Tundra Nenets
Nenec, Nenetsy, Nentse, Yurak, Yurak Samoyed
Native toNorthern Russia
EthnicityNenets
Native speakers
21,900 (2010)[1]
Uralic
Cyrillic
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottologtund1255
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Tundra Nenets is a Uralic language spoken in European Russia and North-Western Siberia. It is the largest and best-preserved language in the Samoyedic group.[2]: 1–2 

Tundra Nenets is closely related to the Nganasan and Enets languages, and more distantly to Selkup. Tundra Nenets and its sister language, Forest Nenets, are sometimes considered dialects of a single Nenets language, though there is low mutual intelligibility between the two. In spite of the large area in which Tundra Nenets is spoken, the language is very uniform with few dialectal differences.[3]: 13 

Geographically, the Tundra Nenets territory spans the Nenets District of the Arkhangelsk Province, as well as parts of the Komi Republic, the Yamal-Nenets District in the Tyumen Province, and the Ust-Yeniseisk region of the Taimyr District in the Krasnoyarsk Region. This territory has been in constant growth over the past millennium, as Tundra Nenets settlers moved further east and engaged with other groups of Enets.[2]: 3 

A 2010 census reported 44,640 Nenets, 49% of whom were speakers of the Nenets language. However, while the population of Nenets has been growing in the past few decades, the language itself has been in a decline, as many children are now educated in Russian-language schools and many other ethnic groups have begun settling in Tundra Nenets territories.[2]: 5–6  The language is classified as 6b (Threatened), indicating that it is still spoken by all age generations, but the number of speakers in decreasing.[4]

Tundra Nenets is spoken primarily within family circles and in traditional economic activities, such as hunting and herding reindeer. The language has no official status within the Russian Federation. In the mid 1930's, an orthography based on the Cyrillic script was developed, which is taught in local schools. However, many Tundra Nenets speakers are primarily literate in Russian. Nonetheless, there is a small amount of Tundra Nenets literature, as well as radio and television broadcasts.[2]: 7–8 

Phonology

edit

Vowels

edit

Tundra Nenets has 10 vowel phonemes, which are categorized into 4 vowel lengths.[2]: 17 

long short over-short reduced
high ī ū i u
mid e o
low ǣ a ə °

There are 17 distinct allophones, governed by palatality.[3]: 36–37  Monophthong vowels are present in the chart below, with their phonemes marked in bold, and with their palatal (on the left) and non-palatal (on the right) allophones marked underneath using the International Phonetic Alphabet.

phoneme ī ū i u e o a ə °
allophones [(ʲ)iː], [ɨː] [(ʲ)ʉː], [uː] [(ʲ)i], [ɨ] [(ʲ)ʉ], [u] [(ʲ)eː], [ɤː] [(ʲ)ɵː], [oː] [(ʲ)aː], [ɑː] [(ʲ)ɐ], [ʌ] [ə]

The vowel ǣ is interchangeably realized as [æ͡e̘] or [æː]. This and the long close vowels only occur in word-initial syllables.[3]: 36–37 

The reduced vowel ° is typically the result of an automatic reduction of the over-short vowel ə in an unstressed position. This leads to surface alternations such as xər° 'knife' vs. xərə-r° 'your knife (2SG).'[2]: 18  However, there are a few words with ° in an odd-position non-final syllable (counting from the left) and in phonological contrast with ə, making it a distinct phoneme. For example, there is the minimal pair səwa-xəna 'good (LOC)' and səwa-w°na 'good (PROL).'[2]: 18 

Consonants

edit

There are 26 consonants in the inventory, spanning five places and seven manners of articulation.[2]: 19 

labial non-palatalized labial palatalized dental palatal velar glottal
nasals m m' n n' ŋ
voiceless stops p p' t t' k q/h
voiced stops b b' d d'
affricates c c'
fricatives s s' x
glides w y
laterals l l'
trills r r'

Most labial consonants have a labial palatalized counterpart, and similarly with dentals and palatals. These consonants are in phonemic contrast, such as in the minimal pair num 'sky' and n'um 'name.'[2]: 19  The two phonemic glottal stops h and q have identical phonetic content [ʔ], but occur in different positions and undergo different alternations. There is also a non-phonemic glottal stop that is sometimes pronounced after other word-final consonants.[2]: 19–20  The trill r may be uvular [ʀ] or a uvular fricative [ʁ] for some speakers.[3]: 40–41 

All consonants can be found word-internally between vowels, but their occurrence in other positions is strongly limited.[3]: 40–41 

  • Only the 16 consonants shown on darker gray background may occur word-initially.
  • Syllable-finally, most consonant contrasts are not found, and only six consonants occur: b, ʔ, m, n ~ ŋ, l, r.

Sandhi

edit

Tundra Nenets has sandhi, a phonological process involving the simplification of consonant clusters, both within words (in e.g. inflection) and between words. This process produces secondarily derived consonant phonemes from underlying consonant clusters.[3]: 43–44 

  • Fortition of fricatives: when preceded by a consonant, the fricatives s, s', x become the affricates/stops ts, ts', k respectively.
  • The syllable-final glottal stop ʔ is lost before any obstruent consonants.
  • The word-final non-labial nasal n is lost when followed by a sonorant and becomes a glottal stop utterance. Within a word, the cluster nj may occur.

As the citation form of a noun is the bare stem, a word ending in a glottal stop in isolation can thus underlyingly end either in a plain glottal stop or in a nasal. The latter is sometimes called a "nasalizable glottal stop", and is written differently from the former in the orthography of the language.

Syllable structure

edit

Tundra Nenets has a (C)V(C) syllable structure, and the minimal word is CV. Thus, there are no word initial or word final consonant clusters, nor are there any three-consonant clusters. Moreover, syllables with zero onset typically cannot occur word-initially, but in Western dialects, the word-initial ŋ is lost, giving some vowel-initial words. For example, the Eastern dialect ŋəno 'boat' becomes əno in the Western dialect.[2]: 27  Word-internally, zero onset syllables only occur when ə or ° follow another vowel. For example, such vowel clusters can occur when forming the finite stem: me° 'he takes (3SG)' gives meə-s'° 'he took (3SG.PST).'[2]: 27–28 

Stress

edit

Tundra Nenets displays bisyllabic trochaic feet that are aligned to the left. Primary stress falls on the initial syllable. Secondary stress falls on subsequent odd syllables and on even-position syllables preceding a syllable with °, excluding the final syllable[2]: 28 , as illustrated in the following examples where ´ indicates primary stress on a vowel and ` indicates secondary stress on the preceding vowel:

méŋa-xə`yu-n°

méŋa-xə`yu-n°

take-DU.OBJ-1SG[2]: 28 

méŋa-xə`yu-nə`-s'°

méŋa-xə`yu-nə`-s'°

take-DU.OBJ-1SG-PAST[2]: 28 

mé-nake`-x°yu`-n'ə-s'°

mé-nake`-x°yu`-n'ə-s'°

take-PROB-DU.OBJ-1SG-PAST[2]: 28 

Morphology

edit

Typical of the Uralic language family, Tundra Nenets has an agglutinating morphological structure with a wide variety of suffixes. There is no prefixation. The two primary word classes are nouns and verbs. Other word classes include adjectives, pronouns, numerals, adverbs, postpositions, conjunctions, particles, and interjections.[2]: 8–9 

A noun can contain up to five morphemes, including the root, a derivational suffix, a possessive suffix, a number suffix, and a case suffix. A verb can contain up to six or seven morphemes, including the root, one or two derivational suffixes, a tense suffix, a mood suffix, a subject agreement suffix, and an object agreement suffix. Although the morphology is predominately agglutinating, there are some suffixes that express multiple meanings, as well as periphrastic clausal negation and some auxiliary verbs.[2]: 8–9 

Derivational affixes

edit

Tundra Nenets contains a few nominal derivational affixes that can be used used to denote a cause, express an instrument, or refer to a location of action. For example, the noun xərwa-bco 'wish' can be derived from the verb xərwa- 'to want'.[2]: 31  There are also several mixed categories of nouns that have a syntactic distribution of a different word-class, yet share other properties with nouns. For example, the proprietive suffix -sawey° can be used to derive nouns with the meaning 'with X, having X', as in yī-sawey° 'intelligent' (from 'mind').[2]: 32 

Tundra Nenets has two verbal aspectual classes, perfective and imperfective. There are several derivational aspectual suffixes which can change the aspectual class of a verb. For example, imperfectivizing suffixes can be used to express durative, frequentative, multiplicative, and iterative meanings, such as in tola-bə 'to keep counting' (from tola- 'to count').[2]: 45  There are also denominal verbs with the meaning 'to use as X, to have as X', which are formed from the accusative plural stem, such as in səb'i-q' 'to use as a hat' (from səwa 'hat').[2]: 46 

Inflectional affixes

edit

Nouns are inflected for number (singular, dual, plural), case (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, locative, ablative, prolative), and possessive, which can indicate the person and number of the possessor.[2]: 9  For example, the following noun is inflected for similative case and third person plural number.

numke-rəxa-q

star-SIM-3PL

numke-rəxa-q

star-SIM-3PL

'like stars'[2]: 73 

Verbs are inflected for agreement, tense, and mood. Present tense is unmarked, but Tundra Nenets distinguishes inflectionally the past, future, habitual, and future-in-the-past tenses. There are sixteen moods, which include the imperative, hortative, optative, conjunctive, necessitative, interrogative, probabilitative, obligative, potential, and inferential.[2]: 9  For example, the verb below is inflected for subjunctive mood, first person singular agreement, and past tense.

ŋod'°q

DP

s'it°

you.ACC

məneq-yi-dəm-c'°

see-SUBJ-1SG-PAST

ŋod'°q s'it° məneq-yi-dəm-c'°

DP you.ACC see-SUBJ-1SG-PAST

'If only I could see you!'[2]: 89 

Clitics

edit

Clitics undergo the same phonological processes and stress assignment as affixes. They can attach to an affirmative finite verb, a negative auxiliary, or a non-verbal final predicate, and follow any other inflection[2]: 116 , as shown with the following exclamative clitic:[2]: 117 

pidər°

you

tola-mp'i-n°=n'uq!

read-DUR-2SG-EXCL

pidər° tola-mp'i-n°=n'uq!

you read-DUR-2SG-EXCL

'It turns out you are reading!'[2]: 117 

Particles

edit

Particles are primarily used for discourse. Common particles include yekar°q 'it is unknown', ŋod'°q 'hardly', tǣr'i 'just, very', and məs'iq 'maybe, perhaps.'[2]: 53  An example is given below:

yekar°q

DP

tūt-bə-ta=w°h

come.FUT-COND-3SG-DUB

yekar°q tūt-bə-ta=w°h

DP come.FUT-COND-3SG-DUB

'It's unlikely that he will come.'[2]: 53 

Compounding

edit

There are some lexical noun-noun compounds in Tundra Nenets. As shown in the following example, the first element in the compound cannot be modified or take a number.[2]: 167 

xasawa

man

ŋǝcʹeki°-q

child-PL

xasawa ŋǝcʹeki°-q

man child-PL

‘boys’[2]: 167 

Suppletion

edit

A few irregular verbs show suppletion. The most frequent suppletive verbs are xǣ- ‘to go, to depart’, ŋǣ- ‘to be’, to- ‘to come’, ta- ‘to bring, to give’ and the negative auxiliary nʹi-. Some common suppletive forms for these verbs are given in the table below.[2]: 25 

to go/depart to be to come to bring, give negative auxiliary
3SG xəya ŋa to° ta° nʹī
CONNEG xanʹ°q ŋaq (~ŋǣq) tuq taq -
IMPF PART xǣn(ʹ)a ŋǣda tona tada~tana nʹinʹa
IMP 2SG xanʹ°q ŋaq tuq taq nʹon°
FUT 3SG xan°tə° ŋǣŋu tūtə° tətə° -

Syntax

edit

Basic word order

edit

Tundra Nenets is predominantly a head-final SOV language.[2]: 9  Verb finality is the primary constraint on word order.[2]: 213  Below are examples of the basic word order for a transitive and intransitive sentence.

məy°mpə-da

cheerful-IMPF.PART

Wera

Wera

Maša-m

Masha-ACC

pad°ta°-da

draw-3SG > SG.OBJ

məy°mpə-da Wera Maša-m pad°ta°-da

cheerful-IMPF.PART Wera Masha-ACC {draw-3SG > SG.OBJ}

‘Cheerful Wera drew Masha.’[2]: 197 

Wera-h

Wera-GEN

teda

reindeer.3SG

yuxu

get.lost

Wera-h teda yuxu

Wera-GEN reindeer.3SG get.lost

'Wera's reindeer got lost.'[2]: 223 


However, although most simple sentences have SOV order, a more general trend is for the informationally new element to be immediately preverbal and to be preceded by the informationally old element. So, it is possible to have sentences where the direct object precedes the subject[2]: 214 , as illustrated below:

s’exari°-m

road-ACC

sira

snow

toxora°-da

cover-3SG > SG.OBJ

s’exari°-m sira toxora°-da

road-ACC snow {cover-3SG > SG.OBJ}

‘Snow covered the road.’[2]: 214 

Possessee + possessor

edit

The possessor precedes the thing being possessed.[2]: 142 

noxa‐h

polar.fox-GEN

tǣwa

tail

noxa‐h tǣwa

polar.fox-GEN tail

‘polar fox’s tail’[2]: 142 

Adjective (comparative) + standard

edit

Comparative adjectives follow their standards, which take the ablative case.[2]: 174 

t’uku°

This

pəni°

coat

taki°

that

pəne-xəd°

coat-ABL

səwa(-rka)

good-COMP

t’uku° pəni° taki° pəne-xəd° səwa(-rka)

This coat that coat-ABL good-COMP

‘This coat is better than that one.’[2]: 174 

Determiner + noun phrase

edit

The determiner precedes the noun phrase.[2]: 141–142 

tʹuku°

this

Wera-h

Wera-GEN

ti

reindeer

tʹuku° Wera-h ti

this Wera-GEN reindeer

‘this reindeer of Wera’s’[2]: 143 

Orthography

edit

The alphabet of Tundra Nenets is based on Cyrillic, with the addition of three letters: Ӈ ӈ, ʼ, and ˮ.

Vowels

edit

The palatalized and plain vowel allophones are distinguished in the original orthography.[3]: 36–37 

phonemic transcription a e o i u æ
Cyrillic Plain а э о ы у э
Palatalized я е ё и ю

The Cyrillic orthography does not distinguish the reduced vowel from a, nor the long ī and ū from their short counterparts i and u. ǣ is not found in a palatalized environment, and thus does not show up in the chart. The schwa, [ə], has no direct counterpart in the Cyrillic orthography and is in most cases not written. However, it may sometimes appear as ⟨а⟩, ⟨я⟩, ⟨ы⟩, ⟨ӗ⟩ or ⟨ŏ⟩. For example, xad°, ('snowstorm') is written as хад, and nix° ('power') is written as ныхы.[3]: 34–35 

Consonants

edit

The consonants in the Cyrillic orthography can be seen in the chart below. Note that palatalized consonants are not included.[3]: 38 

phonemic transcription /m/ /p/ /b/ /w/ /n/ /t/ /d/ /ts/ /s/ /j/ /l/ /r/ /ŋ/ /k/ /x/ /ʔ/ /ʔ/
Cyrillic м п б в н т д ц с й л р ӈ к х ˮ ʼ

The letter ⟨ˮ⟩ marks a "plain" glottal stop, while ⟨ʼ⟩ marks a glottal stop derived from a word-final n. As in Russian, the consonants are palatalized using the soft sign, ⟨ь⟩. For example, the palatalized consonant m' is represented with ⟨мь⟩ in Cyrillic unless it is followed by a palatalizing vowel, such as ⟨ё⟩, so that m'o is written as ⟨мё⟩.[3]: 38 

Sample text

edit

(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Ет хибяри ненэць соямарианта хуркари правада тнява, ӈобой ненээя ниду нись токалба, ӈыбтамба илевату тара.

Transliteration
Et xibjari nenėc’ sojamarianta xurkari pravada tnjava, ṇoboj nenėėja nidu nic’ tokalba, ṇybtamba ilevatu tara.

Translation
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.[5]

References

edit
  1. ^ Daniel Abondolo, 1998. The Uralic Languages, p. 517.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at Irina., Nikolaeva, (2014). A grammar of Tundra Nenets. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 9783110320640. OCLC 958355161.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Salminen, Tapani. (1997). Tundra Nenets inflection. Helsinki: Suomalais-ugrilainen seura. ISBN 952515002X. OCLC 37350558.
  4. ^ "Nenets". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
  5. ^ Nenets language, alphabet and pronunciation

Category:Nenets languages Category:Northern Samoyedic languages