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An Oroch word-list lost and rediscovered: a critical edition of Tronson's 1859 pseudo-Nivkh vocabulary*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2017

José Andrés Alonso de la Fuente*
Affiliation:
University of Barcelona
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Abstract

J.M. Tronson believed that the language of the word-list which he collected in 1856 on the Lower Amur, and published twice in 1859 was Nivkh. Among contemporary scholars, only Roman Jakobson noted that the language of Tronson's word-list is not Nivkh, but Tungusic. Unfortunately, neither Jakobson nor other specialists have specified what language that might be. We confirm E.G. Ravenstein's unnoticed assertion of 1861 that the language is Oroch and, from this new perspective, we offer a critical edition of Tronson's pseudo-Nivkh word-list.

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Articles
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Copyright © SOAS, University of London 2017 
Figure 0

Table 1 Summary of Oroch sources

Figure 1

Table 2 Comparative vocabulary list of Tronson's word-lists with other Oroch sources and Nivkh

Figure 2

Figure 1. Linguistic interaction in the Lower Amur and Sakhalin (based on Wurm et al. 1996, vol. 1, map 108. Russian is not included.) Dotted arrows indicate “passive bilingualism”)

Figure 3

Figure 2. Historical settlements of the Oroch at the turn of the 20th century Regions: 1. Amurian; 2. Xungarian; 3. Tumñin; 4. Xadi; 5. KoppiBlack dots indicate current settlements (adapted from Lar'kin 1964: 27)