Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 January 2017
J.M. Tronson believed that the language of the word-list which he collected in 1856 on the Lower Amur, and published twice in 1859 was Nivkh. Among contemporary scholars, only Roman Jakobson noted that the language of Tronson's word-list is not Nivkh, but Tungusic. Unfortunately, neither Jakobson nor other specialists have specified what language that might be. We confirm E.G. Ravenstein's unnoticed assertion of 1861 that the language is Oroch and, from this new perspective, we offer a critical edition of Tronson's pseudo-Nivkh word-list.
This paper was written thanks to a Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral Fellowship from Spain's Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Ref. IJCI-2014-19343). I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to the two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions and comments. Any remaining errors are, of course, my own responsibility.