Yeniseian languages

The jenisseischen languages ​​are a small family of languages ​​in Siberia, which are combined with other Siberian languages ​​Paleo-Siberian group of languages. However, the Paleo-Siberian languages ​​do not form a genetic unit, but only one group altsibirischer residual languages ​​, which were spoken before the penetration Uralic, Turkish and Tungus ethnic groups there.

• 8.1 Grammatical Overviews
• 8.2 Miscellaneous

The jenisseische language family

The Jenisseische exists today only from the ketischen language with 200 speakers in the middle Yenisei valley in Turuchansk district of Krasnoyarsk region. The closely related Jugische ( Yugh, Jug, Sym - Ketisch ) is already completely extinct: 1991 2-3 older " semi- speakers " in an ethnic group was reported by about 15 people, in the 1970s, died last competent speakers of Jugischen. The other languages ​​of the Yenisei family - Kottisch, Arinisch, Assanisch and Pumpokolisch - were further spoken south of the present-day Ketischen and disappeared in the 19th century, their ethnicities assimilated to the Turkic Khakassians, the Tungusic Evenki or the Russians. Because of its known genetic relatives should be the Ketische not be regarded as isolated language, even if it is the only member of his family today.

Classification of jenisseischen languages

• Jenisseisch 6 languages ​​, of which 5 are extinct; Ket -Yug Ket ( Yenisei Ostyak, Inbatsk ) (200 speakers)
• Yug ( Yugh, Jug, Sym - Ket ) † ( extinct in 1990 )

• Pumpokol †
• Kott †

• Assan †
• Arin †

The Ketische

The Ketische is the only surviving jenisseische language. The term Ket means " man," the little differentiating Russian name of this language is Yenisei Ostyak. However, it is well used by today's ketene ostik as a self-designation. First records of the Ketischen and Jugischen there since the 18th century (PS Pallas ), 1858, the first grammatical and lexical study of the Ketische, Jugische and Kottische is published from the estate of Matthias Alexander Castrén Finns. Another grammar of Ketischen appeared in 1934 by A. Karger, a recent presentation in 1968 by Kreinovich and in the same year in particular detail of Dul'zon.

In the 1930s, was for the Ketische a font based on the Latin, and created in 1988 on the basis of the Cyrillic alphabet. There are efforts to introduce ketischen language teaching in kindergartens and schools. The social status of the language, however, remains low, and an early extinction is likely, especially since the speakers today all belong to the older generation.

Linguists prefer the term Ketisch ( Ket, Ketskij jazyk ), as the name Yenisei Ostyak to the confusion of the ketene with the "actual" can lead Ostyaks. Ostyak is the obsolete term for the language of chanting, which belongs to the Ugric languages.

Linguistic characteristics

Typological, phonological, morphological and lexical soaked the Jenisseische from the other Paleo-Siberian languages ​​from clear, but shows similarities to the North Caucasian languages ​​, the Na - Dene languages ​​and Burushaski, which meant that some researchers, its integration into the ent - Caucasian macro family support ( see below). However Typological characteristics ( such as präfigierender Verbalbau etc.) are not sufficient for the adoption of linguistic relationship.

Its characteristics are the existence of a class system with the nominal classes revived ( masculine and feminine ) - inanimate, also a system of phonemic tones ( see tonal language ) with four sense-discriminative Tonemen. The nominal morphology is - as with all Paleo-Siberian languages ​​- (mostly ) and suffigierend agglutinative, polysynthetic verbal education. The finite verb forms have at least eight slots for labeling the person of subject and object, tense, among other things, Categories. Often morphological categories are pleonastic, ie at several points of the verbal chain expressed. Can be incorporated intransitive subjects, direct objects and adverbial complements. An example from the Ketischen is

• Tkitna, analyzing T-K -N -A IT

Meaning: " I have ( f.sg. ) cut into pieces "

(Analysis greatly simplified )

The jenisseischen languages ​​possess a rich vocabulary for representing the traditional areas of life, such as flora, fauna, hunting and weather. Loanwords are from the adjacent Samoyedic Selkupischen (especially concepts of reindeer herding ), but also (less ) from the Tungusic Evenki. Since 1934 has started with the introduction of the Cyrillic alphabet a strong Russification of Ketischen.

Jenisseische word equations

The close relationship of the traditional jenisseischen languages ​​show some word equations in the following table ( according to Ruhlen - Starostin 1994, simplified phonetic representation ):

External relations

Dene - Caucasian family macro

The Jenisseische is considered by some researchers as a candidate for membership in the hypothetical ent -Caucasian macro family, which, among others, the Sino-Tibetan, " North Caucasus " (ie, Northwest and Northeast Caucasian, relationship to each other not sure), the North American Na - Dene languages Basque, Burushaski, and should include just the Jenisseische.

This thesis is an ent -Caucasian macro family is currently only accepted by a small group of linguists from numerous historical linguists and specialists in the languages ​​referred families but often vehemently rejected. The main difficulty in their verification is the great age of more than ten thousand years, you would have to start for the common proto- language, and the associated extremely sparse yet tangible common.

But it is generally recognized (including by Janhunen and Vajda ) that due to the known distribution in the last 2-3 centuries jenisseischen languages ​​have been once more widespread geographically significant reports from Russian and even earlier from Chinese sources over the peoples of Central Asia and in south have bordered on areas of Turkic and Mongolian speakers. After Vajda came here but only at few borrowings from Jenisseischen in these two languages ​​, but conversely come some borrowings from this time, but still less than in more recent times from Russian.

Baikal Siberian language family

Heinrich Werner posits a language family " Baikal Siberian " in which he summarizes the Jenisseische, the Na - Dene languages, and the only debris- way traditional language of Ding Ling, who were the former Chinese small state of Wei and then allied with the Göktürks ( Werner 2004 ). (This state Wei is not the one with the same name, which is counted among the so-called 16 Chinese kingdoms. )

The American linguist Edward Vajda postulated for some time the relationship between the jenisseischen and the North American Na - Dene languages ​​- to accept without further " ent - Caucasian " hypothesis ( Vajda 2002 and 2004 ). Vajda (2002) grouped the Jenisseische even within the Na - Dene closer to Tlingit - Eyak - Athapaskisch than Haida or tilts in recent work to the Haida completely omitted from that grouping:

• Na - Dene - Jenisseisch (after Vajda ) Haida
• Dene - Jenisseisch Tlingit - Eyak - Athapaskisch
• Jenisseisch

Werner's and Vajda's thesis of the immediate family of languages ​​jenisseischen with the Dene languages ​​is supported by recent genetic studies of speakers of these languages ​​( Rubicz et al. 2002). As in previous phenotypic studies of North American Indians ( dentition characteristics ) showed clear differences in the Na - Dene speakers to their Inuit and other Native American neighbors.

Karassuk family

A recent thesis of van Driem (2001) refers to a close typological - what would be genetically irrelevant - but also substantive relationship in the verbal morphology (especially the Personalpräfixe ) of Burushaski and Ket, a Yenisei language. He built it into a Karasuk family, which would on the one hand from the Jenisseisprachen, on the other hand from the Burushaski. He also sees connections between these hypothetical linguistic unit with a prehistoric Central Asian culture, just the Karassuk culture. As a result opposite migration in the 2nd millennium BC, the modern Yenisey people had reached to Siberia and the Burusho in the Karakoram.