The project consisted of (1) case studies devoted to specific contact areas in the North, (2) creation of a geographic database of all circumpolar languages and of linguistic mapping of the Arctic, (3) creation of a corpus of the modern Russian language as spoken by indigenous inhabitants of Northern Siberia.
The case studies included the following traditionally multilingual linguistic areas:
- Middle and Upper Taz and middle Yenisey region (Olga Kazakevich, Elena Klyachko): Northern Selkup, Southern Selkup, Ket, Evenki, Russian;
- Lower Yenisei (Olesya Khanina, Valentin Gusev, Maria Amelina, Olga Kazakevich, Elena Klyachko): Tundra Nenets, Tundra Enets, Forest Enets, Nganasan, Dolgan, Evenki, Russian-based pidgin Govorka, Russian;
- Lower Kolyma (Maria Pupynina): Yukaghir, Even, Chukchee, Yakut, Russian;
- Kenai peninusula in Alaska (Andrej Kibrik, Mira Bergelson): Alutiiq, Dena’ina, Russian, English;
- Interior Alaska (Andrej Kibrik, Mira Bergelson): Upper Kuskokwim, Dena’ina, Koyukon, Ingalik, Central Yup’ik, Russian, English.
Besides, we had an extra case study on the Lower Amur and Sakhalin region (Valentin Gusev, Natalia Stoynova, Olga Kazakevich, Elena Klyachko) where Tungusic languages Nanaj, Ulchi, Oroch, Negidal, and Evenki are spoken along Nivkh and Russian. We took this linguistic area to check the relative importance of cultural vs. geographical features. The former are common for language communities of this region and the circumpolar communities mentioned above, while the latter are quite different.