Introduction -- Hypotheses concerning the internal and external relations between 'Paleo-Siberian' languages -- A typological overview of the region -- The reconstruction of common Eskimo-Aleut and Chukotko-Kamchatkan core morphology -- Drawing Uralo-Yukagir morphology into the picture -- Lexical correspondences between Uralo-Siberian languages -- Who could have spoken Proto-Uralo-Siberian-and where? -- Linguistic layering around the bottleneck: from Beringia to the Diomede Islands
Summary
In building up a scenario for the arrival on the shores of Alaska of speakers of languages related to Eskimo-Aleut with genetic roots deep within Sineria, this book touches upon a number of issues in contemporary historical linguistics and archaeology. The Arctic "gateway" to the New World, by acting as a bottleneck, has allowed only small groups of mobile hunter-gatherers through during specific propitious periods, and thus provides a unique testing ground for theories about population and language movements in pre-agricultural times. Owing to the historically attested prevalence of
