Enets language
Encyclopedia
Enets is a Samoyedic
language spoken by the Enets people along the lower Yenisei River
in Krasnoyarsk Krai
, Russia
. There are two distinct dialects - Forest Enets and Tundra Enets - which may be considered separate languages. There are only about seventy speakers in total, with slightly more speaking Forest Enets. Most speakers are middle-aged or older, and all speak Russian
as a second language. It is closely related to Nenets, of which it was formerly regarded as a dialect, and to Nganasan
.
, incorporating the supplemental letters , and .
, 20 in Potapova and 10 in Tukhard, the youngest of whom was born in 1962 and the oldest in 1945). Many of these speakers are trilingual, with competence in Forest Enets, Tundra Nenets
and Russian
, preferring to speak Tundra Nenets.
Samoyedic languages
The Samoyedic languages are spoken on both sides of the Ural mountains, in northernmost Eurasia, by approximately 30,000 speakers altogether....
language spoken by the Enets people along the lower Yenisei River
Yenisei River
Yenisei , also written as Yenisey, is the largest river system flowing to the Arctic Ocean. It is the central of the three great Siberian rivers that flow into the Arctic Ocean...
in Krasnoyarsk Krai
Krasnoyarsk Krai
Krasnoyarsk Krai is a federal subject of Russia . It is the second largest federal subject after the Sakha Republic, and Russia's largest krai, occupying an area of , which is 13% of the country's total territory. The administrative center of the krai is the city of Krasnoyarsk...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
. There are two distinct dialects - Forest Enets and Tundra Enets - which may be considered separate languages. There are only about seventy speakers in total, with slightly more speaking Forest Enets. Most speakers are middle-aged or older, and all speak Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
as a second language. It is closely related to Nenets, of which it was formerly regarded as a dialect, and to Nganasan
Nganasan language
Nganasan language is a language of the Nganasan people...
.
Orthography
Although an alphabet was developed for the Enets language at the end of the 1980s, it has yet to be made official. In spite of this, it has been used to produce three books, including a Russian-Enets student dictionary. Enets is written with an adapted form of the Cyrillic alphabetCyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
, incorporating the supplemental letters , and .
| А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Д д | Е е | Ё ё | |
| Ж ж | З з | И и | Й й | К к | Л л | М м | Н н |
| О о | П п | Р р | С с | Т т | У у | ||
| Ф ф | Х х | Ц ц | Ч ч | Ш ш | Щ щ | ъ | Ы ы |
| ь | Э э | Ю ю | Я я |
Forest Enets
Forest Enets is the smaller of the two Enets dialects. In the winter of 2006/2007, approximately 35 people spoke it (6 in DudinkaDudinka
Dudinka is a town and the administrative center of Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It was the administrative center of Taymyr Autonomous Okrug, which was merged into Krasnoyarsk Krai on January 1, 2007. It is a port in the lower reaches of the Yenisei River,...
, 20 in Potapova and 10 in Tukhard, the youngest of whom was born in 1962 and the oldest in 1945). Many of these speakers are trilingual, with competence in Forest Enets, Tundra Nenets
Tundra Nenets language
Tundra Nenets is a Samoyedic language spoken in northern Russia, from the Kanin Peninsula to the Yenisei River, by the Nenets people. It is closely related to Nganasan and Enets, more distantly related to Selkup and even more distantly to the other Uralic languages...
and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
, preferring to speak Tundra Nenets.
Literature
- Mikola T.: Morphologisches Wörterbuch des Enzischen. Szeged, 1995 (= Studia Uralo-Altaica 36)
- Сорокина, И. П.; Болина, Д .С.: Энецкий словарь с кратким грамматическим очерком : около 8.000 слов. Санкт-Петербург: Наука 2009, 488p. ISBN 978-5-9818730-4-1
- Сорокина, И. П.: Энецкий язык. Санкт-Петербург: Наука 2010, 411p. ISBN 978-5-02-025581-4
External links
- Ethnologue report for Forest Enets
- Ethnologue report for Tundra Enets
- The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire
- Enets bibliography
- Bibliography on Enets studies
- Linguistic items (Texts, vocabularies, links, ...)