An Oroch word-list lost and rediscovered: a critical edition of Tronson's 1859 pseudo-Nivkh vocabulary

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.