Juha Janhunen
Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia, Volume 17, Issue 1, 2012, s. 67 - 87
https://doi.org/10.4467/20843836SE.12.003.0393
The paper discusses the background of the different terms used for the river Yenisei in the aboriginal language families of the region: Mongolic, Turkic, Yeniseic, Uralic, and Tungusic. The etymological material allows, in particular, important conclusions to be drawn of the areal interrelationships and chronologies of expansion of the Samoyedic branch of Uralic and the Ewenic branch of Tungusic. The presence of Uralic speakers on the Yenisei predates that of
Tungusic speakers by a minimum of two millennia. Both Yeniseic and Turkic also reached the Yenisei earlier than Tungusic.
Juha Janhunen
Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia, Volume 20, Issue 1, 2015, s. 9 - 15
https://doi.org/10.4467/20843836SE.15.001.2787Juha Janhunen
Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia, Volume 19, Issue 2, 2014, s. 71 - 81
https://doi.org/10.4467/20843836SE.14.004.1647The paper discusses the etymology of the ethnonym Orok, as used for one of the aboriginal populations of the Island of Sakhalin. It has been generally assumed that this ethnonym is connected with the Tungusic term for ‘reindeer’, especially since the Orok, also known by the name Uilta, are reindeer herders. The author demonstrates the unlike- liness of this etymology and proposes instead a connection with the widespread generic ethnonym Uryangkhai. This term was transferred on the Orok via the languages of their neighbours, the Sakhalin Ainu and the Sakhalin Ghilyak.
Juha Janhunen
Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia, Volume 20, Issue 2, 2015, s. 89 - 99
https://doi.org/10.4467/20843836SE.15.006.2792Lake Khövsgöl in northern Mongolia is known by two names: Khövsgöl and Kosogol. This paper reviews the origins of these names and their extralinguistic context. Although both names are of Turkic origin, they illustrate the evolution of the local ethnic and linguistic situation.