Kott language

Kott
Kott
Kot, Kottish
kottuen
Native to	Russia
Ethnicity	Kott, Asan
Extinct	early 19th century
Language family	Dené–Yeniseian? Yeniseian Southern Yeniseian Kott; ; ;
Dialects	Kott A; Kott B; Kyshtym; Assan (status unclear);
Language codes
ISO 639-3	zko
Linguist List	zko.html
Glottolog	kott1239
	Map of pre-contact Yeniseian languages.

The Kott (Kot) language (Russian: Коттский язык) is an extinct Yeniseian language that was formerly spoken in central Siberia by the banks of the Mana River, a tributary of the Yenisei river. It became extinct in the 1850s. Kott was closely related to Ket, still spoken farther north along the Yenisei river. Assan, a close relative, is sometimes considered a dialect of Kott.^[2]

Etymology

The term kott may be derived from Buryat qota 'town', applied to neighbouring non-pastoral peoples, including the last few Kotts.^[3]

Documentation

One of the earliest written records of Kott is in 1791, with the publication of Peter Simon Pallas's Сравнительный словарь всѣхъ языковъ и нарѣчій, по азбучному порядку расположенный, a comparative dictionary of variuos world languages and dialects. In 1858, Matthias Castrén published the grammar and dictionary (Versuch einer jenissei-ostjakischen und kottischen Sprachlehre), which included material on the Kott and Ket (Yenisei-Ostyak) languages, recording two different dialects of Kott.^[1] There also exists two books written by Heinrich Werner [ru; de] about the Kott language, namely Коттский язык (Kottskij jazyk), which includes a 110-page Russian-Kott glossary,^[4] and Abriß der kottischen Grammatik.^[2]

Phonology

Vowels

In multisyllabic words, vowel length is phonemic.

Vowels in Kott^[2]
	Front	Central	Back
Close	i [i]	(ɨ [ɨ])¹	u [u]
Close-mid	e [e]		o [o]
Open-mid	ɛ [ɛ]		ɔ [ɔ]
Open	ä [æ]	a [a]

[ɨ] is only attested in a few words dated to the 18th century, and can be considered an allophone of [i].^[2]

Consonants

Consonants according to Werner 1990^[4]
			Labial	Dental	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Laryngeal
Occlusive	voiceless	plain	p [p]	t [t]	tʼ [tʲ]	k [k]	q [q]		ʔ [ʔ]
	voiceless	aspirated	pʰ [pʰ]	tʰ [tʰ]
	voiced		b [b]	d [d]	dʼ [dʲ]	g [g]	G [ɢ]
Fricative	voiceless		f [f]	s [s] š [ʃ]		x [x]	X [χ]	ħ [ħ]	h [h]
Fricative	voiced						R [ʀ]
Affricate	voiceless				č [t͡ʃ]
Affricate	voiced				dž [d͡ʒ]
Nasal			m [m]	n [n]	nʼ [nʲ]	ŋ [ŋ]
Approximant					j [j]
Lateral				l [l] lʼ [lʲ]
Trill				r [r]

Consonants in Kott according to Werner 1997^[2]
			Labial	Dental	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Laryngeal/ Pharyngeal
Plosive	voiceless	plain	p [p]	t [t]		tʼ [tʲ]	k [k]	q [q]	ʔ [ʔ]
	voiceless	aspirated	pʰ [pʰ]	tʰ [tʰ]
	voiced		b [b]	d [d]		dʼ [dʲ]	g [g]	G [ɢ]
Fricative	voiceless		f [f]	s [s]	š [ʃ]	j [j]	x [x]	χ [χ]	h [h]
Fricative	voiced
Affricate						č [t͡ʃ]
Lateral				l [l]	lʼ [lʲ]
Trill				r [r]
Nasal			m [m]	n [n]		nʼ [nʲ]	ŋ [ŋ]

Influence from Turkic

Kott had been influenced by Turkic languages, and had borrowed some words from Turkic languages. For example Kott baktîr- ‘to praise’ comes from Proto-Turkic *paktïr (based on phonetics, likely loaned from Kumandin or Shor), or Kott kolá ‘copper, brass’ comes from Proto-Turkic *kola (of which the source is not phonetically identifiable).^[5] At the time of its extinction, it was also loaning words from Russian.

Grammar

Cases in Kott according to Castrén

Kott has special end markings to indicate that the noun being described is a hydronym which are -šet/čet.^[1]^[2]

Kott typically uses SVO word order, and is agglutinative.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Georg, Stefan; Georg, Stefan (2007). Introduction, phonology, morphology. A descriptive grammar of Ket (Yenisei-Ostyak) / Stefan Georg. Folkestone: Global Oriental. ISBN 978-1-901903-58-4.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Werner, Heinrich (1997). Abriß der kottischen Grammatik [Kott Grammar Outline] (in German). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. p. 13. ISBN 3-447-03971-X.
^ Vajda, Edward (2024-02-19), Vajda, Edward (ed.), "8 The Yeniseian language family", The Languages and Linguistics of Northern Asia, De Gruyter, pp. 365–480, doi:10.1515/9783110556216-008, ISBN 978-3-11-055621-6, retrieved 2024-06-26
^ ^a ^b Verner, G. K. (Г. К. Вернер) (1990). Kottsky yazyk Коттский язык [Kott Language] (in Russian). Rostov-na-Donu: Izdatel'stvo rostovskogo universiteta. ISBN 5-7507-0357-6.
^ Khabtagaeva, Bayarma (2015). "Some Remarks on Turkic Elements of Mongolic Origin in Yeniseian". Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia. 20 (2): 111–126. doi:10.4467/20843836SE.15.008.2794.

External links

Kott basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database

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[Georg-1] Georg, Stefan; Georg, Stefan (2007). Introduction, phonology, morphology. A descriptive grammar of Ket (Yenisei-Ostyak) / Stefan Georg. Folkestone: Global Oriental. ISBN 978-1-901903-58-4.

[:0-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Werner, Heinrich (1997). Abriß der kottischen Grammatik [Kott Grammar Outline] (in German). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. p. 13. ISBN 3-447-03971-X.

[3] Vajda, Edward (2024-02-19), Vajda, Edward (ed.), "8 The Yeniseian language family", The Languages and Linguistics of Northern Asia, De Gruyter, pp. 365–480, doi:10.1515/9783110556216-008, ISBN 978-3-11-055621-6, retrieved 2024-06-26

[:1-4] Verner, G. K. (Г. К. Вернер) (1990). Kottsky yazyk Коттский язык [Kott Language] (in Russian). Rostov-na-Donu: Izdatel'stvo rostovskogo universiteta. ISBN 5-7507-0357-6.

[5] Khabtagaeva, Bayarma (2015). "Some Remarks on Turkic Elements of Mongolic Origin in Yeniseian". Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia. 20 (2): 111–126. doi:10.4467/20843836SE.15.008.2794.

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[5]

Kott
Kot, Kottish
kottuen
Native to	Russia
Ethnicity	Kott, Asan
Extinct	early 19th century
Language family	Dené–Yeniseian? Yeniseian Southern Yeniseian Kott
Dialects	Kott A Kott B Kyshtym^[1] Assan (status unclear)^[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3	`zko`
Linguist List	`zko.html`
Glottolog	`kott1239`
Map of pre-contact Yeniseian languages.