Proto-Samoyedic, or Proto-Samoyed, is the
reconstructed ancestral language of the
Samoyedic languages
The Samoyedic () or Samoyed languages () are spoken around the Ural Mountains, in northernmost Eurasia, by approximately 25,000 people altogether. They derive from a common ancestral language called Proto-Samoyedic, and form a branch of the Urali ...
:
Nenets (
Tundra
In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless mou ...
and
Forest
A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...
),
Enets
The Enets (russian: энцы, ; singular: , ; also known as Yenetses, Entsy, Entsi, Yenisei or Yenisey Samoyeds) are a Samoyedic ethnic group who live on the east bank, near the mouth, of the Yenisei River. Historically nomadic people, they now m ...
,
Nganasan,
Selkup, as well as extinct
Kamas Kamas may mean
* Kamas, Utah
* Kamas (raga), a ragam in Carnatic music
* KAMAS (program), an acronym for ''Knowledge and Mind Amplification System'', an outline processor
* Kamasins, a Samoyedic people
* Kamassian language, an extinct Samoyedi ...
and
Mator. Samoyedic is one of the principal branches of the
Uralic language family
The Uralic languages (; sometimes called Uralian languages ) form a language family of 38 languages spoken by approximately 25million people, predominantly in Northern Eurasia. The Uralic languages with the most native speakers are Hungarian ...
, and its ancestor is
Proto-Uralic
Proto-Uralic is the unattested reconstructed language ancestral to the modern Uralic language family. The hypothetical language is believed to have been originally spoken in a small area in about 7000–2000 BCE, and expanded to give different ...
. It has been suggested that Proto-Samoyedic greatly influenced the development of
Tocharian, an
Indo-European language.
Phonology
A fairly complex system of vowel phonemes is reconstructed for Proto-Samoyedic:
The system is retained relatively faithfully in
Selkup (though expanded with
vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, ...
). Two of the vowel contrasts are however only retained in
Nganasan: the distinction of front and back reduced vowels, and that of *i versus *e. For the remainder of the family, following the mergers *e > *i and *ə̈ > *ə, a further shared change is raising of *ä > *e. Earlier works often thus give a slightly different transcription of several vowels:
Even though the number of vowel phonemes was high, there were no long vowels or phonemic diphthongs. A peculiar feature of the reconstructed vowel system is the occurrence of vowel sequences, which consisted of any full vowel followed by the reduced vowel /ə/: for example, *''tuə'' 'feather', *''kåəså'' 'man'. These sequences were not diphthongs; the vowels belonged to separate syllables. Evidence of the vowel sequences has been preserved in only part of the Samoyedic languages, primarily in Nganasan and
Enets
The Enets (russian: энцы, ; singular: , ; also known as Yenetses, Entsy, Entsi, Yenisei or Yenisey Samoyeds) are a Samoyedic ethnic group who live on the east bank, near the mouth, of the Yenisei River. Historically nomadic people, they now m ...
. Wagner-Nagy (2004) lists the following examples:
* Close + reduced: *iə, *iə̈, *üə, *üə̈, *uə, *uə̈
* Mid + reduced: *öə, *ëə, *oə, *oə̈
* Open + reduced: *äə (> *eə), *åə
* Close + open: *uå
* Reduced + open: *əå
Proto-Samoyedic had
vowel harmony
In phonology, vowel harmony is an assimilatory process in which the vowels of a given domain – typically a phonological word – have to be members of the same natural class (thus "in harmony"). Vowel harmony is typically long distance, mea ...
like many other Uralic languages. Harmony determined whether a front vocalic or a back vocalic
allomorph
In linguistics, an allomorph is a variant phonetic form of a morpheme, or, a unit of meaning that varies in sound and spelling without changing the meaning. The term ''allomorph'' describes the realization of phonological variations for a specif ...
of a
suffix was used. However, the restrictions imposed by vowel harmony were not absolute because also disharmonic word-stems can be reconstructed. Such stems break vowel harmony by combining front and back vowels: e.g. Proto-Samoyedic *''kålä'' 'fish', *''wäsa'' 'iron'.
In contrast to the vowel system, the consonant system is rather simple with only 13 phonemes:
The exact sound value of the affricate is not entirely clear; it may originally have been
retroflex
A retroflex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal (Help:IPA/English, /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated betw ...
rather than dental or alveolar . It has remained distinct only in Selkup, merging elsewhere with *''t''.
As in
Proto-Uralic
Proto-Uralic is the unattested reconstructed language ancestral to the modern Uralic language family. The hypothetical language is believed to have been originally spoken in a small area in about 7000–2000 BCE, and expanded to give different ...
, the ancestor of Proto-Samoyedic, the first syllable of words was always stressed, and hence there was no contrastive
stress
Stress may refer to:
Science and medicine
* Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition
* Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...
. Contrastive
tones did not occur either.
Phonotactics
As in Proto-Uralic, words could begin with a maximum of one consonant: initial
consonant cluster
In linguistics, a consonant cluster, consonant sequence or consonant compound, is a group of consonants which have no intervening vowel. In English, for example, the groups and are consonant clusters in the word ''splits''. In the education fie ...
s were not allowed. Another
phonotactic
Phonotactics (from Ancient Greek "voice, sound" and "having to do with arranging") is a branch of phonology that deals with restrictions in a language on the permissible combinations of phonemes. Phonotactics defines permissible syllable struc ...
constraint inherited from Proto-Uralic was that the consonants *''r'' and *''ŋ'' were not allowed word-initially. Proto-Samoyedic had, however, innovated final consonant clusters in a few words. In all of them, the first consonant in the cluster was the semivowel *''j'', as in *''wajŋ'' 'breath'. Thus, the
syllable structure
A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological " ...
of Proto-Samoyedic was altogether (C)V(j)(C).
Inside words, clusters of two consonants were common. Clusters of three consonants were again possible only if the first consonant of the cluster was *''j'', as in *''wajkkə'' 'neck'.
Later development
Palatalization of consonants, most prominently *''k'', has occurred in all recorded Samoyedic languages. This is however a post-Proto-Samoyedic development, as the details differ in each branch due to vowel developments.
* The Nenets-Enets group palatalizes both *''k'' and *''s'' to /sʲ/.
* Nganasan, Selkup and Kamassian palatalize *''k'' to a distinct /ʃ/. Nganasan also palatalizes *''s'' to /sʲ/.
* Mator appears to have no palatalization of *''k''; however, *''s'' is, somewhat unusually, velarized to /k/.
* Nenets-Enets and Nganasan have prominent palatalization of other consonants as well, leading to contraction of the vowel system.
Other widespread developments include
prothesis of *''ŋ'', initial lenition of *''p'', and
fortition
Fortition, also known as strengthening, is a consonantal change that increases the degree of stricture. It is the opposite of the more common lenition. For example, a fricative or an approximant may become a stop (i.e. becomes or becomes ). A ...
of the semivowels *''w'', *''j''.
* In Nganasan, Nenets and Enets, PS vowel-initial words gain an initial /ŋ/ via
rhinoglottophilia
In linguistics, rhinoglottophilia refers to the connection between laryngeal (glottal) and nasal articulations. The term was coined by James A. Matisoff in 1975.
There is a connection between the acoustic production of laryngeals and nasals, as ...
(which may be subsequently palatalized to /nʲ/). This is occasionally found in other Samoyedic languages as well, usually with the exception of Mator.
* PS initial *''p'' is lenited to /f/ in Enets, /h/ in Mator and Nganasan. (/f/ still appears in the oldest Nganasan records.)
* PS initial *''w'' remains only in Nenets. In Selkup, it becomes /kʷ/; all other varieties shift it to /b/.
* PS initial *''j'' remains in both Nenets and Enets. It becomes /tʲ/ in Selkup, and /dʲ/ in other varieties.
* In Mator and Kamassian, /b/, /dʲ/ are furthermore nasalized to /m/, /nʲ/ preceding a word-internal nasal. This has been an
areal change, shared also with
Siberian Turkic languages such as
Khakas
The Khakas (also spelled Khakass; Khakas: , ''khakas'', , ''tadar'', , ''khakastar'', , ''tadarlar'') are a Turkic indigenous people of Siberia, who live in the republic of Khakassia, Russia. They speak the Khakas language.
The Khakhassian ...
.
Morphology
Proto-Samoyedic was a fairly typical
agglutinative language
An agglutinative language is a type of synthetic language with morphology that primarily uses agglutination. Words may contain different morphemes to determine their meanings, but all of these morphemes (including stems and affixes) tend to r ...
with only little
morphophonological
Morphophonology (also morphophonemics or morphonology) is the branch of linguistics that studies the interaction between morphological and phonological or phonetic processes. Its chief focus is the sound changes that take place in morphemes (mi ...
alteration, apart from vowel harmony. In the following, ''-A'' marks an
archiphoneme
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-w ...
realized as ''-å'' in words with back-vocalic harmony, ''-ä'' in words with front-vocalic harmony.
Three
numbers
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
were distinguished: singular,
dual and
plural
The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...
. Possession was indicated with
possessive suffix
In linguistics, a possessive affix (from la, affixum possessivum) is an affix (usually suffix or prefix) attached to a noun to indicate its possessor, much in the manner of possessive adjectives.
Possessive affixes are found in many languages o ...
es.
Nouns distinguished seven cases:
*
Nominative: (no ending)
*
Genitive: *-n
*
Accusative
The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb.
In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘th ...
: *-m
*
Locative: *-kə-nA
*
Ablative
In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; sometimes abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages; it is sometimes used to express motion away from something, among other uses. ...
: *-kə-t(ə)
*
Dative: *-kə-
*
Prosecutive: *-mə-nA
Verbs were conjugated for
mood,
tense,
number
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...
and
person
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...
. There were also separate subjective and objective
conjugations.
Derivational suffixes were numerous, and could form both verbs and nominals.
Development
Most Proto-Samoyedic phonemes continue the corresponding Proto-Uralic phonemes unchanged. The most prominent changes are:
* PU *''s, š'' > PEU *''θ'' > PS *''t''.
* PU *''ś'' > PS *''s''.
* PU *''δ'' > PS *''r''.
* PU *''δ́ as well as PU *''l'' in most positions > PS *''j''. *''l'' remains initially before PU *''ï'',
as well as in PS intervocalic positions.
* PU *''x'' > PS *''ø'', when before a consonant.
* PU *''u'' > PS *''ø'' preceding a PU stem vowel *''a''.
* PU *''ï'' > PS *''ë'' in PS closed syllables.
* PU *''ü'' > PS *''i''. PS *''ü'' is of secondary origin.
* PU stem-final *''i'' is reduced to PS *''ø̈''/''ø'' (per harmony), and if not preceded by an original consonant cluster, subsequently lost.
* PU *''a, o'' generally become PS *''å'', though in many cases PS *''a'' also appears; the conditioning for this is not entirely clear.
* PU stem-final *''å'' becomes PS *''ä'' after a lateral consonant (PU *''l'' or *''δ́''; this points to an intermediate stage *''ĺ'' in the development of the latter.)
* PU *''o'' remains in monosyllabic roots (both primary, and those resulting from loss of final *''ø'').
* PU *''k'', *''x'', *''w'', *''j'' are lost between vowels in roots of the shape *CVCi, yielding monosyllabic PS roots.
* PU *''k'' and preconsonantal *''w'' are generally lost in medial consonant clusters.
Examples:
* PU *äjmä "needle" > PS *äjmä
* PU *kala "fish" > PS *kålä
* PU *muna "egg" > PS *mønå
* PU *weti "water" > PS *wet
* PU *nüδi "handle" > PS *nir
* PU *ïpti "hair" > PS *ëptø
* PU *täwði "full" > PS *tärø̈
* PU *mośki- "to wash" > PS *måsø-
* PU *suksi "ski" > PS *tutø
* PU *ńïxli "arrow" > PS *ńëøj
* PU *käxli "tongue" > PS *käøj
Numerals
Proto-Samoyedic numerals with wider Uralic cognates are:
[Luobbal Sámmol Sámmol Ánte (Ante Aikio): Proto-Uralic. — To appear in: Marianne Bakró-Nagy, ]Johanna Laakso
Johanna Laakso (born 1962 in Helsinki) is a Finnish linguist and Finno-Ugrist based at the University of Vienna.
Biography
Laakso studied Finno-Ugric languages, Finnic languages and general linguistics at the University of Helsinki from 1979 to 1 ...
& Elena Skribnik (eds.), ''The Oxford Guide to the Uralic Languages''. Oxford University Press.
* *kitä ‘2’
* *säjʔwǝ ‘7’
* *wüǝt ‘10’ (cognate with Finno-Ugric numerals for ‘5’)
Innovative Proto-Samoyedic numerals with no apparent wider Uralic cognates:
* *nakur ‘3’
* *tättǝ ‘4’
* *sǝmpǝläŋkǝ ‘5’
* *mǝ̑ktut ‘6’
References
Janhunen, Juha 1998. Samoyedic. In: Daniel Abondolo (ed.), ''The Uralic Languages'', pp. 457–479. London / New York: Routledge.
Sources
*
{{Uralic languages
Samoyedic languages
Samoyedic