This chapter describes what happens at the structural level to polysynthetic languages during language obsolescence, attrition, and loss. The changes that take place in decaying polysynthetic languages should be distinguished from (a) those occurring in all obsolescent languages regardless of their type, and (b) changes in “healthy” polysynthetic languages. It is shown that the consequences of polysynthetic language decay are primarily manifested in the collapse of morphological complexity, involving the loss of morphological ‘slots’, the reduction in the number of bound morphemes and their substitution by free ones, the ‘fossilization’ of markers and their reanalysis, the deprivation of word formation productivity, the destruction of noun incorporation, and reduction of allomorphy.

This paper discusses the typological evolution of Ghilyak (Nivkh), a small “Palaeo-Asiatic” language family also known as Amuric, distributed in the Amur-Sakhalin region of the Russian Far East. In some respects, especially in the phonology, morphophonology, and phonotactics, Ghilyak shows features absent in the other languages of the region, most of which represent the so-called “Altaic” areal-typological complex. At the same time, Ghilyak shares with its neighbours several “Altaic” features, especially in the morphosyntax, including suffixally marked number and case, as well as nominalized and converbialized verbs. An analysis of the data shows that Ghilyak has been affected by at least two processes of typological transformation which have, either successively or in parallel, both “Altaicized” and “de-Altaicized” its linguistic structure. The reasons of these transformations can be sought in the substratal, adstratal, and superstratal impact of the neighbouring “Altaic” and “non-Altaic” languages. This allows us to place the typological prehistory of Ghilyak in a context shared by other languages of the North Pacific Rim, notably Tungusic and Koreanic.

A major aim of this study is to provide a full analysis of the 33 numeral classifiers traditionally used in Nivkh. The paper offers a semantic classification of Nivkh numeral classifiers, presents some data on the origin of the classifiers and considers relevant phonological changes. It discusses structural and morphosyntactic properties of numerals with and without classifiers and gives a comparative survey of the decimal system of cardinal numerals in different dialects of Nivkh. Finally, there are some observations on current radical reduction of numeral classifiers, most of which have either completely vanished or reduced the sphere of their use.

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known as Nighvng, is spoken in eastern and central Sakhalin. Sakhalin is separated from the continent by the narrow Tatar Straight. The Nivkh on both sides of the straight have always had close contacts with each other, and the West Sakhalin variety is in many respects close to Amur Nivkh on the continent. Even so, the ethnic and linguistic status of the Nivkh speakers on Sakhalin is somewhat different from those on the continent. The present paper is only concerned with the situation on Sakhalin, which today belongs, together with the Kuril Islands, to the administrative entity of Sakhalin Oblast, with the capital in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. The two main varieties of Nivkh on Sakhalin today are West Sakhalin Nivkh and East Sakhalin Nivkh, with North Sakhalin Nivkh also surviving marginally. Sakhalin is the largest island of Russia, with a modern population of about half a million people. The Nivkh constitute the most ancient and most numerous group of the Indigenous peoples currently present on the island. Traditionally, the Nivkh were fishermen and sea-mammal hunters who lived in small settlements along the seashores and rivers in the northern part of Sakhalin. Being semi-sedentary, the Nivkh migrated regularly between winter and summer camps. Other Indigenous groups on Sakhalin are the reindeer-breeding Uilta (Orok) and Ewenki in the middle part of the island, as well as, historically, the Sakhalin Ainu in the south. Since the second half of the 19th century, as a result of Japanese and Russian colonization, the traditional economic and cultural landscape of Sakhalin has been gradually changing. Economic development and industrial exploitation of the island, followed by massive immigration of non-indigenous population, as well as the political, socioeconomic and cultural impact of the colonizers, has dramatically affected the habitat of the indigenous peoples, leading to the decline of the traditional occupations, cultures and languages (Gruzdeva 2015; 2016). The size of the ethnic Nivkh population has remained relatively stable during the known history of Sakhalin and has only insignificantly changed after the inclusion of the island into the Russian realm in 1875. There are currently about 4,700 Nivkh in Russia, of whom close to 3,000 live on Sakhalin. On the other hand, during the last hundred years the number of the Nivkh speakers has dramatically decreased and

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