Inflectional morphology of nouns in Eastern Khanty (Vakh, Vasyugan, Surgut, Salym)
Inflectional morphology of nouns in Eastern Khanty (Vakh, Vasyugan, Surgut, Salym)

Summary/Abstract: This study presents findings resulting from a comparative analysis of the system of nominal morphological markers in four dialects of Eastern Khanty (Vakh, Vasyugan, Surgut, and Salym). The analysis focused on the morphological markers that form paradigms of three nominal categories: case, number and possession, and aimed at revealing shared and unique features of Eastern Khanty dialects. The analysis was grounded in the descriptions and interpretations of language facts elicited from the Eastern Khanty speakers in the twentieth century and presented in several influential grammar studies of Khanty. These data were then compared with language data elicited from Vakh Khanty speakers in the course of fieldwork (2017—2019). Comparison with current data displayed an overall stability of the Eastern Khanty nominal system which had remained almost unchanged despite the ongoing influence of the Russian language. Although the nominal categories in question are shared by the four Eastern dialects of Khanty, the comparative analysis of their paradigms has revealed some controversial issues regarding the status of some markers, their forms and use. The contradictions within these three categories are associated with the morphemic representation, terminology and status of some markers. The system of case markers is the most controversial. All in all, there are nine productive case markers in the Eastern Khanty varieties: nominative, ablative, allative, lative, locative, abessive, comitative, oblique, and translative accompanied by the distributive marker that is restricted in use.

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