Mator or Motor was a
Uralic language
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 ...
belonging to the group of
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 ...
, extinct since the 1840s. It was spoken in the northern region of the
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 ...
in
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive region, 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 ...
, close to the
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, ...
n north border. The speakers of Mator lived in a wide area from the eastern parts of the
Minusinsk
Minusinsk (russian: Минуси́нск; kjh, Минсуғ) is a historical town in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. Population: 44,500 (1973).
Geography
Minusinsk marks the center of the Minusinsk Hollow, one of the most important archaeologic ...
District (''
okrug
An ''okrug, ; russian: о́круг, ókrug; sr, округ, okrug, ; uk, о́круг, о́kruh; be, акруга, akruha; pl, okręg; ab, оқрҿс; mhr, йырвел, '' is a type of administrative division in some Slavic states. Th ...
'') along 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, ...
to the region of
Lake Baikal. Three dialects of Mator were recorded: Mator proper as well as Taygi and Karagas (occasionally portrayed as separate languages, but their differences are few). Mator was influenced by
Mongolic,
Tungusic and
Turkic languages before it went extinct, and may have even been possibly influenced by the
Iranic languages
The Iranian languages or Iranic languages are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family that are spoken natively by the Iranian peoples, predominantly in the Iranian Plateau.
The Iranian languages are groupe ...
.
[http://digit.bibl.u-szeged.hu/00000/00094/00041/altaica_041_000-475.pdf ]
Today the term "Mator people" is simply an alternate name of the
Koibal, one of the five territorial sub-division groups of the
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 ...
. (Note that the name "Koibal" likewise derives from the related Samoyedic
Koibal language.)
Mator has been frequently grouped together with
Selkup and
Kamassian as "South Samoyedic". This is however a grouping by geographical area, and not considered to constitute an actual sub-branch of the Samoyedic languages.
Example of words in Mator
* kälä = fish
* mondoh = root
* sörüh = rain
* kaduh = storm
* baada = word
* kaasa = human
* ämdä = horn
* täjbä = nail
* täär = divide, share
* köhö = winter
* öröh = autumn
* teite = four
* mən = me, I
* tən = you
* ter = hair
* ajba = head
*siime = eye
References
*
Helimski, Eugen. 1997
''Die Matorische Sprache: Wörterbuch – Grundzüge der Grammatik – Sprachgeschichte''
External links
Mator grammar and dictionary
Southern Samoyedic languages
Extinct languages of Asia
Languages extinct in the 19th century
{{Uralic-lang-stub