Comparative Chukotko-Kamchatkan Dictionary

This volume is the first comprehensive comparative dictionary to cover the whole of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan ('Paleosiberian') family. Reconstructions for both the proto-Chukotian and Proto-Chukokto-Kamchatkan levels are set up. Separate sections on inflections and derivational affixes and an outline of what is known of the (pre-)historical background are included. The genealogical status of this family has long been controversial, but its coherence as a family can now be considered as proven. Its geographical position between Siberia and northernmost America provides it with particular importance as regards attempts to relate the languages and peoples of the Old World with those of the New.

This dictionary is aimed at scholars andstudents of linguistic typology and historical linguistics in general as well as to a smaller audience of specialists in the field of Paleosiberian language studies. The dictionary makes the typologically interesting Paleosiberian language groups more accessible to linguistic researchers who do not read Russian.

Michael Fortescue is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark.