Comparative ethnolinguistic analysis of the term Mammoth among the Koryak and Chukchi peoples

The article analyses the terms that the Chukchi and Koryaks use to define the mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), in relation to traditional conceptions linked to this figure. We also examine the relationships between these terms in the Chukchi language and the Palana, Chavchuven, Alutor and Karagin dialects, using a comparative etymological and ethnolinguistic methodological approach. To this end, we rely on both the classical ethnographic literature related to these peoples and the dictionaries associated with them. Our research has revealed a significant degree of polysemy in the context studied, centred on the figure of the mammoth, leading us to the conclusion that the Chukchi nominal form kamak, originally used by the Koryaks, is relatively recent in defining the mammoth and is largely linked to the trade and transaction of the animal’s ivory. We also show that the notion of ‘beetle’, linked to that of ‘mammoth’ among both the Chukchi and the Koryaks, did not develop etymologically among the Koryaks towards the form it took in Chukchi (təqiŋewət), because the term kamak (or kemek(e)) associated with the notion of horn, probably already fulfilled this semiotic function. Our conclusions demonstrate the importance of considering the figure of the mammoth in a cross-disciplinary way among the peoples concerned, while emphasising the need for further investigation, particularly concerning the functions and conceptions of this figure among the Chukchi and the Koryaks.

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