Folklore borrowings in north-eastern Siberia

Abstract

Folktale characters and places in northeastern Siberia have been traced throughout Yakut, Ewenki and Yukaghir (TU=Tundra Yukaghir; KY=Kolyma Yukaghir). The following is etymologized as a (Pre-)Yakut borrowing: KY an-daidu-iččite ‘a goddess in a tale, lit. appointed goddess of the land’, and as Ewenki borrowings: TY d’el’diŋee ‘a man in a tale, lit. bender~returner’; KY dourǝ, dowurǝ ‘a man in a tale, lit. comrade’, KY gerkeńi ‘a man in a tale, lit. walker’, TY agaańe ‘woman, lit. one who berths, one who moors’ and TY juundaaq(-nerile) ‘a place in folklore, lit. earthen hill with rocks in the eastern direction’. A folklore Wanderwort is found in Yukaghir SD galyjan ‘a woman in a tale, lit. goose’, and a few other uncertain cultural borrowings are discussed. Further, the following hitherto undescribed affective suffixes are used commonly with Yukaghir folktale characters: TY -aa, TY -iń, TY -j, TY -kie(n) , TY -ńe, PY *-ka(:)(n) and PY *-de:. Furthermore, the suffix TY -tke is used exclusively with place names in Yukaghir folklore.