Projekt

This project focusses on the interdisciplinary documentation of the language and culture of three different Even communities. Even is a Northern Tungusic language spoken over a vast area of northeastern Siberia, from the Lena-Jana watershed in the west to Kamchatka in the east. Traditionally, Evens are nomadic hunters and reindeer pastoralists. Reindeer, both domesticated and wild, play an important role in their culture and ethnic self-identification. Reindeer herding, however, has become highly endangered throughout the Russian North, which has had extremely negative effects on the Evens' self-perception and social relations. Therefore the proposed project will not only seek to document the language, but also the state of reindeer herding among the Evens in different regional settings. Due to the fragmentation of the Even communities, several dialects have emerged which are classified into three dialectal groups: Western, Central, and Eastern. These dialects form a continuum with pronounced lack of mutual intelligibility between the extremes. The project aims at documenting three highly endangered variants of Even that currently still have enough fluent speakers to make a comprehensive documentation feasible and that represent the three main dialect groups.

• Dr. Dr. Brigitte Pakendorf

  Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre
  Anthropologie
  Unabhängige Nachwuchsgruppe für Vergleichende
  Populationslinguistik
  Leipzig
  

• Dr. Dejan Matic

  Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre
  Anthropologie
  Unabhängige Nachwuchsgruppe für Vergleichende
  Populationslinguistik
  Leipzig
  

• Dr. Vasilij Robbek

  Institute of Indigenous Peoples of the
  North
  Yakutsk
  Russland