
5. ^ http://www.pnas.org/content/95/23/13994.full.pdf
6. ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=hHMrfxhAZ-UC
7. ^ Vajda, Edward and Andrey Nefedov. 2009. "Ket vocabulary" In: Haspelmath, Martin & Tadmor, Uri (eds.) World Loanword Database. Munich: Max Planck Digital Library, 1030 entries. http://wold.livingsources.org/vocabulary/18
8. ^ Вернер Г.К. Словарь кетско-русский и русско-кетский

External links

• Ordering information and news items for The Dene–Yeniseian Connection.
• Table of contents and ordering information for The Dene–Yeniseian Connection.
• The LINGUIST List MultiTree Project: Dene–Yeniseian Family Trees
• "New language research supports land bridge evidence" Anchorage Daily News
• Dené–Yeniseian Swadesh lists (incomplete)