Juha Janhunen
University of Helsinki, Altaic Studies, Faculty Member
The widespread Uralic family offers several advantages for tracing prehistory: a firm absolute chronological anchor point in an ancient contact episode with well-dated Indo-Iranian; other points of intersection or diagnostic... more
The widespread Uralic family offers several advantages for tracing prehistory: a firm absolute chronological anchor point in an ancient contact episode with well-dated Indo-Iranian; other points of intersection or diagnostic non-intersection with early Indo-European (the Late Proto-Indo-European-speaking Yamnaya culture of the western steppe, the Afanasievo culture of the upper Yenisei, and the Fatyanovo culture of the middle Volga); lexical and morphological reconstruction sufficient to establish critical absences of sharings and contacts. We add information on climate, linguistic geography, typology, and cognate frequency distributions to reconstruct the Uralic origin and spread. We argue that the Uralic homeland was east of the Urals and initially out of contact with Indo-European. The spread was rapid and without widespread shared substratal effects. We reconstruct its cause as the interconnected reactions of early Uralic and Indo-European populations to a catastrophic climate c...
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Research Interests: Languages, Languages and Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Indo-european language reconstruction, Indo-European Studies, and 9 moreMorphology, Linguistics, Morphology (Languages And Linguistics), Indo-European Linguistics, Reconstruction, Indoeuropean Studies, Comparative Indo-European Linguistics, Proto Indo European, and Laryngeal theory
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Thanks to Russian authors publishing in the West, such as Andrej Malchukov, Igor Nedjalkov, and Irina Nikolaeva, the Tungusic languages have emerged from being little-known objects of exotic inquiry into the spotlight of general... more
Thanks to Russian authors publishing in the West, such as Andrej Malchukov, Igor Nedjalkov, and Irina Nikolaeva, the Tungusic languages have emerged from being little-known objects of exotic inquiry into the spotlight of general linguistics and language typology. Apart from those in Western Europe and North America, there are a few eminent Tungusologists in Japan and Korea, but much of the work done in these countries remains unknown to the rest of the world because of the language barrier. Tungusology is also developing in China, but most of the scholarship carried out in the Chinese framework still remains at a very low lever of quality and has almost no interaction with the international circles of the field. There is, however, one branch of Tungusology that has always been international, and to which China has also made important contributions. This is the field of Manchu studies. As far as lexicography is concerned, a major work produced in eighteenth-century China is the “Manc...
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By the present day only a handful of models are left to compete for a solution concerning the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) laryngeal and vowel system. The remaining hybrid versions of the laryngeal theory, as proposed... more
By the present day only a handful of models are left to compete for a solution concerning the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) laryngeal and vowel system. The remaining hybrid versions of the laryngeal theory, as proposed by EICHNER, MELCHERT, KORTLANDT, and RIX, explain the Indo-European (IE) vocalisms with both the laryngeals *h1 *h2 *h3 and at least two of the protovowels *e *o *a. Due to this dual fixation these models are inherently ambiguous, as in principle every IE vocalism can be explained with both a laryngeal and the respective vowel. This means that the laryngeal theory is ultimately incapable of solving the PIE laryngeal and vowel problem, and the only way out is a radical simplification of the framework. A simplification was first proposed by Oswald SZEMERÉNYI, who reconstructed a single glottal fricative PIE *h = Hitt. ḫ, accompanied by a near equivalent of the Neogrammarian vowel system *a e o ā ē ō å ǝ. Despite the need for additional work on a number...
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This paper discusses the typological evolution of Ghilyak (Nivkh), a small “Palaeo-Asiatic” language family also known as Amuric, distributed in the Amur-Sakhalin region of the Russian Far East. In some respects, especially in the... more
This paper discusses the typological evolution of Ghilyak (Nivkh), a small “Palaeo-Asiatic” language family also known as Amuric, distributed in the Amur-Sakhalin region of the Russian Far East. In some respects, especially in the phonology, morphophonology, and phonotactics, Ghilyak shows features absent in the other languages of the region, most of which represent the so-called “Altaic” areal-typological complex. At the same time, Ghilyak shares with its neighbours several “Altaic” features, especially in the morphosyntax, including suffixally marked number and case, as well as nominalized and converbialized verbs. An analysis of the data shows that Ghilyak has been affected by at least two processes of typological transformation which have, either successively or in parallel, both “Altaicized” and “de-Altaicized” its linguistic structure. The reasons of these transformations can be sought in the substratal, adstratal, and superstratal impact of the neighbouring “Altaic” and “non-...
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La Révolution […], elle dévorera ses enfants Pierre Vergniaud [1793]. The paper discusses recent developments in Uralic comparative studies with the focus on linguistic taxonomy and prehistory. It is shown that during the 20th century... more
La Révolution […], elle dévorera ses enfants Pierre Vergniaud [1793]. The paper discusses recent developments in Uralic comparative studies with the focus on linguistic taxonomy and prehistory. It is shown that during the 20th century Uralic studies underwent a drift from a traditional understanding of diachronic linguistics to an increasingly radical reinterpretation of the basic linguistic and extralinguistic facts. The perspectives opened by the new lines of thinking are in many ways fruitful and tantalizing, but in the long run a return to the conventional framework appears inevitable. Like all fields of research, Uralic comparative studies is in constant evolution. New solutions to old problems are necessitated both by fresh data and by new methodological approaches. Moreover, during some periods, the pace of evolution is extremely rapid, while during other periods only slow progress is made. In the history of Uralic comparative studies, the periods of rapid evolution have often been connected with major theoretical innovations in general scientific thinking, including the theories of general linguistics, but of equal importance has been the direct impact of a few innovative personalities. Typically, major breakthroughs have always required a critical mass of innovative scholars, who have been able to overturn established truths and create new perspectives for the whole field. On the other hand, new ideas are not necessarily always correct. While it is fruitful for the progress of science to experiment with alternative models, each new proposal has to be critically evaluated. In this process there often arises a controversy between the radical proponents of new thinking and the conservative adherents of the established paradigm.
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This paper examines the Mongolic family of languages from the point of view of their different paths and rates of evolution, and with a view on the general problem concerning the speed of language change. All extant Mongolic languages... more
This paper examines the Mongolic family of languages from the point of view of their different paths and rates of evolution, and with a view on the general problem concerning the speed of language change. All extant Mongolic languages descend from a relatively recent ancestral form of speech, Proto-Mongolic, spoken by the historical Mongols in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries and documented in a number of written sources conventionally known as Middle Mongol. A comparison of the modern Mongolic languages with Proto-Mongolic and Middle Mongol reveals considerable differences in their rates of evolution, with some languages being highly innovative, while others are conspicuously conservative. These differences are evident at all levels of linguistic structure and substance, including phonology, grammar, and lexicon. The reasons for the different rates of evolution can be sought in a variety of linguistic and extralinguistic factors, including not only the linguistic environment, bu...
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1. Juha Janhunen Proto-Mongolic2. Juha Janhunen Written Mongol3. Volker Rybatzki Middle Mongol4. Juha Janhunen Khamnigan Mongol5. Elena Skribnik Buryat6. Toshiro Tsumagari Dagur7. Jan-Olof Svantesson Khalkha8. Juha Janhunen Mongol... more
1. Juha Janhunen Proto-Mongolic2. Juha Janhunen Written Mongol3. Volker Rybatzki Middle Mongol4. Juha Janhunen Khamnigan Mongol5. Elena Skribnik Buryat6. Toshiro Tsumagari Dagur7. Jan-Olof Svantesson Khalkha8. Juha Janhunen Mongol Dialects9. Stefan Georg Ordos10. Agnes Birtalan Oirat11. Uwe Blasing Kalmuck12. Michael Weiers Moghol13. Hans Nugteren Shira Yughur14. Stefan Georg Mongghul15. Keith Slater Mangghuer16. Wu Hugjiltu Bonan17. Stephen S. Kim Santa18. Volker Rybatzki Intra-Mongolic Taxonomy19. Juha Janhunen Para-Mongolic20. Claus Schonig Turko-Mongolic Relations
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It is my pleasure and honour to present this article to Professor Juha Janhunen on his 60th birthday. On this occasion, I would like to thank him for introducing me to the world of Finnish linguistics almost twenty years ago. The article... more
It is my pleasure and honour to present this article to Professor Juha Janhunen on his 60th birthday. On this occasion, I would like to thank him for introducing me to the world of Finnish linguistics almost twenty years ago. The article discusses the major problems involved in the study of the category of finiteness, based on data from the Nivkh language. After outlining the general data on Nivkh, the paper discusses the syntactic approach to finiteness, according to which this category displays a three-way distinction of verb forms. The article then consecutively analyses Nivkh basic verb forms belonging to different classes, with special attention to their morphological properties. In conclusion, I present some generalizations concerning different approaches to finiteness.
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Since both the orthodox (MØLLER, BENVENISTE, PUHVEL) and the revisionist (KURYŁOWICZ, EICHNER, MELCHERT/RIX, KORTLANDT) models of the laryngeal theory (LT) have failed to solve the problem of the IE vowels (PYYSALO & JANHUNEN 2018a,... more
Since both the orthodox (MØLLER, BENVENISTE, PUHVEL) and the revisionist (KURYŁOWICZ, EICHNER, MELCHERT/RIX, KORTLANDT) models of the laryngeal theory (LT) have failed to solve the problem of the IE vowels (PYYSALO & JANHUNEN 2018a, 2018b), revisions in the theory are necessary. A comparison of the models of PUHVEL, EICHNER, and MELCHERT-RIX with regard to the criterion of economy shows that, although they are mutually contradictory, each of them has contributed at least one correct solution absent in the other models. By combining these correct solutions into a single model we can arrive at what may be termed the “Optimized Laryngeal Theory” (OLT), which, then, can be tested against monolaryngealism, as formulated by SZEMERÉNYI. 1 The reconstruction models to be analyzed 1.1 Hermann MØLLER’s (1879, 1880, 1906, 1911) laryngeal theory originally assumed three laryngeals *h1 *h2 *h3, a single vowel *e, and the Semitic root morphology CC·C for Proto-Indo-European (PIE). After Bedřich H...
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Michael Knüppel & Aloïs van Tongerloo (eds.): Life and Afterlife & Apocalyptic Concepts in the Altaic World. Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC), Château Pietersheim, Belgium,... more
Michael Knüppel & Aloïs van Tongerloo (eds.): Life and Afterlife & Apocalyptic Concepts in the Altaic World. Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC), Château Pietersheim, Belgium, September, 3-8, 2000. Tunguso-Sibirica, Band 31. Wiesbaden: Harras- sowitz Verlag, 2011. 163 pp. ISBN 978-3-447-06591-7.
Research Interests: History and Linguistics
The paper discusses the background of the different terms used for the river Yenisei in the aboriginal language families of the region: Mongolic, Turkic, Yeniseic, Uralic, and Tungusic. The etymological material allows, in particular,... more
The paper discusses the background of the different terms used for the river Yenisei in the aboriginal language families of the region: Mongolic, Turkic, Yeniseic, Uralic, and Tungusic. The etymological material allows, in particular, important conclusions to be drawn of the areal interrelationships and chronologies of expansion of the Samoyedic branch of Uralic and the Ewenic branch of Tungusic. The presence of Uralic speakers on the Yenisei predates that of Tungusic speakers by a minimum of two millennia. Both Yeniseic and Turkic also reached the Yenisei earlier than Tungusic.
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Limusishiden (Li Dechun), Susan Dan Su, JA Janhunen (Yang Hunen), Kelsang Norbu (Gesang Nuobu, Skal bzang nor bu), and Chuluu Ujiyediin. 2021. The Fulaan Bulog 'Red Springs' and the Mongol Presence in the Huzhu Tu (Mongghul) Area,... more
Limusishiden (Li Dechun), Susan Dan Su, JA Janhunen (Yang Hunen), Kelsang Norbu (Gesang Nuobu, Skal bzang nor bu), and Chuluu Ujiyediin. 2021. The Fulaan Bulog 'Red Springs' and the Mongol Presence in the Huzhu Tu (Mongghul) Area, Qinghai Province, PR China. <em>Asian Highlands Perspectives</em> 60:8-46. ABSTRACT Mongghul origins are controversial. One argument holds that the Xianbei or Tuyuhun are origins of the modern-day Mongghul (Monguor ethnicity, officially recognized in China today as the Tu nationality), while a second suggests that the Mongghul language and everyday practices exhibit Mongol lineage. This article provides further insight into the origins of the Mongghul people, particularly through evidence provided by individuals from Huzhu Tu (Mongghul) Autonomous County. Oral narratives contain valuable accounts of the history of the Fulaan Bulog 'Red Springs' region, local religious practices, customs surrounding field boundary rituals of the ...
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Recent research suggests that the expansion history of the Uralic languages is closely connected with the so-called Seima-Turbino Transcultural Phenomenon (late 3rd to mid 2nd millennium BC), which involved trade in bronze objects from... more
Recent research suggests that the expansion history of the Uralic languages is closely connected with the so-called Seima-Turbino Transcultural Phenomenon (late 3rd to mid 2nd millennium BC), which involved trade in bronze objects from east to west along the northern border of the Eurasian steppes. The Seima-Turbino trade network may explain the rapid spread and differentiation of, especially, the central branches of Uralic in the Ural-Volga region. In this connection, the history of the Samoyedic branch of Uralic has remained without a generally accepted geographical and chronological context. It may, however, be argued that the Samoyedic linguistic homeland was located in the Minusinsk basin, where Proto-Samoyedic was the dominant language of the Tagar Culture (1st millennium BC). The intrusion of Proto-Yeniseic to the region in connection with the Tashtyk Culture (late 1st millennium BC to mid 1st millennium AD) triggered the expansion of Samoyedic towards the north along the Yenisei. In a similar way, a few centuries later, Yeniseic languages started spreading north under the pressure of the Turkic language of the Yenisei Kirghiz. The processes of linguistic expansion along the Yenisei can be seen as a chain reaction, for which parallels can be found in other parts of the world.
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Janhunen, Juha &amp; Uluhan Özalan. 2021. On the fluidity of bones in Mongolic and beyond. Altai Hakpo 31. 141-153. The Altaic Society of Korea. This paper examines the fact that the words for &#39;bone&#39; in Mongolic and... more
Janhunen, Juha &amp; Uluhan Özalan. 2021. On the fluidity of bones in Mongolic and beyond. Altai Hakpo 31. 141-153. The Altaic Society of Korea. This paper examines the fact that the words for &#39;bone&#39; in Mongolic and Tungusic belong to a formal class containing a marker that normally refers to uncountable homogeneous substances, especially liquids. While there may be several factors underlying this curious situation, some possible light is shed on the issue by Turkic data, which suggest a semantic confusion between &#39;bone&#39; and &#39;bone marrow.&#39; another phenomenon that deserves attention in this context is the use of the concept of &#39;bone&#39; to indicate genetic lineages or &#39;tribes&#39; in the nomadic society.
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History cannot be written free of values, and the closer to the present day we move the less hope there is for the historian to reach any credible level of objectiveness. This is particularly obvious when we compare national... more
History cannot be written free of values, and the closer to the present day we move the less hope there is for the historian to reach any credible level of objectiveness. This is particularly obvious when we compare national historiographies, which often defend diametrically opposite points of view concerning past controversies. The principal factor regulating the historiographical picture that is transmitted to us is the well-known circum stance that the losers rarely get their voice heard. One possible conclusion is that history always goes the “right” way. It is, however, also possible that history is more diversi ed than the historians writing for the winners would like to admit. The United Nations is an obvious club of winners in the post-World War II world, which is why any circumstances that might be understood as favourable for the losers have systematically been ignored or distorted in the postwar international historio graphical discourse. Incidentally, the same is true of...
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This paper has grown from a joint project which the two authors initiated in late 1997 on the Romanization of the Mongol script. The authors first met earlier the same year at the Seventh International Congress of Mongolists in Ulan... more
This paper has grown from a joint project which the two authors initiated in late 1997 on the Romanization of the Mongol script. The authors first met earlier the same year at the Seventh International Congress of Mongolists in Ulan Bator, where they presented individual papers on related topics (Balk 1997, Janhunen 1997). Since it turned out that the two papers reflected an almost identical understanding of the fundamental issues of the problem, the authors decided to continue the work together in order to create a unified system of Romanization for Written Mongol with a potential for wider use in both scholarly and practical contexts. The final results of this work, as well as the detailed discussions which preceded them, will appear as separate publications, in which the history of the question will also be given due consideration. The purpose of the present paper is to give an introduction to the principal considerations and motivations underlying the new approach to the Romaniz...