1)8 JOCHELSON 



All that was previously known of the Yukaghir language 

 consisted of records of a few hundred words and sentences 

 collected incidentally by various travelers and Russian officials, 

 particularly by Baron v. Maydell (1870), and worked up by 

 the late Professor A. Schiefner in three articles which appeared 

 in the publications of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. 

 Petersburg/ 



Owing to the meagreness of the linguistic material, the con- 

 clusions of Professor Schiefner could not be very far reaching. 

 Besides, incorrect records and inexact translations of phrases 

 collected by incidental explorers led to wrong conclusions. 



However, it can be inferred, even from these articles, that 

 the Yukaghir language stands isolated from the Siberian lan- 

 guages of the so-called Ural-Altaic group ; and for that reason 

 it has attracted the attention of linguists. 



Since the time of Baron v. Maydell's travels (1868-70), the 

 Yukaghir language has been considered extinct, for the only 

 reason that Baron v. Maydell collected his " Sprachproben " 

 records among the Russianized Yukaghir, on the Anadyr 

 River, from an old woman who still remembered her own lan- 

 guage to a certain extent. 



But my own investigations have shown that there are still 

 two independent Yukaghir dialects spoken by nearly seven 

 hundred people. But the days of the Yukaghir language are 

 really counted, owing to the gradual dying-out of the people 

 who speak it. Even in the short interval between the two ex- 

 peditions in which I participated, some Yukaghir families, on 

 the middle course and on the mouth of the Omolon river, who 

 conserved their language became extinct. 



The two dialects of the Yukaghir language may be called, — 

 one, the Kolyma ; the other, the Tundra dialect. The former 



1 "Uber die Sprache der Jukagiren " {Bull. Hist. Phil., XVI, 1859, pp. 241- 

 253; Mel. asial., Ill, pp. 595-612). ''Beitrage zur Kentniss der jukagirischen 

 Sprache" {Bull., XVI, 1871, pp. 373-399; Mel. asial., VI, pp. 409-446). 

 "tJber Baron V. Maydell's jukagirische Sprachproben " {Bull., XVII, 1871, pp. 

 86-103 ; Mel. asiat., VI, pp. 600-626). These articles served the philologist Fr. 

 Miiller as a basis for an outline of the Vukaghir language in his work " Grundriss 

 der Sprachwissenschaft," Bd. II, Abth. I, pp. 124-133, \Vien, 1882. 



