No 4 (2024)

The article contains a preliminary publication of nineteen birchbark letters found during the archaeological season of 2023 in Veliky Novgorod (Nos. 1158–1172) and Staraya Russa (Nos. 55–58). The published documents date back to the 12^th — early 16^th centuries. From the historical point of view, three 14^th-century documents are of the greatest value: No. 1164 is a record of tax collection, reflecting the decimal organization of the population of the Novgorod hinterland; No. 1164 is a petition addressed to the corporation of skotniki and pomužniki, which administered the territories in the Zaonezhye region; No. 1170 is a record of a court session with a mention of boyars. The linguistic material of the published texts includes a rare example of the N. Sg. poklone in the address formula of a letter, the letter ъ designating [’o], another example of ъ + o combination reflexed as a, the first attestations of the words ězdьcь ‘messenger’, šida ‘silk’, kruta ‘dowry’, archaic personal names Pirovaya, Oblikъ, etc.

The paper is based on data from four Finno-Ugric languages (Udmurt, Hill Mari, Moksha, and Khanty). It deals with markers that can perform at least two functions: on the one hand, they can mark the standard of comparison in equative constructions; on the other hand, they can serve as approximative markers in quantified expressions. This paper considers distribution of such markers and proposes a possible way to analyze field and corpus data. I put forward and investigate hypotheses about the possible mechanism for the emergence of such polyfunctionality. Firstly, a detailed description of how such markers are distributed across languages and contexts is provided. I consider both quantitative and qualitative equative contexts. In addition, in this paper I claim that there is a third subtype of equatives — a parametric one, that has previously been described among qualitative equatives. The difference in the distribution of equative-approximative markers combined with standard and ad hoc measure nouns is discussed. We show that the first type of contexts belongs to approximative, and the second one — to equative, although the division is very vague. Secondly, the compatibility of such markers serving to disclaim precision about cardinal numerals (without any measure nouns within the construction) is considered. The data are discussed within the framework of the scalar approach. I show that cardinal numerals and measure nouns introduce different types of scales, which also affects the distribution of equative-approximative markers. After considering a number of hypotheses about whether elements of equative constructions can contribute to the reanalysis of equative indicators into markers of approximation, I conclude that equative-approximative ambiguity arises as a result of synchronic polysemy, rather than diachronic development of the equative markers.

This study reports an analysis of [w] and [ɣʷ] segments in Naukan Yupik that are variants of a single phoneme. The article presents a review of the existing literature on Naukan Yupik and other related languages as well as a primary analysis of modern audio data recorded during field trips on Naukan Yupik documentation in 2022–2023. This analysis deals with such acoustic characteristics as formant structure and frication of the segments [w] and [ɣʷ] as well as voiced velar fricatives [ɣ] and [v]. The results of the analysis confirm differences between [w] and [ɣʷ] that are observed perceptually and distinguish them from [ɣ] and [v]. Our data additionally show that [w] should be considered the main variant of the phoneme in question.

In this paper I attempt to match the data on the degree of regularity of phonetic changes adduced by sociolinguists and specialists in historical and comparative linguistics with the data on language acquisition and brain mechanisms on which it is based. I conclude that despite the variation existing in any language at any moment of time human brain architecture and language acquisition mechanisms determine that, in a long-term perspective, phonetic changes are mostly regular.