The Ket ( ) language, or more specifically Imbak and formerly known as Yenisei Ostyak ( ), is the sole surviving language of the Yeniseian language family. It is spoken along the middle Yenisei basin by the Ket people.
The language is threatened with extinction—the number of ethnic Kets that are native speakers of the language dropped from 1,225 in 1926 to 537 in 1989. According to the latest reports from linguists, this number has since fallen to less than 30. A 2005 census reported 485 native speakers, but this number is suspected to be inflated. According to a local news source, the number of remaining Ket speakers is around 10 to 20. Another Yeniseian language, Yugh, became extinct in the 1970s.
History
Documentation The earliest observations about the language were recorded by Daniel Gottlieb Messerschmidt in 1723, in a travel diary, where the oldest extant Ket vocabulary, belonging to the Eed-Šeš dialect, (, ) was recorded. During the 19th century, the Ket were mistaken for a tribe of the Finno-Ugric Khanty. A. Karger in 1934 published the first grammar ( ), as well as a Ket primer ( ), and a new treatment appeared in 1968, written by A. Kreinovich.
Decline and current use Ket people were subjected to collectivization in the 1930s. In the 1950s and 1960s, according to the recollections of informants, they were sent to Russian-only boarding schools, which led to the ceasing of language transmission between generations. As of 2013, Ket is taught as a subject in some primary schools, but only older adults are fluent and few are raising their children with the language. Kellog, Russia, is the only place where Ket is still taught in schools. Special books are provided for grades second through fourth but after those grades there is only Russian literature to read that describes Ket culture. There are no known monolingual speakers as of 2006. A children's book, A Bit Lost by Chris Haughton, was translated into the language in 2013. Alexander Kotusov was a Ket folk singer and poet who died in 2019.
Only three localities, Kellog, Surgutikha and , retain a native Ket-speaking population in the present day. Other villages such as Serkovo and Pakulikha were destroyed in the second half of the 20th century, dispersing the local Ket population to nearby towns.
Dialects Ket has three dialects: Southern (Upper Inbatz), Central and Northern (collectively Lower Inbatz). All the dialects are very similar to each other and Kets from different groups are able to understand each other. The most common southern dialect was used for the standardized written Ket.
The three remaining Ket-majority localities natively speak different dialects. Southern Ket is spoken in Kellog, Central Ket in Surgutikha and Northern Ket in .Vajda, p. xi
Phonology Vowels Front Central Back Close ~ Mid ~ ~ ~ Open Georg classifies , , and as marginal phonemes.
Consonants Vajda analyses Ket as having only 12 consonant phonemes:
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular GlottalNasal Plosive Fricative It is one of the few languages to lack both and , along with Arapaho, Una (Goliath), Obokuitai, Palauan, and Efik, as well as classical Arabic and some modern Arabic dialects.
There is much allophony, and the phonetic inventory of consonants is essentially as below. This is the level of description reflected by the Ket alphabet.
Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal Nasal Plosive Fricative () () Flap Trill
Furthermore, all nasal consonants in Ket have voiceless allophones at the end of a monosyllabic word with a glottalized or descending tone (i.e. turn into ), likewise, becomes in the same situation. Alveolars are often pronounced laminal and possibly palatalized, though not in the vicinity of a uvular consonant. is normally pronounced with affrication, as .
Tone Descriptions of Ket vary widely in the number of contrastive tones they report: as many as eight and as few as zero have been counted. Given this wide disagreement, whether or not Ket is a tonal language is debatable,Ian Maddieson, "Tone". The World Atlas of Language Structures Online. http://wals.info/feature/13 although recent works by Ket specialists Edward Vajda and Stefan Georg defend the existence of tone.
In tonal descriptions, Ket does not employ a tone on every syllable but instead uses one tone per word. Following Stefan Georg's model of Southern Ket tone, which is also adapted by the more recent works on Ket and Yeniseian,Kotorova, Elizaveta, and Andrey Nefedov (eds.) (2015). Comprehensive Ket Dictionary / Большой словарь кетского языка (2 vols). Languages of the World/Dictionaries (LW/D) 57. Munich: Lincom Europa. the following can be inferred:
Tone name First tone (even, half-long) Second tone (laryngealized) Third tone (rising-falling, long) Fourth tone (sharp falling) "Fifth tone" (First disyllabic contour) "Sixth tone" (Second disyllabic contour) Tone contour (or ) (across two syllables) (across two syllables) Example сюль (sūlʲ, “blood”) сюʼль (suˀlʲ, “Siberian white salmon (sp. Stenodus leucichytus)”) сюуль (súùlʲ, “snow sled”) сюль (sùlʲ, “cradle hook”) сюга (súka, “Northern shoveler (sp. Anas clypeata”) силюп (sìlub, “tuft, wisp, shock of hair”)
Orthography
In the 1930s a Latin-based alphabet was developed and used for a very brief window of time: A a Ā ā Æ æ B ʙ C c D d E e Ē ē Ə ə F f G g H h Ꜧ ꜧ I i Ī ī J j K k L l Ļ ļ 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 zƵ ƶ Ь ь
In the 1980s a new, Cyrillic-based, alphabet was created: А а Б б В в Г г Ӷ ӷ 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 ʼ Э э Ю ю Я я
Cyrillic IPAА аБ бВ вГ г (~ )Ӷ ӷ (~ )Д дЕ еЁ ёИ иЙ й (~ )К кӃ ӄЛ л (~ )М мmН нӇ ӈО оӨ өП пР р (~ )С сТ тУ уХ хЪ ъʼӘ әЫ ыЬ ьЭ эЮ юЯ я
Morphosyntax Ket is classified as a synthetic language. Verbs use prefixes, while suffixes are rare outside nominal domain; incorporation is well-developed. The basic word order is subject–object–verb (SOV).Werner, Heinrich. Die ketische Sprache, раздел «Синтаксис», стр. 332
Nouns have nominative basic case (subjects and direct objects) and a system of secondary cases for spatial relations. The three noun classes are: masculine, feminine and inanimate.
Unlike the neighbouring Siberian languages, Ket makes use of verbal prefixes, classified based on the conjugation classes of the verbs that are not lexically transparent. Five such conjugation types exist, denoting various patterns verb prefixes can be appended to the verb-action nominal compound.
Ket makes significant use of incorporation. Incorporation is not limited to nouns, and can also include verbs, adverbs, adjectives, and bound morphemes found only in the role of incorporated elements. Incorporation also occurs as both a lexicalized process—the combination of verb and incorporate being treated as a distinct lexical element, with a meaning often based around the incorporated element—and a paradigmatic one, wherein the incorporation is performed spontaneously for particular semantic and pragmatic effect.
Forms of incorporation include: Nominal incorporation, most commonly used to describe the instrumental part of an action, but sometimes used to describe patients instead. Instrumental incorporation does not affect the transitivity of the verb (though there are examples where this form of incorporation is used to describe agentless changes of state), while patient incorporation can make a transitive verb intransitive. Patient incorporation is usually used for patients that are wholly effected by an action (such as being brought into existence by it); more generally affected patients are typically incorporated only when significantly defocused or backgrounded. Verbal incorporation, more specifically the incorporation of verbal infinitives (rather than roots) into the verb complex. This form of incorporation is used to signify aspect and form causatives. Incorporated infinitives may bring incorporated elements of their own into the verb as well. Adjectival incorporation, with an incorporated adjective describing the target or final state of an action. Adverbial incorporation, where a local adverb is used to describe the direction or path of a movement.
The division between morphemes is based on fusion. Sandhi are common as well.Werner, Heinrich. Die ketische Sprache, раздел «Морфонология» The name marking is of Ezāfe-type, the same as in predication.
Number Ket has two grammatical numbers, the singular and plural. This is usually expressed by the presence or absence of (individuated plural) or (collective plural), the plural suffixes. The old singulative suffix is present on certain singular forms, however, like the stem 'stone' > 'stones'. Some shape-classifying suffixes have developed and are mildly productive.
Noun declension +hīk "man" (masculine noun)CaseSingularPluralNominativehīk-Øhīk-en-ØGenitivehīk-dahīk-en-naDativehīk-daŋahīk-en-naŋaBenefactivehīk-datahīk-en-nataAblativehīk-daŋalhīk-en-naŋalAdessivehīk-daŋtahīk-en-naŋtaLocative - -Prosecutivehīk-beshīk-en-besInstrumentalhīk-ashīk-en-asAbessivehīk-anhīk-en-anTranslativehīk-esaŋhīk-en-esaŋVocativehīk-óhīk-en-ə́
+qīm "woman" (feminine noun)CaseSingularPluralNominativeqīm-Øqīm-n-ØGenitiveqīm-diqīm-n-diDativeqīm-diŋaqīm-n-diŋaBenefactiveqīm-ditaqīm-n-ditaAblativeqīm-diŋalqīm-n-diŋalAdessiveqīm-diŋtaqīm-n-diŋtaLocative - -Prosecutiveqīm-besqīm-n-besInstrumentalqīm-asqīm-n-asAbessiveqīm-anqīm-n-anTranslativeqīm-esaŋqīm-n-esaŋVocativeqīm-ə́qīm-n-ə́ + doˀn "knife" (neuter noun)CaseSingularPluralNominativedoˀn-Ødón-aŋ-ØGenitivedón-didón-aŋ-diDativedón-diŋadón-aŋ-diŋaBenefactivedón-ditadón-aŋ-ditaAblativedón-diŋaldón-aŋ-diŋalAdessivedón-diŋtadón-aŋ-diŋtaLocativedón-kadón-aŋ-kaProsecutivedón-besdón-aŋ-besInstrumentaldón-asdón-aŋ-asAbessivedón-andón-aŋ-anTranslativedón-esaŋdón-aŋ-esaŋVocative--
Verb paradigm Unlike other contemporary languages in Siberia, Ket employs a rigid and regular system of prefixes that can occupy prefix positions P8, P6, P4, P3, P1 and P-1; where prefix position P0 (or R) denotes the root of the verb and P7 is the action nominal (or the verb incorporate.) The function of the prefix slots can be summarized as follows: P8 marks the subject person P7 marks the lexical incorporate; where it can either be a noun or an action nominal (infinitive verb) P6 marks the subject or the object person P5 marks the lexical determiner (also called a theme marker) P4 marks a wide variety of meanings depending on the verb, conjugation class and the verb template P3 marks the neuter object person P2 marks the tense marker, which itself denotes telicity P1 marks the subject or the object person P0 (R) marks the verb root P-1 marks the plural subjects
All verb conjugations except the second mark P8, but in some deterministic circumstances where the prefix position P7 or P6 slots are filled with consonant-initial morphemes, subject person morpheme in the prefix in P8 except the third person feminine person (‘she’) is dropped. Дусьӄадирий. (Dūsʲqadidij. «di⁸꞊ūsʲ⁷-q⁵-a⁴-di¹-dij⁰», “I get warm.”) but: Боксьтэт. (Boksʲtet. «[di⁸꞊]boˀk⁷-sʲ⁴-tet⁰», “I strike fire.”) Дабоксьтэт. (Daboksʲtet. «da⁸꞊boˀk⁷-sʲ⁴-tet⁰», “She strikes fire.”) Whether or not a prefix slot will be filled can only be inferred from a verb's conjugation class, but general patterns exist that govern this process. Also notably, the morpheme -a in prefix slot P4 turns into phonetic [ɔ] in preterite and imperative functions of the verb, for which see examples below.
Example conjugations from each conjugation class can briefly be given as follows, adapted from Vajda-Zinn (2004): Conjugation class I: (а-бет, a⁴-[l²]-bed⁰) Даббет. (Dábbet. «di⁸꞊a⁴-b³-bed⁰», “I wipe it [off.]” — b³ marks the neuter-class object ‘it’) Добильбет. (Dóbilʲbet. «di⁸꞊a⁴-b³-l²-bed⁰», “I wiped it [off.]” — preterite, a⁴ turns into [ɔ].) Conjugation class II: