Terra sebv s acta mvsei sabesiensi s

Notions of Time amongst Indigenous Peoples of the Russian North

 

 

509

had a temporal content and 24 a spatial one. In the Alyutor language there 

is a lack of clear division of time within the weekly cycle - temporal 

concepts common to Europeans such as “Monday,” “Tuesday,” etc. were 

not found. The future tense is designated with the lexeme “avagga,” which 

means “later” or “then” and indicates that Alyutors perceive the foreseeable 

future, but at the same time there are no specifics (unlike the Russian 

language which has specific temporal lexemes such as “tomorrow” “in a 

week,” “next year,” etc.). It should be mentioned that in the Alyutor 

language, future tense verbs are not present, and the vast majority of time-

related lexemes are those of the past tense, for example: 

Joti-guli = tyivi - the year before;  

emeeeg - earlier, before;  

wutin = eju - last year;  

eju-wet - long time ago, but in the past (historical); 

Yet ejo - long time ago, very long time ago (in fictional times);  

titakin - timeworn. 

Consulting Kurilov’s Yukagir-Russian dictionary

11

 permitted 

observations on the characteristics of temporal vocabulary in the Yukagir 

language. It was noted that temporal vocabulary indicating the past was 

represented most often. There are several different types of semantic 

content:  

a) The common, familiar past, for example:  

titanpalye - last year; 

yigirukun - the year before last; 

layane - recently. 

b) The distant past, not tied to any large-scale, existential event in the 

life of the people: 

time - a certain past time a while ago, but not associated with 

anything; 

tapnigi - then, at that time, not now; 

tadaatkumun - since then, since. 

c) The absolute past: 

hallerukkun - long sunk into oblivion; 

indaa - before, in the old days, a long time ago. 

d) Vocabulary reflecting the connection of the past to the present: 

numunep - before and now, constantly since ancient times. 

The word tidaa denotes time (long ago), but is not specific in its meaning: it 

is a very loose concept which simultaneously denotes yesterday, the day 

before yesterday, a year ago, etc. 

                                                 

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 Kurilov 2001. 

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Y. G. Khazankovich 

 

 

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The future and present tenses are represented only by a few lexemes; 

they do not have the semantic diversity as past tense lexemes. Future tense 

lexemes include:  

keygude - in the future; 

eguy - tomorrow;

 

The present tense is represented as follows:  

ide - nowadays, currently, now; 

tileme - indication of the time of the year, hour, day at the time of 

speaking; 

tileetkumur - until now. 

 

Analysis 

The use of the divisionary and comparative methods in analysing the time 

vocabulary sample revealed qualitative differences in the way the minor 

peoples of the north of Russia (including Yukagirs and Alyutors) describe 

time. In particular, the vocabulary gives no indication of people 

experiencing the present tense in its multiplicity of time intervals - a second, 

a moment, an instant, a minute - such terms are practically absent. 

In the national languages discussed above, time concepts appeared relatively 

recently as a result of loan translations. This may be explained by the 

extreme specifity of concepts. The absence of the words “instant” and 

“moment” is due to the fact that they reflect the direct perception of time in 

its ontological essence. These words are associated with the present tense, 

and it is the present tense which is the area of sensory time perception. 

For example, Yukagirs primarily associate the present tense with the 

concept “period;” the term that is used to denote this has many different 

possible translations, including season, weather, period and prime. The 

cosmological content of this lexeme is manifested in the fact that it is 

perceived as logical, objective, repeatable and independent of human 

desires. “Period” is always thought of as something given, it correlates with 

the cosmic cycle and therefore is always present in the nomination of 

calendar months. Through the lexeme “period,” the past and present are 

put into one cosmological line (life and nature cycle). In comparison with 

the lexeme “time” the lexeme “period” is more epic, it has qualitatively 

different characteristics: a “period” does not flow and does not change; it 

has an existential and spatial impact on the time axis. 

Most likely, these ethno-semantic differences between the lexemes 

“period” and “time” are due to the fact that representatives of the 

indigenous peoples of the North, Yukagirs in particular, are archetypically 

bearers of a cyclic consciousness. Cyclicity in general is associated with 

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Notions of Time amongst Indigenous Peoples of the Russian North

 

 

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concepts such as “period,” “previous,” “last” and “nowadays”; it represents 

a “set” for typification, the identification of what is already there with 

something that has been here more than once. The modern westernised 

person typically has a linear consciousness, aimed at individualisation. 

Linearity is associated with the concepts of “time,” “past” (meaning 

irretrievable) and “now.” Certainly, modern members of minor ethnic 

groups, even the in the purest representations, no longer bear a truly cyclic 

consciousness. But this worldview remains reflected in the cultural realities 

of the ethnic group, in particular in the language and ritual-ceremonial 

activities. 

 

Conclusions 

In the daily life of the minority peoples of the north of Russia, an 

archetypical cyclical orientation does not exclude the presence of linear time 

perception. Indeed, the flow of life itself poses the idea of remembering the 

past, generational change and a deep perception of the linearity of human 

life, the pathway from birth to death, and associates progressive movement 

with the natural solar and vegetative cycles of the planet. In the cultural 

paradigm of modern northerners, the idea of natural cycles, the infinite 

recurrence and repetition of events is combined with such characteristics of 

the linear time as repetition, uniqueness and the oneness of life itself.  

This kind of eclecticism in the time perception of the minor peoples 

of the North has yet to be thoroughly examined from the perspective that 

ethnic notions of time are a component of the ethnic cultural “language,” in 

other words, its code. The importance of this research lies in the ability to 

understand the culture of any ethnic group, which offers promising 

prospects for further development of this aspect of the research theme. 

 

 

Notions of Time amongst Indigenous Peoples of the Russian North:  

The Problem of Social and Cultural Interpretation 

 

(Abstract) 

 

The purpose of this study is to identify and analyse the semantic features of the temporal 

vocabulary in the context of ethnic culture and mentality of the Palaeoasiatic peoples - 

specifically the Yukagirs, Alyutors and Tungus-Manchurians (particularly Evens). The 

linguistic material used in this article primarily consists of conversations with native Even 

and Yukagir speakers, natives of Allaikhovskiy and Nizhekolymskiy districts of the 

Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), as well as corresponding samples from the root vocabulary 

dictionaries and authoritative research on folklore and language. Methods such as 

interviews and analyses of the meaning of words and what they represent in national 

idiomatic expressions were used, leading to some interesting observations on the notions 

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