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Enets Langauge

Enets Alphabet w/ Pronunciation

Enets, an indigenous language of Northern Siberia spoken on the Lower Yenisei within the boundaries of the Taimyr Municipality District, a subdivision of Красноярский край, Russia Federation. The language is moribund. Around 10 fluent speakers are left; the overall number of potential speakers is less than 40 individuals. All speakers are found in the generation of 50 years and older. Recent local statistics indicate that there are around 160 individuals of ethnic Enets origin. Concerning its genetic classification, Enets belongs to the Northern Samoyedic branch of Samoyedic. Samoyedic is the second major branch of the Uralic language family; the other branch consists of the generally more well known Finno-Ugric languages.

Alphabet

Enets is written using the Cyrillic alphabet.

including the letters ԑ, ӈ and ҫ which are not used in the Russian alphabet.

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

The Enets language written form was created during the 1980s and has been used to produce a number of books. During the 1990s there was an Enets newspaper, Советский Таймыр (Soviet Taimyr) published and brief Enets broadcasts on local radio, which shut down in 2003, served as supplements for speakers.

Syntax

Enets syntax is typical for the family and the area. The Enets language follows SOV, head marking in the NP, both head and dependent marking within the clause, non-finite verbal forms used for clause combining.

Grammar

Enets nouns vary for number, case, and person-number of the possessor. There is also an intriguing nominal case in which ‘destinativity’ determines the entity is destined for someone. Possessor markers are also used for discourse related purposes, where they are completely devoid of the literal possessive meaning. Enets post­positions are marked for person-number; many postpositions are formed from a small set of relational nouns and case morphology.

Phonology

Phoneme Inventory

Vowels

	front	middle	back
high	i	i̠	u
middle	e	e̠	ȯ
low			a o

Consonants

	bilabial	dental	palatal	velar	laryngal
stops	p, b	t, d	tʲ, dʲ	k, g	ʔ
affricates		t͡ʃ	t͡ʃʲ
fricatives		s, ʃ, ð	sʲ, ʃʲ	h
nasals	m	n	nʲ	ŋ
laterals		l
trills		r
glides			j

1. there is partial or complete vowel reduction in the middle and at the end of a word
2. consonants preceding i and e are palatalized

Literature

A rare type of benefactive construction: Evidence from Enets. (2014). Linguistics,52(6), 1391-1431. doi:10.1515/ling-2014-0025

Haig, G. L., Nau, N., Schnell, S., & Wegener, C. (2011). Achievements and Perspectives. Documenting Endangered Languages, 119-150. doi:10.1515/9783110260021.vii

Khanina, O., & Shluinsky, A. (2008). Finites structures in Forest Enets subordination: A case study of language change under strong Russian influence. Subordination and Coordination Strategies in North Asian Languages Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 63-75. doi:10.1075/cilt.300.07kha

Khanina, O., & Shluinsky, A. (2013). Choice of case in cross-reference markers: Forest Enets non-finite forms. Finnisch-Ugrische Mitteilungen Band,37, 32-44. Retrieved from http://iling-ran.ru/Shluinsky/ashl/ChoiceOfCase_2013.pdf

Sieglgl, F. (2012). MORE ON POSSIBLE FOREST ENETS – KET CONTACTS. Eesti ja soome-ugri keeleteaduse ajakiri. Journal of Estonian and Finno-Ugric Linguistics,3(1), 327-341. doi:10.12697/jeful.2015.6.3.00

Siegl, F. (2012). Yes/no questions and the interrogative mood in Forest Enets . Per Urales ad Orientem. Iter polyphonicum multilingue, 399-408. Retrieved from http://www.sgr.fi/sust/sust264/sust264_siegl.pdf

Siegl, F. (2015). Negation in Forest Enets. Negation in Uralic Languages Typological Studies in Language, 43-74. doi:10.1075/tsl.108.02sie

Vajda, E. J. (2008). Subordination and Coordination Strategies in North Asian Languages. Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 63-73. doi:10.1075/cilt.300