Yeniseic languages

The Yenisean languages (also called Yenisean, Yenisean, or Ket); they form a hypothetical linguistic family that belongs to the set of paleosiberian languages. The languages of this family are spoken in western Siberia, on the middle reaches of the Yenisei River in the Krasnoyarsk region.

The old name of the family, derived from the old name of the Ket language, was Yenisei-ostyak. This name can lead to confusion since ostyako is the old name for khant (English khant, German chant), a language belonging to the Finno-Ugric languages and therefore both of the Uralic family.

Only one language of the family survives: Ket, with approximately 200 speakers as of 2010, as Yugh is considered extinct.

Family languages

Five languages are known that are currently ascribed to the Yenisean family, of which only one of them currently survives, the others disappeared between the 18th and 21st centuries, although some testimonies of them have been preserved that allow them to be classified:

To the Southern Yeniseian languages belonged:

• Arin (†)
• Kott (†)

To the northern Yeniseian languages:

• ket (210 speakers)
• yugh o sym (†)
• Pumpokol (†)

Another possible missing member of the family is the assan.

Speakers of these languages switched to Russian, as in the case of the Arin, or to Turkic languages such as the Kot, whose descendants belong to the Charkasos. The speakers of the Ket language were forced by the Soviet government to learn only Russian, which affected the generational transfer of the language.

Ket language

Ket (speakers call the language ostygan) is a tonal language, with 5 different tones and an unusual phonetic structure. Alphabets for this language were created in 1930, 1988 and 1991, the last one based on the Cyrillic script. Efforts have been made to introduce the language in nurseries and schools. However, the social status of the language remains low, so it is feared that it will disappear.

Language sym or yoke

The now-defunct dialect of Ket, which was spoken along the Sym River, is now classified as a separate language due to its great difference from the Imbatsk dialect.

Relationship with other families

Dene-Yenisian languages according to the hypothesis of E. Vajda.

In March 2008, Edward Vajda of Western Washington University published a paper raising morphological and lexical evidence for a relationship between the Yeniseic languages and the Nadene family of North America. Although this work was well received by some specialists, Lyle Campbell has made a critique of Vajda's proposal and shows that the evidence is not strong, so further investigation must be carried out before considering that the relationship is proven.

Lexical comparison

The numerals in different Yenisean languages are:

GLOSA	Northern Yenisei				Southern Yenisei			PROTO- YENISEI
	Ket	Yugh.	Pumpokol	PROTO- YENISEI N.	Kott	Arin	PROTO- YENISEI S.
'1'	q.k (an.) qūsj (in.)	χ.k (an.) χus.~qusj (in.)	χúta	*χūča (*χūša)	hu roundča	qúsej	*χūča (*χūšaj)	*χūča (*χūša)
'2'	n	n	hánea	♪	i	kina	♪	*xnana
'3'	dŋγ	dŋγ	dóża	*dogila	to covenanta	a/	*towards	*doża
'4'	sjīk	Yeah.	cía-	♪	šéga	šaja	*šaj-ga	♪
'5'	qāk	χak	χej-la	*qal-ga	χevolvgä	qala	*qaj-ga *qala	*qäka
'6'	ā ~ à	ah mark / a /	aggia	*ag-	χel-uundača	ögga	*5+1 *ög-ga	* coinaχ
'7'	n	n	ón'a	♪	χel-iundana (= 5 + 2)	in'a		* army
'8'	nam bønjsja (= 10 - 2)	(b)sim)	hinbásia	*10-2	χal-toŭa (= 5 + 3)	kinamančau (= 10 - 2)
'9'	qusjam bønjsja (= 10 - 1)	(d urgebet)	χúta hamósa χajá	*10-1	čumu-a templega	kusamančau	*10-1
'10'	qō	χo	χajá	♪	ha #	qoa	*χo-ga	*χaa

The differences in the numeral '1' They refer to the gender difference: animate/inanimate. The terms in parentheses for yugh indicate that these are lexical borrowings from Russian.