The ethnogenesis of the selkup people from the lingvistic and ethnohistorical point of view

The article analyzes the approaches of the linguists and historians to the classification of the Selkup data. It is indicated that linguists present the Selkup language in the form of a lingual continuum, grouped into three dialect areals - Southern, Central and Northern (ternary approach); whereas historians traditionally present the Selkup people divided into two groups - the Southern (Narym/ Middle Ob) group and Northern (Taz-Turukhansk) group. In addition, the article suggests the author's version of ethnohistorical processes that led to the formation of the Selkup-speaking population in the Narym region, which is based on the idea of the existence of two ancient groups of Proto-Samoyed people, who led to the formation of the future "Central" and "Southern" Selkup people. After the disappearance of the Proto-Samoyed community, these groups probably did not have one common Proto-Selkup period or it was very short - the duration of this period is disputable among linguists. Both groups by means of different migration routes explored the Ob region: the Southern Selkup group moved from the Upper Ket to the Ob and along the river up to the mouth of the Chulym river; the Central group, on the contrary, moved from the riverhead of the Chizhapka, Chuzick and Konga across the river Vasyugan and Parabel and came to the Ob from the West. It is proposed to take into account the existence of another group - so called "Highly Southern Selkup people", who probably explored the Narym region from the South. This opinion is based on the assumption of E. A. Helimsky, who on the basis of the materials by G. Muller, A. Castren, K. Donner, N. Grigorovsky, assumed within southern dialectal group a special subgroup which can be called "extremely southern dialectal group" including now extinct Chulym, Chaya and Upper Ob / Tomsk dialects of the Selkup language. In addition, the formation of several contact zones is assumed: on the river Ob between the upper and the middle river mouth of the river Ket - the territory of the contacts between the Chumylkup and Sussykum people (formation of the Shoshkup group); in the area of Sondorovo and Tayzakovo - the zone of the active mixtures between the "Highly Southern" and the Southern Sussykum people on the one hand, and the forming Shoshkup group on the other. The author suggests the hypothesis that the Samoyed area from which two groups of the future Selkups "moved forward" was the territory further south of the mouth of the river Tom. Perhaps, as a place of the "initial areal" for the "South" Selkup people (Sussykum) the territory of the middle reaches of the Tom river (in the limits of the taiga (southern taiga) zone can be considered, but to the foothills of the Altai), where Shor people lived later. However, it would be more correct to look for such an areal closer to the Yenisei, and probably it should include the sources of the Ket river, the territory which linguists considered to be the "initial areal" of the Selkups.

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