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Investigating Language Isolates: Typological and diachronic perspectives
Edited by Iker Salaberri, Dorota Krajewska, Ekaitz Santazilia and Eneko Zuloaga
[Typological Studies in Language 135] 2025
► pp. 48–70

The Amuric language family

Why so exotic?

ORCID logo | University of Helsinki
ORCID logo | Institute of Linguistic Studies, RAS
This paper deals with the areal and typological position of the Amuric language family, often classified as an isolate, but actually comprising two distinct dialectal complexes known as Nivkh and Nighvng. The Amuric varieties are spoken in the Amur-Sakhalin region of the Russian Far East and exhibit several cross-linguistically rare features. While these features could be assumed to be connected with the position of Amuric as one of the residual families of the North Pacific Coast, also known as Palaeo-Asiatic, some of them are actually based on recent innovations and do not represent the original typology of the Amuric languages. Altogether, the Amuric languages incorporate several chronological layers connected with the historical movements and areal contacts of their speakers.
Keywords: Amuric, Nivkh, typology, areal interaction, diachronic change
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The historical background
  • 3.The typological context
  • 4.The secondary idiosyncrasies
    • 4.1The consonant paradigm
    • 4.2Individual consonants
    • 4.3Syllable structure
    • 4.4Consonant alternations
  • 5.The primary idiosyncrasies
    • 5.1Adjectival verbs
    • 5.2Incorporation
    • 5.3Prefixation
  • 6.Conclusion
  • A note on the language data
  • Abbreviations
  • References
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