Paleosiberian

Pa·le·o·si·be·ri·an

(pā′lē-ō-sī-bîr′ē-ən)

adj.

Of or relating to a grouping of mostly unrelated languages and language isolates, including Chukchi and Yukaghir, spoken primarily in Siberia.

The Paleosiberian languages.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Pa•le•o•si•be•ri•an

(ˌpeɪ li oʊ saɪˈbɪər i ən; esp. Brit. ˌpæl i-)

n.

1. a group of languages and language families of Siberia that have no close affiliation with each other or with Indo-European, Altaic, Uralic, or Eskimo-Aleut languages.

2. a speaker of a Paleosiberian language.

adj.

3. of or pertaining to Paleosiberian or its speakers.

[1910–15]

Mentioned in ?

Chukchi

References in periodicals archive ?

Discrimination of indefinite and definite conjugations is a phenomenon that is inherent to the whole of Northern Siberia and, besides Uralic languages occurs in Yukaghir and in many Paleosiberian languages--Yenissey, Eskimo-Aleutic and Chukotka-Kamchatkan language groups (see Pusztay 1995 : 89-91; cf.

On the 3rd person verbal mark er *-sV and the definite conjugation in Uralic languages

Fortescue presents the first comparative dictionary covering the whole of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan ("Paleosiberian") language family, whose geographical position between Siberia and northernmost America is significant in the efforts to connect the languages and peoples of the Old World and the New.

Comparative Chukotko-Kamchatkan dictionary

Namely, its possible equivalents in a number of Altaic and Paleosiberian languages are also front-vocal (see [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] 1971 : 17, 264-265; Collinder 1977 : 73; Poppe 1977 : 222; Bomhard, Kerns 1994 : 580-581; Greenberg 2000 : 214-217; Marcantonio 2002 : 239; Klesment, Kunnap, Soosaar, Taagepera 2003 : 378).