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The Yeniseian languages (sometimes known as Yeniseic or Yenisei-Ostyak;"
Ostyak Ostyak (russian: Остя́к) is a name formerly used to refer to several indigenous peoples and languages in Siberia, Russia. Both the Khanty people and the Ket people were formerly called Ostyaks, whereas the Selkup people were referred to as ...
" is a concept of areal rather than
genetic linguistics Comparative linguistics, or comparative-historical linguistics (formerly comparative philology) is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness. Genetic relatedness ...
. In addition to the Yeniseian languages it also includes the
Uralic languages 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 (w ...
Khanty The Khanty (Khanty: ханти, ''hanti''), also known in older literature as Ostyaks (russian: остяки) are a Ugric indigenous people, living in Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, a region historically known as "Yugra" in Russia, together ...
and Selkup.
occasionally spelled with -ss-) are a family of languages that are spoken by the
Yeniseian people The Yeniseian people are a Siberian population that speaks Yeniseian languages. Despite evidence pointing to the historical presence of Yeniseian populations throughout Central Siberia and Northern Mongolia, only the Ket people survive today. The ...
in the
Yenisei River The Yenisey (russian: Енисе́й, ''Yeniséy''; mn, Горлог мөрөн, ''Gorlog mörön''; Buryat: Горлог мүрэн, ''Gorlog müren''; Tuvan: Улуг-Хем, ''Uluğ-Hem''; Khakas: Ким суғ, ''Kim suğ''; Ket: Ӄук ...
region of central
Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
. As part of the proposed Dené–Yeniseian language family, the Yeniseian languages have been argued to be part of "the first demonstration of a genealogical link between Old World and New World language families that meets the standards of traditional
comparative In general linguistics, the comparative is a syntactic construction that serves to express a comparison between two (or more) entities or groups of entities in quality or degree - see also comparison (grammar) for an overview of comparison, as wel ...
-
historical linguistics Historical linguistics, also termed diachronic linguistics, is the scientific study of language change over time. Principal concerns of historical linguistics include: # to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages # ...
". The only surviving language of the group today is Ket. From
hydronymic A hydronym (from el, ὕδρω, , "water" and , , "name") is a type of toponym that designates a proper name of a body of water. Hydronyms include the proper names of rivers and streams, lakes and ponds, swamps and marshes, seas and oceans. As a ...
and genetic data, it is suggested that the Yeniseian languages were spoken in a much greater area in ancient times, including parts of northern China and Mongolia.Vajda, Edward J. (2013). Yeniseian Peoples and Languages: A History of Yeniseian Studies with an Annotated Bibliography and a Source Guide. Oxford/New York: Routledge. It has been further proposed that the recorded distribution of Yeniseian languages from the 17th century onward represents a relatively recent northward migration, and that the Yeniseian
urheimat In historical linguistics, the homeland or ''Urheimat'' (, from German '' ur-'' "original" and ''Heimat'', home) of a proto-language is the region in which it was spoken before splitting into different daughter languages. A proto-language is the r ...
lies to the south of
Lake Baikal Lake Baikal (, russian: Oзеро Байкал, Ozero Baykal ); mn, Байгал нуур, Baigal nuur) is a rift lake in Russia. It is situated in southern Siberia, between the federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Repu ...
. The Yeniseians have been connected to the
Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 20 ...
, whose ruling elite may have spoken a southern Yeniseian language similar to Pumpokol. The Jie, who ruled the
Later Zhao The Later Zhao (; 319–351) was a dynasty of the Sixteen Kingdoms in northern China. It was founded by the Shi family of the Jie ethnicity. The Jie were most likely a Yeniseian people and spoke next to Chinese one of the Yeniseian languages.Vov ...
state of northern China, are likewise believed to have spoken a Pumpokolic language based on linguistic and ethnogeographic data. For those who argue the Xiongnu spoke a Yeniseian language, the Yeniseian languages are thought to have contributed many ubiquitous loanwords to Turkic and Mongolic vocabulary, such as '' Khan'', ''
Khagan Khagan or Qaghan (Mongolian:; or ''Khagan''; otk, 𐰴𐰍𐰣 ), or , tr, Kağan or ; ug, قاغان, Qaghan, Mongolian Script: ; or ; fa, خاقان ''Khāqān'', alternatively spelled Kağan, Kagan, Khaghan, Kaghan, Khakan, Khakhan ...
'', ''
Tarqan Tarkhan ( otk, 𐱃𐰺𐰴𐰣, Tarqan, mn, or ; fa, ترخان; ; ar , طرخان; alternative spellings ''Tarkan'', ''Tarkhaan'', ''Tarqan'', ''Tarchan'', ''Turxan'', ''Tarcan'', ''Turgan, Tárkány, Tarján'') is an ancient Central Asia ...
'', and the word for "god" and "sky", ''
Tengri Tengri ( zh, 騰格里; otk, 𐰚𐰇𐰚:𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, Kök Teŋri/Teŋiri, lit=Blue Heaven; Old Uyghur: ''tängri''; Middle Turkic: تآنغرِ; ky, теңир; tr, Tanrı; az, Tanrı; bg, Тангра; Proto-Turkic *''teŋri / * ...
''. This conclusion has primarily been drawn from the analysis of preserved Xiongnu texts in the form of
Chinese characters Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...
.


Classification

Proto-Yeniseian Proto-Yeniseian is the reconstruction of the language from which all Yeniseian languages are descended from. It is uncertain whether Proto-Yeniseian had a similar tone/pitch accent system as Ket. Many studies about Proto-Yeniseian phonology have b ...
(before 500 BC; split around 1 AD) * Northern Yeniseian (split around 700 AD) ** Ket (550 speakers) ** Yugh * Southern Yeniseian ** Kott–Assan (split around 1200 AD) *** Kott (extinct by the mid-1800s) *** Assan (extinct by 1800) ** Arin–Pumpokol (split around 550 AD) *** Arin (extinct by 1800) *** Pumpokol (extinct by 1750) *** ? Jie It is theorized that the
Xiongnu The Xiongnu (, ) were a tribal confederation of nomadic peoples who, according to ancient Chinese sources, inhabited the eastern Eurasian Steppe from the 3rd century BC to the late 1st century AD. Modu Chanyu, the supreme leader after 20 ...
and Hunnic languages were Southern Yeniseian. Only two languages of this family survived into the 20th century: Ket (also known as ''Imbat Ket''), with around 200 speakers, and Yugh (also known as ''Sym Ket''), now extinct. The other known members of this family—Arin, Assan, Pumpokol, and Kott—have been extinct for over two centuries. Other groups—the Buklin, Baikot, Yarin, Yastin, Ashkyshtym, and Koibalkyshtym—are identifiable as Yeniseic speaking from
tsarist Tsarist autocracy (russian: царское самодержавие, transcr. ''tsarskoye samoderzhaviye''), also called Tsarism, was a form of autocracy (later absolute monarchy) specific to the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its successor states ...
fur-tax records compiled during the 17th century, but nothing remains of their languages except a few proper names.


Distribution

Ket, the only extant Yeniseian language, is the northernmost known. Historical sources record a contemporaneous northern expansion of the Ket along the Yenisei during the Russian conquest of Siberia. Today, it is mainly spoken in
Turukhansky District Turukhansky District (russian: Туруха́нский райо́н) is an administrativeLaw #10-4765 and municipalLaw #13-2925 district (raion), one of the forty-three in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is located in the west of the krai and border ...
of
Krasnoyarsk Krai Krasnoyarsk Krai ( rus, Красноя́рский край, r=Krasnoyarskiy kray, p=krəsnɐˈjarskʲɪj ˈkraj) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), with its administrative center in the city of Krasnoyarsk, the third-largest city in Siber ...
in far northern Siberia, in villages such as
Kellog Kellog (russian: Келлог) is a rural locality (a settlement) in Turukhansky District of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia.Law #10-4765 It is located by the Yeloguy River.Елогуй, Great Soviet Encyclopedia in 30 vols. / Ch. ed. A.M. Prokhorov - ...
and Sulomay. Yugh, which only recently faced extinction, was spoken from
Yeniseysk Yeniseysk ( rus, Енисейск, p=jɪnʲɪˈsʲejsk) is a town in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located on the Yenisei River. Population: 20,000 (1970). History Yeniseysk was founded in 1619 as a stockaded town—the first town on the Yenisei ...
to
Vorogovo Vorogovo (russian: Ворогово) is a rural locality (selo) in Turukhansky District, Krasnoyarsk Krai. It had a population of 856 in 2010, a decrease from its 2002 population of 1104. Climate Vorogovo has a subarctic climate The subarctic c ...
,
Yartsevo Yartsevo (russian: Ярцево) is the name of several inhabited localities in Russia. ;Urban localities *Yartsevo, Smolensk Oblast, a town in Yartsevsky District of Smolensk Oblast; administratively incorporated as Yartsevskoye Urban Settlement ...
, and the upper Ket River. The early modern distributions of Arin, Pumpokol, Kott, and Assan can be reconstructed. The Arin were north of
Krasnoyarsk Krasnoyarsk ( ; rus, Красноя́рск, a=Ru-Красноярск2.ogg, p=krəsnɐˈjarsk) (in semantic translation - Red Ravine City) is the largest city and administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is situated along the Yeni ...
, whereas the closely related Pumpokol was spoken to the north and west of it, along the upper Ket. Kott and Assan, another pair of closely related languages, occupied the area south of Krasnoyarsk, and east to the
Kan River The Kan (russian: Кан) river is a right tributary of the Yenisey in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Siberia, Russia. It is long and drains a basin of . Its valley forms the southern boundary of the Yenisey Range.
. From toponyms it can be seen that Yeniseian populations probably lived in
Buryatia Buryatia, officially the Republic of Buryatia (russian: Республика Бурятия, r=Respublika Buryatiya, p=rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə bʊˈrʲætʲɪjə; bua, Буряад Улас, Buryaad Ulas, , mn, Буриад Улс, Buriad Uls), is ...
, Zabaykalsky, and northern
Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...
. As an example, the toponym ''ši'' can be found in
Zabaykalsky Krai Zabaykalsky Krai ( rus, Забайкальский край, r=Zabaikal'skii krai, p=zəbɐjˈkalʲskʲɪj kraj, lit. "Transbaikal krai"; bua, Yбэр Байгалай хизаар, Uber Baigalai Xizaar) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai) t ...
, which is probably related to the
Proto-Yeniseian Proto-Yeniseian is the reconstruction of the language from which all Yeniseian languages are descended from. It is uncertain whether Proto-Yeniseian had a similar tone/pitch accent system as Ket. Many studies about Proto-Yeniseian phonology have b ...
word ''sēs'' "river" and likely derives from an undocumented Yeniseian language. Some toponyms that appear Yeniseian extend as far as
Heilongjiang Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...
. Václav Blažek argues, based on hydronymic data, that Yeniseians were once spread out even farther into the west. He compares, for example, the word ''šet'', found in more westerly river names, to Proto-Yeniseian ''sēs'' "river."


Origins and history

According to a 2016 study, Yeniseian people and their language originated likely somewhere near the
Altai Mountains The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The m ...
or near
Lake Baikal Lake Baikal (, russian: Oзеро Байкал, Ozero Baykal ); mn, Байгал нуур, Baigal nuur) is a rift lake in Russia. It is situated in southern Siberia, between the federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Repu ...
. According to this study, the Yeniseians are linked to
Paleo-Eskimo The Paleo-Eskimo (also pre-Thule or pre-Inuit) were the peoples who inhabited the Arctic region from Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Chukotka (e.g., Chertov Ovrag) in present-day Russia across North America to Greenland prior to the arrival of the mode ...
groups. The Yeniseians have also been hypothesised to be representative of a back-migration from
Beringia Beringia is defined today as the land and maritime area bounded on the west by the Lena River in Russia; on the east by the Mackenzie River in Canada; on the north by 72 degrees north latitude in the Chukchi Sea; and on the south by the tip ...
to central Siberia, and the Dené–Yeniseians a result of a radiation of populations out of the Bering land bridge. In Siberia,
Edward Vajda Edward J. Vajda (Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, September 10, 1958 as Edward M. Johnson; changed his name in 1981) is a historical linguist at Western Washington University. He is known for his work on the proposed Dené–Yeniseian language fam ...
observed that Yeniseian hydronyms in the circumpolar region (the recent area of distribution of Yeniseian languages) clearly overlay earlier systems, with the layering of morphemes onto Ugric, Samoyedic, Turkic, and Tungusic place names. It is therefore proposed that the homeland, or dispersal point, of the Yeniseian languages lies in the boreal region between Lake Baikal, northern Mongolia, and the Upper Yenisei basin, referred to by Vajda as a territory "abandoned" by the original Yeniseian speakers. On the other hand,
Václav Blažek Václav Blažek (born 23 April 1959 in Sokolov, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech historical linguist. He is a professor at Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic) and also teaches at the University of West Bohemia ( Pilsen, Czech Republic). His ma ...
(2019) argues that based on hydronomic evidence, Yeneisian languages were originally spoken on the northern slopes of the Tianshan and
Pamir mountains The Pamir Mountains are a mountain range between Central Asia and Pakistan. It is located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya mountain ranges. They are among the world ...
before dispersing downstream via the
Irtysh River The Irtysh ( otk, 𐰼𐱅𐰾:𐰇𐰏𐰕𐰏, Ertis ügüzüg, mn, Эрчис мөрөн, ''Erchis mörön'', "erchleh", "twirl"; russian: Иртыш; kk, Ертіс, Ertis, ; Chinese: 额尔齐斯河, pinyin: ''É'ěrqísī hé'', Xiao'erj ...
. The modern populations of Yeniseians in central and northern Siberia are thus not indigenous, and represents a more recent migration northward. This was noted by Russian explorers during the conquest of Siberia: the Ket are recorded to have been expanding northwards along the Yenisei, from the river Yeloguy to the Kureyka, from the 17th century onward. Based on these records, the modern Ket-speaking area appears to represent the very northernmost reaches of Yeniseian migration. The origin of this northward migration from the Mongolian steppe has been connected to the fall of the Xiongnu confederation. It appears from Chinese sources that a Yeniseian group might have been a major part of the heterogeneous Xiongnu tribal confederation, who have traditionally been considered the ancestors of the
Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...
and other Northern Asian groups. However, these suggestions are difficult to substantiate due to the paucity of data.See Vajda 2008a
Alexander Vovin Alexander (Sasha) Vladimirovich Vovin (russian: Александр Владимирович Вовин; 27 January 1961 – 8 April 2022) was a Soviet-born Russian-American linguist and philologist, and director of studies at the School for Ad ...
argues that at least parts of the Xiongnu, possibly its core or ruling class, spoke a Yeniseian language.Vovin, Alexander. "Did the Xiongnu speak a Yeniseian language?". Central Asiatic Journal 44/1 (2000), pp. 87–104. Positing a higher degree of similarity of Xiongnu to Yeniseian as compared to Turkic, he also praised Stefan Georg's demonstration of how the word ''
Tengri Tengri ( zh, 騰格里; otk, 𐰚𐰇𐰚:𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, Kök Teŋri/Teŋiri, lit=Blue Heaven; Old Uyghur: ''tängri''; Middle Turkic: تآنغرِ; ky, теңир; tr, Tanrı; az, Tanrı; bg, Тангра; Proto-Turkic *''teŋri / * ...
'' (the Turkic and Mongolic word for "sky" and later "god") originated from Proto-Yeniseian ''tɨŋVr''. It has been further suggested that the Yeniseian-speaking Xiongnu elite underwent a
language shift Language shift, also known as language transfer or language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended period of time. Often, languages that are perceiv ...
to Oghur Turkic while migrating westward, eventually becoming the
Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...
. However, it has also been suggested that the core of the Hunnic language was a Yeniseian language.
Vajda Vajda is a Hungarian language surname. It is derived from Proto-Slavic *vojevoda. In medieval times, vajda was the equivalent of voivode, meaning a "war-leader" or "war-lord". The name may refer to: * Anna Vajda (born 1984), Hungarian basketball ...
(et al. 2013) proposed that the ruling elite of the
Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...
spoke a Yeniseian language and influenced other languages in the region. One sentence of the language of the Jie, a Xiongnu tribe who founded the
Later Zhao The Later Zhao (; 319–351) was a dynasty of the Sixteen Kingdoms in northern China. It was founded by the Shi family of the Jie ethnicity. The Jie were most likely a Yeniseian people and spoke next to Chinese one of the Yeniseian languages.Vov ...
state, appears consistent with being a Yeniseian language. Later study suggests that Jie is closer to Pumpokol than to other Yeniseian languages such as Ket. This has been substantiated with geographical data by Vajda, who states that Yeniseian hydronyms found in northern Mongolia are exclusively Pumpokolic, in the process demonstrating both a linguistic and geographic proximity between Yeniseian and Jie. The decline of the southern Yeniseian languages during and after the Russian conquest of Siberia has been attributed to language shifts of the Arin and Pumpokol to
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 ...
or Chulym Tatar, and the Kott and Assan to Khakas. Václav Blažek (2019) suggests that the
Botai culture The Botai culture is an archaeological culture (c. 3700–3100 BC) of prehistoric northern Central Asia. It was named after the settlement of Botai in today's northern Kazakhstan. The Botai culture has two other large sites: Krasnyi ...
people probably spoke a form of Yeniseian, which can be connected to an Paleo-Siberian/East Asian-related ancestry component (Baikal LN/EBA), which expanded from a region near the
Tian Shan The Tian Shan,, , otk, 𐰴𐰣 𐱅𐰭𐰼𐰃, , tr, Tanrı Dağı, mn, Тэнгэр уул, , ug, تەڭرىتاغ, , , kk, Тәңіртауы / Алатау, , , ky, Теңир-Тоо / Ала-Тоо, , , uz, Tyan-Shan / Tangritog‘ ...
and
Sayan mountains The Sayan Mountains (russian: Саяны ''Sajany''; mn, Соёны нуруу, ''Soyonï nurû''; otk, 𐰚𐰇𐰏𐰢𐰤, Kögmen) are a mountain range in southern Siberia, Russia (Buryatia, Irkutsk Oblast, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Tuva Republic ...
region into Central Asia and Siberia. This Yeniseian/Botai language contributed some loanwords related to horsemanship and pastoralism, such as the word for horse (''Yeniseian *ʔɨʔχ-kuʔs "stallion" and Indo-European *H1ek̂u̯os "domesticated horse"'') itself, towards the proto-Indo-Europeans of the
Yamnaya culture The Yamnaya culture or the Yamna culture (russian: Ямная культура, ua, Ямна культура literal translation, lit. 'culture of pits'), also known as the Pit Grave culture or Ochre Grave culture, was a late Copper Age to ea ...
.


Family features

The Yeniseian languages share many contact-induced similarities with the South
Siberian Turkic languages The Siberian Turkic or Northeastern Common Turkic languages, are a sub-branch of the Turkic language family. The following table is based upon the classification scheme presented by Lars Johanson (1998). Classification Alexander Vovin (2017) n ...
,
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 ...
, and Evenki. These include long-distance
nasal harmony Consonant harmony is a type of "long-distance" phonological assimilation, akin to the similar assimilatory process involving vowels, i.e. vowel harmony. Examples In Athabaskan languages One of the more common harmony processes is ''coronal harmo ...
, the development of former
affricates An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair. ...
to
stop Stop may refer to: Places * Stop, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States * Stop (Rogatica), a village in Rogatica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina Facilities * Bus stop * Truck stop, a type of rest stop for truck d ...
s, and the use of
postpositions Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
or grammatical
enclitics In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a w ...
as clausal subordinators. Yeniseic nominal enclitics closely approximate the case systems of geographically contiguous families. Despite these similarities, Yeniseian appears to stand out among the languages of Siberia in several typological respects, such as the presence of tone, the
prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the Word stem, stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy'' ...
ing verb inflection, and highly complex
morphophonology 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 ...
. The Yeniseian languages have been described as having up to four tones or no tones at all. The 'tones' are concomitant with
glottalization Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent consona ...
,
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, f ...
, and
breathy voice Breathy voice (also called murmured voice, whispery voice, soughing and susurration) is a phonation in which the vocal folds vibrate, as they do in normal (modal) voicing, but are adjusted to let more air escape which produces a sighing-like ...
, not unlike the situation reconstructed for
Old Chinese Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese language, Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones ...
before the development of true tones in Chinese. The Yeniseian languages have highly elaborate
verbal morphology A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descrip ...
. The following table exemplifies the basic Yeniseian numerals as well as the various attempts at reconstructing the proto-forms:See Vajda 2007, Starostin 1982 and Werner (???) The following table exemplifies a few basic vocabulary items as well as the various attempts at reconstructing the proto-forms:


Proposed relations to other language families

Until 2008, few linguists had accepted connections between Yeniseian and any other language family, though distant connections have been proposed with most of the ergative languages of Eurasia.


Dené–Yeniseian

In 2008,
Edward Vajda Edward J. Vajda (Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, September 10, 1958 as Edward M. Johnson; changed his name in 1981) is a historical linguist at Western Washington University. He is known for his work on the proposed Dené–Yeniseian language fam ...
of
Western Washington University Western Washington University (WWU or Western) is a public university in Bellingham, Washington. The northernmost university in the contiguous United States, WWU was founded in 1893 as the state-funded New Whatcom Normal School, succeeding a pri ...
presented evidence for a genealogical relation between the Yeneisian languages of Siberia and the Na–Dené languages of North America. At the time of publication (2010), Vajda's proposals had been favorably reviewed by several specialists of Na-Dené and Yeniseian languages—although at times with caution—including Michael Krauss,
Jeff Leer Jeff is a masculine name, often a short form (hypocorism) of the English given name Jefferson or Jeffrey, which comes from a medieval variant of Geoffrey. Music * DJ Jazzy Jeff, American DJ/turntablist record producer Jeffrey Allen Townes * ...
,
James Kari James Kari is a linguist and Professor Emeritus with the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) specializing in the Dene (a.k.a. Athabascan languages) of Alaska. In the past forty-five years he has done extensiv ...
, and Heinrich Werner, as well as a number of other respected linguists, such as
Bernard Comrie Bernard Sterling Comrie, (; born 23 May 1947) is a British-born linguist. Comrie is a specialist in linguistic typology, linguistic universals and on Caucasian languages. Early life and education Comrie was born in Sunderland, England on 23 ...
,
Johanna Nichols Johanna Nichols (born 1945, Iowa City, Iowa) is an American linguist and professor emerita in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Berkeley. She earned her Ph.D. in Linguistics at the University of C ...
,
Victor Golla Victor Golla (1939–2021) was a linguist and a leading expert on the indigenous languages of California and Oregon, especially the Pacific Coast Athabaskan subgroup of the Athabaskan language family and the languages of the region that belong t ...
,
Michael Fortescue Michael David Fortescue (born 8 August 1946) is a British-born linguistics, linguist specializing in Arctic and native North American languages, including Greenlandic language, Kalaallisut, Inuktun, Chukchi language, Chukchi and Nitinaht languag ...
,
Eric Hamp Eric Pratt Hamp (November 16, 1920 – February 17, 2019) was an American linguist widely respected as a leading authority on Indo-European linguistics, with particular interests in Celtic languages and Albanian. Unlike many Indo-Europeanists, wh ...
, and Bill Poser (Kari and Potter 2010:12). One significant exception is the critical review of the volume of collected papers by
Lyle Campbell Lyle Richard Campbell (born October 22, 1942) is an American scholar and linguist known for his studies of Indigenous languages of the Americas, indigenous American languages, especially those of Central America, and on historical linguistics in ...
and a response by Vajda published in late 2011 that clearly indicate the proposal is not completely settled at the present time. Two other reviews and notices of the volume appeared in 2011 by
Keren Rice Keren Rice (born 1949) is a Canadian linguist. She is a professor of linguistics and serves as the Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Initiatives at the University of Toronto. Education and career Rice earned her PhD in 1976 from the Univ ...
and
Jared Diamond Jared Mason Diamond (born September 10, 1937) is an American geographer, historian, ornithologist, and author best known for his popular science books ''The Third Chimpanzee'' (1991); ''Guns, Germs, and Steel'' (1997, awarded a Pulitzer Prize); ...
.


Karasuk

The ''Karasuk'' hypothesis, linking Yeniseian to
Burushaski Burushaski (; ) is a language isolate spoken by Burusho people, who reside almost entirely in northern Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, with a few hundred speakers in northern Jammu and Kashmir, India. In Pakistan, Burushaski is spoken by people in ...
, has been proposed by several scholars, notably by A.P. DulsonSee Dulson 1968 and V.N. Toporov.See Toporov 1971
George van Driem George "Sjors" van Driem (born 1957) is a Dutch linguist associated with the University of Bern, where he is the chair of Historical Linguistics and directs the Linguistics Institute. Education * Leiden University, 1983–1987 (PhD, ''A Gramma ...
, the most prominent current advocate of the Karasuk hypothesis, postulates that the
Burusho people The Burusho, or Brusho, also known as the Botraj, are an ethnolinguistic group indigenous to the Yasin, Hunza, Nagar, and other valleys of Gilgit–Baltistan in northern Pakistan, as well as in Jammu and Kashmir, India. Their language, Burus ...
were part of the migration out of Central Asia, that resulted in the Indo-European conquest of the Indus Valley.See Van Driem 2001


Sino-Tibetan

As noted by TailleurSee Tailleur 1994 and Werner,See Werner 1994 some of the earliest proposals of genetic relations of Yeniseian, by M.A. Castrén (1856), James Byrne (1892), and G.J. Ramstedt (1907), suggested that Yeniseian was a northern relative of the Sino–Tibetan languages. These ideas were followed much later by Kai DonnerSee Donner 1930 and Karl Bouda.See Bouda 1963 and Bouda 1957 A 2008 study found further evidence for a possible relation between Yeniseian and Sino–Tibetan, citing several possible
cognates In historical linguistics, cognates or lexical cognates are sets of words in different languages that have been inherited in direct descent from an etymological ancestor in a common parent language. Because language change can have radical eff ...
. Gao Jingyi (2014) identified twelve Sinitic and Yeniseian shared etymologies that belonged to the basic vocabulary, and argued that these Sino-Yeniseian etymologies could not be loans from either language into the other. A link between the Na–Dené languages and Sino–Tibetan languages, known as Sino–Dené had also been proposed by
Edward Sapir Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American Jewish anthropologist-linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States. Sa ...
. Around 1920 Sapir became convinced that Na–Dené was more closely related to Sino–Tibetan than to other American families. Edward Vadja's Dené–Yeniseian proposal renewed interest among linguists such as
Geoffrey Caveney Geoffrey, Geoffroy, Geoff, etc., may refer to: People * Geoffrey (name), including a list of people with the name * Geoffroy (surname), including a list of people with the name * Geoffrey of Monmouth (c. 1095–c. 1155), clergyman and one of the m ...
(2014) to look into support for the Sino–Dené hypothesis. Caveney considered a link between Sino–Tibetan, Na–Dené, and Yeniseian to be plausible but did not support the hypothesis that Sino–Tibetan and Na–Dené were related to the Caucasian languages (Sino–Caucasian and Dené–Caucasian).


Dené–Caucasian

Bouda, in various publications in the 1930s through the 1950s, described a linguistic network that (besides Yeniseian and Sino-Tibetan) also included
Caucasian Caucasian may refer to: Anthropology *Anything from the Caucasus region ** ** ** ''Caucasian Exarchate'' (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus region * * * Languages * Northwest Caucasian l ...
, and
Burushaski Burushaski (; ) is a language isolate spoken by Burusho people, who reside almost entirely in northern Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, with a few hundred speakers in northern Jammu and Kashmir, India. In Pakistan, Burushaski is spoken by people in ...
, some forms of which have gone by the name of Sino-Caucasian. The works of R. BleichsteinerSee Bleichsteiner 1930 and O.G. Tailleur,See Tailleur 1958 and Tailleur 1994 the late Sergei A. StarostinSee Starostin 1982, Starostin 1984, Starostin 1991, Starostin & Ruhlen 1994 and Sergei L. NikolayevSee Nikola(y)ev 1991 have sought to confirm these connections. Others who have developed the hypothesis, often expanded to Dené–Caucasian, include J.D. Bengtson,See Bengtson 1994, Bengtson 1998, Bengtson 2008 V. Blažek,See Blažek & Bengtson 1995 J.H. Greenberg (with M. Ruhlen),See Greenberg & Ruhlen, Greenberg & Ruhlen 1997 and M. Ruhlen.See Ruhlen 1997, Ruhlen 1998a, Ruhlen 1998b
George Starostin Georgiy Sergeevich "George" Starostin (russian: Гео́ргий Серге́евич Ста́ростин; born 4 July 1976) is a Russian linguist. He is the son of the late historical linguist Sergei Anatolyevich Starostin (1953–2005), and his ...
continues his father's work in Yeniseian, Sino-Caucasian and other fields.See Reshetnikov & Starostin 1995a, Reshetnikov & Starostin 1995b, Dybo & Starostin This theory is very controversial or viewed as obsolete by nearly all modern linguists.Dalby, Andrew (1998). ''Dictionary of Languages''. New York: Columbia University Press. pg. 434


Notes


References


Bibliography

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bout the Yenisei ostyaks and their language Bout can mean: People *Viktor Bout, suspected arms dealer * Jan Everts Bout, early settler to New Netherland * Marcel Bout Musical instruments * The outward-facing round parts of the body shape of violins, guitars, and other stringed instrum ...
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Global Oriental Global Oriental is an imprint of the Dutch publishing house Brill.http://www.brill.nl/about/imprints It used to be trade publishing company based in Kent, United Kingdom. It is the publisher of scholarly books on Japan and East Asia in fields su ...
.
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* Starostin, George S. (1995)
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In
A. Krasnowolska Anna Maria Krasnowolska (born 1949) is a Polish Iranologist. Works * Aleksander Chodzko (1804-1891) and his "oriental" poems * Az in dar va az ān dar * Historia Iranu * In the Orient where the gracious light... : satura orientalis in honorem And ...
/ K. Maciuszak / B. Mękarska (ed.): In the Orient where the Gracious Light... estschrift for A. Pisowicz Kraków: 179–184. * (Starostin, Sergei A.) Старостин, Сергей А. (1982)
Праенисейская реконструкция и внешние связи енисейских языков
Proto-Yeniseian reconstruction and the external relations of the Yeniseian languages In: Кетский сборник, ed. Е.А. Алексеенко (E.A. Alekseenko). Leningrad: Nauka, 44–237.
* (Starostin, Sergei A.) Старостин, Сергей А. (1984). Гипотеза о генетических связях сино-тибетских языков с енисейскими и северокавказскими языками hypothesis on genetic relations of the Sino-Tibetan languages to the Yeniseian and the North Caucasian languages In: Лингвистическая реконструкция и древнейшая история Востока inguistic reconstruction and the prehistory of the East 4: Древнейшая языковая ситуация в восточной Азии he prehistoric language situation in eastern Asia ed. И. Ф. Вардуль (I.F. Varduľ) et al. Москва: Институт востоковедения oscow:_Institute_of_Oriental_Studies_of_the_USSR_Academy_of_Sciences.html" ;"title="Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences">oscow: Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences">Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences">oscow: Institute of Oriental Studies of the USSR Academy of Sciences 19–38. [see Starostin 1991] * Starostin, Sergei A. (1991). On the Hypothesis of a Genetic Connection Between the Sino-Tibetan Languages and the Yeniseian and North Caucasian Languages. In Shevoroshkin (1991): 12–41. ranslation of Starostin 1984/cite> * Starostin, Sergei A., and Merritt Ruhlen. (1994). Proto-Yeniseian Reconstructions, with Extra-Yeniseian Comparisons. In M. Ruhlen, On the Origin of Languages: Studies in Linguistic Taxonomy. Stanford: Stanford University Press. pp. 70–92. artial translation of Starostin 1982, with additional comparisons by Ruhlen./cite> * Tailleur, O.G. (1994). Traits paléo-eurasiens de la morphologie iénisséienne. Études finno-ougriennes 26: 35–56. * Tailleur, O.G. (1958). Un îlot basco-caucasien en Sibérie: les langues iénisséiennes little Basque-Caucasian island in Siberia: the Yeniseian languages Orbis 7.2: 415–427. * Toporov, V.N. (1971). Burushaski and Yeniseian Languages: Some Parallels. Travaux linguistiques de Prague 4: 107–125. * Vajda, Edward J. (1998). The Kets and Their Language. Mother Tongue IV. * Vajda, Edward J. (2000). Ket Prosodic Phonology. Munich: Lincom Europa Languages of the World vol. 15. * Vajda, Edward J. (2002). The Origin of Phonemic Tone in Yeniseic. In CLS 37, 2002. (Parasession on Arctic languages: 305–320). * Vajda, Edward J. (2004). Ket. Lincom Europa, München. * Vajda, Edward J. (2004). Languages and Prehistory of Central Siberia. Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 262. John Benjamin Publishing Company. (Presentation of the Yeniseian family and its speakers, together with neighboring languages and their speakers, in linguistic, historical and archeological view) * Vajda, Edward J. (2007). Yeniseic substrates and typological accommodation in central Siberia. * Vajda, Edward J. (2008). "Yeniseic" a chapter in the book ''Language isolates and microfamilies of Asia'', Routledge, to be co-authored with Bernard Comrie; 53 pages). * Vajda, Edward J. (2010). "Siberian Link with Na-Dene Languages." ''The Dene–Yeniseian Connection'', ed. by J. Kari and B. Potter, 33–99. ''Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska'', new series, vol. 5. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Fairbanks, Department of Anthropology. * Vovin, Alexander. (2000). 'Did the Xiong-nu speak a Yeniseian language?' Central Asiatic Journal 44.1: 87–104. * Vovin, Alexander. (2002). 'Did the Xiongnu speak a Yeniseian language? Part 2: Vocabulary', in Altaica Budapestinensia MMII, Proceedings of the 45th Permanent International Altaistic Conference, Budapest, June 23–28, pp. 389–394. * Werner, Heinrich. (1998). ''Reconstructing Proto-Yenisseian.'' Mother Tongue IV. * Werner, Heinrich. (2004). Zur jenissejisch-indianischen Urverwandtschaft n_the_Yeniseian-[AmericanIndian_primordial_relationship.html" ;"title="merican.html" ;"title="n the Yeniseian-[American">n the Yeniseian-[AmericanIndian primordial relationship">merican.html" ;"title="n the Yeniseian-[American">n the Yeniseian-[AmericanIndian primordial relationship Wiesbaden: Harassowitz.


External links


Results from the February 2008 Dene–Yeniseic Symposium

A Siberian Link With Na-Dene Languages
by Edward Vajda, a proponent of the Yeniseian-Na-Dene connection.

by Edward Vajda.

from the Santa Fe Institute.
Comparison of Yeniseian and Na-Dene
by Merritt Ruhlen.
Yenisseian Etymology
by S. A. Starostin.
Sino-Caucasian_[comparative_phonology
/nowiki>.html" ;"title="omparative phonology">Sino-Caucasian [comparative phonology
/nowiki>">omparative phonology">Sino-Caucasian [comparative phonology
/nowiki>by S. A. Starostin. 2005.
Sino-Caucasian [comparative glossary
/nowiki>] by S. A. Starostin. 2005.
Article on Yeniseian languages


* ttp://wold.clld.org/vocabulary/18 Ket language vocabulary with loanwords(from the World Loanword Database) {{DEFAULTSORT:Yeniseian Languages Language families Dené–Yeniseian languages Paleosiberian languages