LABORATORY OF INDIGENOUS
LANGUAGES OF SIBERIA
Officially established in 1991 at Tomsk State Pedagogical University
The laboratory of Siberian languages has been organised in 1991
on the basis of professor A.Dulson`s working study at Tomsk State Pedagogical Institute
which began to function in 1953, when A.Dulson started to collect the cards of place names
and the word stock of various languages of Siberia. Nowadays the laboratory counts 187
volumes of fieldwork. Its practical work is aimed at writing ABC-books, school
dictionaries and other educational complexes for aboriginal peoples.
The territory of Siberia is very important for linguistic
studies: various nationalities settle there. At least 4 groups lived there for
certain: Turkic, Selkup, Ugric and Ket. Their ties and interrelations during a
considerable period of time, the mixture of dialects, the place names left by them
represent an exceptionally great interest for science.
The had started by professor A.Dulson on collecting the materials in
history, ethnography, archaeology and languages setting off on expeditions along the
rivers of the Tomsk region. He carried away with this idea many scientists of the
University and Pedagogical Institute. Gradually he drew more and more people into
the problem of the origin of indigenous peoples and their languages. For the sake of
a better information exchange he organised all Union scientific conferences
with the support of the Tomsk University
and Novosibirsk Department of Siberian languages of the Academy of Science.
These conferences were held in Tomsk in 1958, 1969 during his lifetime and in 1973, 1976,
annually since 1995 after his death. To collect the material A.Dulson alone or with his
desciples made 35 expeditions to the North of the Tomsk and Krasnojarsk regions.
A.Dulson and laboratory staff investigated and
described Chulym-Turkic people and their language, the place names left by the Kets,
Selkups, Khanty, Altaic and other peoples of Siberia, the Selkup language of the Tomsk
region, the structure of Ket, certain features of the languages of Khanty, Mansy,
Nganasans, Shohrs, Evenki. All these languages have no writing and they refer to the
so-called disappearing languages therefore everything that is fixed and collected is and
will be of great value.
The collection of word-stock of Siberian languages was
especially important for the problem of the origin of different people. The collection of
such materials was aimed at creating dictionaries of these languages and further
comparison of all Siberian languages. During his life time A.Dulson himself and his
disciples gathered word materials for compiling dictionaries predominantly of Ket (120000
cards), Selkup (80000 cards), less of Chulym-Turkic, Nganasan, Dolgan (334000 word-cards
all in all) and a very rich collection of geographical names (242000 cards) of
Siberia, Far East and Central Asia. All linguistic materials were collected in 155
volumes. Each volume contains 800-1000 pages of school exercise books.
The problem of reviving languages of national minorities
includes also the organisation of training Selkup and Khanty future teachers in their own
language and culture at the Tomsk Pedagogical Institute. All items of the
program of revitalisation of aboriginal languages and cultures are at work.
The Laboratory of Siberian Languages at the Tomsk State Pedagogical University is
interested in pursuing co-operative work with domestic and international institutes
which have a mandate to protect indigenous languages and cultures and to make a complex
research of them.
The members of the Laboratory are interested in typological research
of languages and cultures of indigenous peoples of the world. English and German
speaking ability of staff members and students would certainly lend
success to make collaboration between our scientific centre
and international scientific community.
We are open for exchange of information and other materials of common
interest; for exchange of experiences and human resources (stuff and students). For
foreign students who come to Tomsk to study Siberian linguistics and culture the course
"Siberian Studies" has been developed by Prof. O.Osipova and Dr. A.Kim. The
course is available in Russian and in English.
We look forward to starting new collaborative work and develop
mutually fruitful exchanges.
