Leading Researcher, Department of Ural-Altaic Languages
Curriculum Vitae
Place of work: Department of Ural-Altaic languages of the Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences (since 2003).
Position: Senior Researcher
Academic degree and title: habil. PhD
Normanskaja Julia after graduating with honors from the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian State University for the Humanities in 2000 and defending her PhD thesis "Genesis and development of systems of color terms in the ancient Indo-European languages" also at the Russian State University for the Humanities in 2002, was hired in 2003 to work at the Institute of Linguistics, RAS, where she defended her doctoral thesis "Reconstruction of proto-Finno-Volga stress" in 2009.
Normanskaja Julia specializes in comparative linguistics of Uralic, Turkic, and Indo-European languages. She is the author of 5 monographs and over 80 scientific articles. These works were highly appreciated not only in Russia, but also abroad. Ju.V.Normanskaja has completed several internships and worked in Germany at the Universities of Leipzig and Hamburg; she was nominated the best DAAD (German service for the exchange of students and scientists) scholar in 2002. Her monographs ("Genesis and development of systems of color terms in the ancient Indo-European languages", Moscow, 2005, "Reconstruction proto-Finno-Volga stress", Moscow, 2008) were highly appreciated by the Academic Council of the Institute of Linguistics, as well as by German and Finnish scientists.
Normanskaja Julia specializes in comparative linguistics. She is the author of 4 monographs and 80 scientific articles. These works were highly appreciated not only in Russia, but also abroad. Ju.V.Normanskaja has completed several internships and worked in Germany at the Universities of Leipzig and Hamburg; she was nominated the best DAAD (German service for the exchange of students and scientists) scholar in 2002. Her monographs ("Genesis and development of systems of color terms in the ancient Indo-European languages", Moscow, 2005, "Reconstruction proto-Finno-Volga stress", Moscow, 2008) were highly appreciated by the Academic Council of the Institute of Linguistics, as well as by German and Finnish scientists.
Scientific approach of Ju.V. Normanskaja, which unifies all of her research projects, can be characterized by the following phrase: “To find system in non-systemic data”. Indeed, her PhD thesis and the monograph based on the thesis were devoted to the study of systems of color terms. This topic attracted the attention of researchers since Aristotle and Leonardo da Vinci. However, until the publication of Ju.V.Normanskaja’s work, it was believed that Indo-European color terms are one of the most complex and not amenable to systematic analysis lexical groups.
With her systematic approach Ju.V.Normanskaja reconstructed four basic proto-Indo-European colors (white, black, red and yellow-green) and proposed a law according to which color terms emerge and disappear in ancient and modern Indo-European languages. This law is simple: words that have many transferred meanings disappear. The law was tested and verified by Ju.V.Normanskaja on the material of all Indo-European languages. Full verification procedure is presented explicitly in her monograph. It turns out that this law is valid not only for color terms, but also for most other lexical groups. Thus, Ju.V.Normanskaja has opened a new approach to the study of lexis, allowing to predict which words will remain in the descendant languages, and which will disappear.
Currently, Ju.V.Normanskaja studies accent systems of the Uralic languages and their influence on the development of the vowel systems. This topic was explored by the leading scientists in the field of Finno-Ugric studies (E.Itkonen, W.Steinitz, K.Redei, E.Helimski, V.I.Lytkin and others). They all came to the conclusion that the number of exceptions in the Uralic vowel systems is extremely high, and they appear sporadically.
In 2008 Ju.V.Normanskaja published a monograph "Reconstruction of proto-Finno-Volga stress", in which she described the development of vocalism from proto-Uralic language to modern Mordovian and Mari languages in an absolutely systematic manner, with a minimum of exceptions. She reconstructed the Finno-Volga stress on the basis of modern Mordovian dialectal data, which was the main cause of changes in Mordovian, Mari, and Sami phonological and grammatical systems.
Ju.V.Normanskaja is actively involved in the scientific activities of the Department of Ural-Altaic languages (organizing conferences, translating paper archives into electronic form, conducting scientific seminars), she regularly participates as a guest speaker at regional and international conferences, takes part in and leads certain projects sponsored by RSF, the Russian President, RFH, RFBR, the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Department of Historical and Philological Sciences RAS
In 2007 Ju.V.Normanskaja became the winner of the Russian President's Prize "Young Candidates of Sciences". In 2008 - the winner of the Prize of the Russian Academy of Sciences "Outstanding young Candidates of Sciences" In 2013 and 2015 -- the winner of the Russian President's Prize "Young Doctors habilitati".
Starting from 2011, active field work on collecting material for creating audio-dictionaries of the dialects of Uralic languages is conducted under the leadership of Ju.V.Normanskaja. Analysis of the collected material using the Praat phonetic software allows to make the description of the dialects of Uralic languages more specific, and on the basis of the revised descriptions to significantly alter the reconstruction of the Uralic vocalism.
Within the work on the projects supervised by Ju.V.Normanskaja, her younger colleagues, participants of the grants have organized expeditions to the speakers of the following dialects of Uralic languages:
1) Nizyam dialect of Khanty language: S.V.Onina has led an expedition to the last remaining Khanty who live in the woods on the river Nazim and discovered that they are speakers of Nizyam dialect, previously considered extinct. A complete dictionary of Nizyam dialect was compiled, comprising more than 2500 lexemes. Analyzing this material Ju.V.Normanskaja has revealed free phonologically significant stress in non-derivative names, which coincides with the position of stress in southern Irtysh dialects, according to the data discovered by Ju.V.Normanskaja in the archives of M.A.Castren. (For further details see: Ju.V.Normanskaja STRESS SYSTEM IN NIZYAM DIALECT OF KHANTY LANGUAGE (BASED ON FIELD DATA) AND ITS PARALLELS IN SOUTH-KHANTY (BASED ON MATERIALS FROM M.A. CASTREN’S ARCHIVE) // Linguistica Uralica, 2014. Vol. 4. Issue 50, pp. 283-302).
2) Salym dialect of Khanty in 2013: a whole village with speakers of Salym language, which was previously considered extinct, was found. In this village Salym is the main language of everyday communication, spoken also by children. A dictionary survey was recorded, which is currently being processed.
3) Ob (Northern) dialect of Mansi in 2013: During the expedition to the Ob Mansi led by I.A.Stenin we found that there are several dozens of speakers who have good command of this dialect. From several speakers we recorded full dictionaries of native vocabulary with inflectional paradigms and contexts illustrating usage in speech. The analysis of the collected material by Ju.V.Normanskaja with the Praat phonetic software revealed that in Ob dialect of Mansi language the verb has moving paradigmatic stress. (For further details see:. Ju.V.Normanskaja SYSTEM OF MOVING STRESS IN MANSI VERBS AND ITS EXTERNAL CORRESPONDENCES. PART I. OB DIALECT OF MANSI LANGUAGE // Ural-Altaic studies, 2015, Vol.2 (17), pp. 51-66).
4) Yukonda dialect of Eastern Mansi in 2013: The material was collected by M.K.Amelina in Shugur village of Kondinsk area, KhMAO. At the time of this expedition only two native speakers of the language were found: Selivanova (Nohova), Elizaveta (Anna) Ivanovna, 89 years and Shivtorov Maksim Semenovich, 74 years old; other speakers remember only a few words. Full vocabularies of native lexis with paradigmatic forms and usage contexts were recorded from the two speakers, as well as short texts. About 700 lexemes with a fair amount of wordforms (from 5 to 15 for each lexeme) were recorded. Soon after the departure of the expedition Selivanova (Nohova), Elizaveta (Anna) Ivanovna died. Thus, the recordings made M.K.Amelina became especially valuable, since now there is only one speaker of Eastern Mansi language left. Recordings from Selivanova (Nohova), Elizaveta (Anna) Ivanovna confirm that the features that are present in Maksim Shivtorov’s speech are not idiolectal. After analyzing the collected material with Praat phonetic software Ju.V.Normanskaja has revealed that there is a free paradigmatic accent in East Mansi verb, which systemically corresponds to the place of stress in the Ob dialect of North Mansi language. (For further details see: Ju.V.Normanskaja SYSTEM OF MOVING STRESS IN MANSI VERBS AND ITS EXTERNAL CORRELATIONS. PART I. YUKONDA DIALECT OF MANSI // Ural-Altaic studies, 2015, Vol.3 (18), pp. 88-103).
5) North-Eastern, Western, Southern, and Danube-Tisza dialects of Hungarian language in 2015-2016: At present we have processed with Praat software only the data from North-Eastern dialect of Hungarian. It was revealed that in this dialect lit. е corresponds to open and close е, and lit.а corresponds to open and close а. The data from other dialects is still being processed.
6) Udmurt language in 2013: M.P.Bezenova has studied two sub-dialects for each of the following dialects of Udmurt: Northern, Middle, Provincial Southern, Extreme Southern, Besermyan. A full survey of native vocabulary was collected from three speakers for each of the sub-dialects. After experimental-phonetic analysis of the data, three new phonemes were discovered, which should probably be reconstructed for the proto-language. Audio-dictionaries for the studied dialects can be accessed at: lingvodoc.ispras.ru.
7) Komi-Permyak and Komi-Yazva languages in 2014-2015: As a result of expeditions of R.I.Idrisov and Ju.V.Normanskaja, dictionaries of northern (Mysy) and southern (Kudymkar-Inva, Lower Inva) sub-dialects of Komi-Permyak and Komi-Yazva languages were compiled. From the data of these dictionaries we could postulate moving stress, which is different from what was described for these dialects before. The research is ongoing.
8) Perm, Volga, Bashkir dialects of Meadow Mari language in 2015: After analyzing collected data with Praat phonetic software, it was revealed that there is moving paradigmatic stress in the Perm dialect of Mari language. The nature of this stress is very complex, it takes different accentuation curves for paradigmatic wordforms depending on accentual characteristics of the lexeme. This material is currently being studied, and three accentuation curves have been already postulated for nouns. The second important point is the difference between dialects in distribution of reduced vowels in certain words. The data is being studied.
9) Central dialect of (Atyashevsky district) of Erzya language in 2015: After analyzing with Praat phonetic software the data collected by E.M.Devyatkina, Ju.V.Normanskaja found moving stress in the dialect and continues to study the data.
10) Kildin, Notozersk, and Ter dialects of Sami languages: Currently Ter and Notozersk dialects of Sami language are on the verge of extinction. In 2015 V.B. Bakula and A.Ershtadt found the last two remaining speakers for each dialect. Vocabulary surveys, as full as possible, were collected from them. This material is being studied. Speakers of different sub-dialects of Kildin Sami were surveyed. It is notable that the results of experimental-phonetic research revealed substantial differences between the sub-dialects. For example, vowel length is phonological in some sub-dialects, but not in Voroninsk sub-dialect. The data of Voroninsk sub-dialect is already processed and available at: lingvodoc.ispras.ru.
11) Nganasan language: I.A. Stenin has spent three weeks in the town of Dudinka, where he surveyed three speakers of Nganasan language from two villages – Volochanka and Ust-Avam, with slightly differing sub-dialects. As a result of these surveys, about 9 thousand lexemes were collected (approximately 3 thousand lexemes from each speaker). Currently, the data is partially processed by Ju.V.Normanskaja and can be found at: lingvodoc.ispras.ru.
12) Enets language:Material was collected on two dialects – Tundra and Forest. A.B. Shluinsky in Dudinka collected material on Forest dialect from four speakers coming from Potapovo village and Dudinka town in Taimyr Dolgan-Nenets Municipal District of Krasnoyarsk area. Material on Tundra dialect was collected by O.V.Khanina in Vorontsovo village of Taimyr Dolgan-Nenets Municipal District from five speakers of the language. A total of about 3 thousand lexemes with many wordforms in contexts (from 10 to 20 for every lexeme) were collected from nine different speakers, and also socio-linguistic surveys were completed characterizing contemporary situation. The data are partially processed and can be found at: lingvodoc.ispras.ru.
13) Nenets language: The material was collected by M.K. Amelina from the speakers of 4 sub-dialectal groups of Tundra dialect: Kanin, Gydan, Bolshezemelsky, Yamal, and Forest Nenents language. Audio-dictionaries of these sub-dialects are now available at: lingvodoc.ispras.ru.
14) Central and Southern Selkup language: The material on the two last remaining dialects – Narym and Ket was collected in 2011. Currently, only one person is fluent in Narym dialect – Irina Anatolyevna Korobeynikiva from Parabel village in Tomsk Oblast. The second speaker who is able to decline and conjugate lexemes is Yakov Yakovlevich Martynov. Although Ya.Ya.Martynov’s command of the language is less good, vocabulary of about 500 lexemes was recorded from him. The data was studied by Ju.V.Normanskaja with the help of N.L.Fedotova, N.V.Dubrovskaya, S.E.Sheshenin (For further details see: Ju.V.Normanskaja together with Sheshenin S.E., Fedotova N.L. MOVING STRESS IN SELKUP LANGUAGE AND RECONSTRUCTION OF PROTO-SAMOYED // Historical-cultural heritage and spiritual values of Russia. Presidium of Russian Academy of Sciences Fundamental Research Program, Department of History and Philology; executive editors: A.P.Derevyanko, A.B.Kudelin, V.A.Tishkov,Moscow, 2012, pp.611-623).
At present, in parallel with improving synchronic descriptions of studied dialects Ju.V.Normanskaja conducts etymological research of collected material.
As a result of research in libraries and archives led by Ju.V.Normanskaja in 2015 about one thousand books published by the Translation Commission of the Orthodox Missionary Society in more than 20 languages of Russia were discovered. The importance of these earliest full textual and grammar monuments for the history of Uralic and Altaic languages cannot be overestimated. The end of the period of creation of these texts coincided with the October Revolution of 1917. Since then, study of the monuments was prohibited, apparently, for ideological reasons. At present we don’t even have a full catalog of the texts, dictionaries and grammar books. Our pilot research revealed that contemporary scientific and religious literature lacks data on more than 70% of monuments that we were lucky to discover, although our research of archives is not complete yet.
Ju.V.Normanskaja has already found more than one thousand texts created in Uralic and Altaic languages of XIX century. More than half of these texts are kept in Russian National Library in Saint-Petersburg, many of them are also in National Library of Finland in Helsinki (the collections of these two libraries partly coincide, but there are many books present in only one of the libraries). Some more editions were found in libraries and archives of Moscow, Kazan, Yoshkar-Ola, Austria and other places.
At present Ju.V.Normanskaja with the help of colleagues linguists and speakers of the languages analyzes these monuments and compares them to the data of modern dialects. The results of this work – audio-dictionaries and concordances of the monuments are published at: lingvodoc.ispras.ru. Since 2009, 5 PhD theses were defended under the guidance of Ju.V.Normanskaja. She is the Deputy Editor in Chief of the “Ural-Altaic Studies” journal, included in the lists of Higher Attestation Commission of Russia, Scopus, ERIH, CEOL, EBSCO.