Yeniseian Peoples and Languages: A History of Yeniseian Studies with an Annotated Bibliography and a Source Guide

by Edward J. Vajda

The Kets of Central Siberia are perhaps the most enigmatic of Siberia's aboriginal tribes. Today numbering barely 1,100 souls living in several small villages on the middle reaches of the Yenisei, the Kets have retained much of their ancient culture, as well as their unique language.
Genetic studies of the Ket hint at an ancient affinity with Tibetans, Burmese, and other peoples of peoples of South East Asia not shared by any other Siberian people. The Ket language, which is unrelated to any other living Siberian tongue, also appears to be a relic of a bygone linguistic landscape of Inner Asia.
Because language isolates such as Ket are of special value to scholars of the original peopling of the continents, linguists have recently attempted to link Ket with North Caucasian, Sino- Tibetan, Burushaski, Basque and Na Dene. None of these links have been proved to the satisfaction of all linguists, and the research continues both in Russia and abroad.

432 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Christopher · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the 1990s, the American linguist Edward Vajda became interested in Ket, that obscure language isolate of Central Siberia. Entering this field required Vajda to assimilate a vast amount of earlier scholarship, most of which consisted of Russian-language publications virtually unknown outside the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia. The rest of the world is very fortunate indeed that he compiled the findings of his library-trawling into this bibliography, which came out in 2001.

The book consists of four parts. The first is a 17-page introduction to the history of Yeniseian studies in general, where Vajda presents the major personalities from M.A. Castrén in the mid-19th-century to the prolific Heinrich Werner in the 1990s. The second part is an annotated bibliography of publications on Yeniseian language and culture, over three hundred pages long. Part three offers guidance on using unpublished sources held by various libraries, archives and museums. Finally, the fourth part is a classified index, pointing one to particular publications according to such themes as "Historical linguistics", "Typology", "Physical anthropology, genetics", "Native rights", etc.

This is an outstanding gateway to Yeniseian studies. If only all branches of linguistics had such a detailed and easy-to-use bibliography for neophytes!