The book describes the morphological system of Yukaghir in a historical perspective, and proposes the systematic reconstruction of the main aspects of Proto Yukaghir inflectional morphology and the historical changes it went through. Proto-Yukaghir is shown to be strongly aligned with the grammatical profile of the Uralic and Altaic languages. In addition, the book discusses potential external cognates for a number of Yukaghir grammatical morphemes and constructions, evaluates some previous hypotheses in this respect, and proposes a number of novel interpretations, while abstaining from general conclusions regarding genetic relatedness. Morphological borrowings and contact-induced grammaticalization processes are also addressed.
This second edition, considerably revised and corrected, incorporates new data, obtained in the course of recent fieldwork, and reflects several new analytical insights.