Ket language

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Ket
Spoken in: Russia 
Region: Krasnoyarsk Krai
Total speakers: 550
Language family: Dené-Yeniseian
 Yeniseian
  Northern Yeniseian
   Ket
Language codes
ISO 639-1: none
ISO 639-2: –
ISO 639-3: ket

 

The Ket language, formerly known as Yenisei Ostyak, a Siberian language long thought to be an isolate, the sole surviving language of a Yeniseian language family, is spoken along the middle Yenisei Basin by the Kets.

Attempts have been made by Soviet scholars to establish a relationship with either Burushaski or the Sino-Tibetan languages, and it frequently forms part of the Dene-Caucasian hypothesis. None of these attempts have been conclusive. However, in February 2008, linguist Edward Vajda proposed a link between Ket with the Na-Dene languages of North America. His paper has been favorably reviewed by several experts on Na-Dene and Yeniseic languages, including Michael Krauss, Jeff Leer, James Kari, and Heinrich Werner, as well as a number of other well-known linguists, including Bernard Comrie, Johanna Nichols, Victor Golla, Michael Fortescue, and Eric Hamp.

The language is threatened with extinction—the number of ethnic Kets that are native speakers of the language has dropped from 1,225 in 1926 to 537 in 1989. Another Yeniseian language, Yugh, is believed to have recently gone extinct.

Contents

Documentation

The earliest observations about the language were published by P. S. Pallas in 1788 in a travel diary (Путешествия по разным провинциям Русского Государства Puteshestviya po raznim provintsiyam Russkogo Gosudarstva). In 1858, M. A. Castrén published the first grammar and dictionary (Versuch einer jenissei-ostjakischen und Kottischen Sprachlehre), which also included material on the Kot language. During the 19th century, the Kets were mistaken for a tribe of the Finno-Ugric Khanty. A. Karger in 1934 published the first grammar (Кетский язык Ketskij jazyk), as well as a Ket primer (Букварь на кетском языке Bukvar' na ketskom jazyke), and a new treatment appeared in 1968, written by A. Kreinovich. E. Alekseyenko has written a historical-ethnological treatment of the Kets (Кеты Kety, 1967). Edward Vajda's (2004) monograph Ket is the first modern scholarly grammar of the Ket language in English. (Lueders 2008)

Phonology

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i ɨ u
Close-mid (e) 1   (o) 1
Mid   ə  
Open-mid ɛ   ɔ
Open a 2
  1. /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ are pronounced as [e] and [o], respectively, when they have the high-steady tone.
  2. /a/ freely varies between [æ], [a], [ɐ], and [ɑ].

Consonants

  Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Nasal¹ m n   ŋ    
Plosive voiceless p t   k q ʔ
voiced b d   ɡ ɢ  
Fricative voiceless   s ç (x) (χ) h
voiced β   ʝ ɣ ʁ  
Tap   ɾ        
Trill   r        
Lateral   l        
  1. All nasal consonants in Ket have voiceless allophones at the end of a monosyllabic word with a glottalized or descending tone (i.e., [m, n, ŋ] turn into [m̥, n̥, ŋ̥]), likewise, [l] becomes [ɬ] in the same situation.

Tones

Whether or not Ket is a tonal language is debatable, but most individuals agree that it is. Unlike most other tonal languages, Ket does not employ a tone on every syllable, Ket uses one tone per word. The five basic tones are as follows:

Tone name Glottalized High-Even Rising Falling Falling Rising High-Falling
Tone contour 34 55 13.31 31 13.53
Example [bɛ̌ʔs]
"rabbit"		 [súl]
"blood"		 [hə̌.nûl]
"puddle"		 [ɛ̂m̥]
"flying squirrel"		 [qǐ.bá͜âŋ]
"grandfathers"

Ket Alphabet

In 1930's a Latin based alphabet was developed and used:

A a Ā ā Æ æ B b Ç ç D d E e Ē ē
Ə ə F f G g H h Ҕ ҕ I i Ī ī J j
K k L l M m N n Ņ ņ Ŋ ŋ O o Ō ō
P p Q q R r S s Ş ş T t U u Ū ū
V v Z z Ƶ ƶ Ь ь

In 1980's a new, Cyrillic-based, alphabet was created:

А а Б б В в Г г Г̡ г̡ Д д Е е Ё ё
Ж ж З з И и Й й К к Ӄ ӄ Л л М м
Н н Ӈ ӈ О о Ө ө П п Р р С с Т т
У у Ф ф Х х Ц ц Ч ч Ш ш Щ щ Ъ ъ
Ә ә Ы ы Ь ь ’ Э э Ю ю Я я

Literature

External links