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Abstract

Using the Northern Samoyedic languages, Uralic languages spoken by nomads of Northern Siberia, we propose a new method to reconstruct histories of related languages in contact. The method consists of clustering languages by sets of shared innovations which happened after the breakup of their common proto-language. A discrepancy in how dozens of phonological and morphological innovations are distributed by sets of Northern Samoyedic languages is striking: we suggest this discrepancy points to social rearrangements of the past. The phonological changes predominantly join the sets of languages that were in contact long ago, while morphological patterns also spread across those languages which were spoken nearer each other more recently. We identify the sociolinguistic ecology of the nomadic communities as a driving force for the intermittent wave-like spread of innovations. Previous research on the phonological innovations of Northern Samoyedic is concisely synthesised, while the morphological innovations are presented in full for the first time.

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/content/journals/10.1075/dia.24067.kha

2026-07-11

2026-07-19

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