Ket language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ket
Spoken in:	Russia
Region:	Krasnoyarsk Krai
Total speakers:	550
Language family:	Yeniseian, part of the Paleosiberian languages
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`mis`
ISO 639-3:	`ket`

The Ket language, formerly known as Yenisei Ostyak, is a Siberian language isolate, the sole surviving language of a Yeniseian language family, 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. However, genetic research rather points to possible relationship with the Amerind languages of American Indians. The Kets namely posess a very high percentage of haplogroup Q (Y-DNA), which suggests that they are actually descendants of Siberian Paleoindians.

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.

[edit] 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 and 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, based on the author's original fieldwork in Siberia, is the first modern scholarly grammar of the Ket language in English.

[edit] Literature

N. K. Karger, Кетский язык. — Языки и письменность народов Севера. Ч. III, Moscow, Leningrad (1934)
E. A. Kreinovich, Кетский язык. — Языки народов СССР. Т. V, Leningrad (1968)
Edward J. Vajda. Ket Prosodic Phonology. (2000) Munich: Lincom Europa Languages of the World vol. 15.
Edward J. Vajda. Ket. (2004) Munich: Lincom Europa Languages of the World vol. 204.
E. Vaida, M. Zinn. Morfologicheskii slovar ketskogo glagola : na osnove iuzhno-ketskogo dialekta. = Morphological dictionary of the Ket verb : Southern dialect / E. Vajda, M. Zinn. (2004)