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Article published In:
Journal of Uralic Linguistics
Vol. 1:1 (2022) ► pp.4–42

Uralic typology in the light of a new comprehensive dataset

ORCID logo | Uppsala University , Sweden | University of Turku , Finland | University of Tartu , Estonia
ORCID logo | Uppsala University , Sweden | University of Turku , Finland
ORCID logo | Uppsala University , Sweden
ORCID logo | Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology , Germany
ORCID logo | University of Turku , Finland | University of Tartu , Estonia
| University of Tartu , Estonia
ORCID logo | University of Stockholm , Sweden
ORCID logo | University of Tartu , Estonia
ORCID logo | University of Tartu , Estonia
ORCID logo | Uppsala University , Sweden | University of Turku , Finland | University of Oulu , Finland
ORCID logo | University of Tartu , Estonia
ORCID logo | University of Turku , Finland
ORCID logo | University of Turku , Finland | University of Turku , Finland

This paper presents the Uralic Areal Typology Online (UraTyp 1.0), a typological dataset of 35 Uralic languages and a total of 360 features, mainly covering the levels of morphology, syntax, and phonology. The features belong to two different datasets: 195 features’ definitions originate from the Grambank (GB) database, developed for comparison of world language typology, whereas 165 features (UT) have been designed specifically to describe the typological variation within the Uralic language family. We present a series of analyses of the dataset demonstrating its scope and possibilities. The complete data set correctly identifies the main Uralic subgroups in a Principal Components Analysis, whereas GB data alone is insufficiently granular to detect this family-internal structure. Similar analyses limited to various typological subdomains also give variable results. A model-based admixture analysis identifies four distinct areas of historical interaction: Saami, Finnic, the Volga area and Ob-Ugric.

Keywords: Uralic languages, typology, areal linguistics, syntax, morphology, phonology, quantitative linguistics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.UraTyp & Uralic languages in Grambank
    • 2.1Previous systematic documentation of Uralic typological diversity
    • 2.2Creating the UraTyp database
      • 2.2.1Uralic languages in Grambank
      • 2.2.2Defining the UT features
      • 2.2.3Coding the Uralic languages
      • 2.2.4Combining GB and UT data into UraTyp
    • 2.3Data availability
  • 3.Statistical analyses of the UraTyp data
    • 3.1Overview of the variation in UraTyp data
    • 3.2Clustering UraTyp and its subsets with PCA
    • 3.3What distinguishes Uralic subfamilies?
    • 3.4Diachronic patterns of typological admixture
  • 4.Discussion
  • 5.Conclusions and future perspectives
  • Acknowledgments
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at [email protected].

Published online: 13 June 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jul.00002.nor
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