The Ket language, formerly known as Yenisei Ostyak, is a Siberian language isolate, the sole surviving language of a Yeniseian language family, spoken along the middle Yenisei Basin by the Kets. Attempts have been made by Soviet scholars to establish a relationship with either Burushaski or the Sino-Tibetan languages, and it frequently forms part of the Dene-Caucasian hypothesis. It has been suggested that Western Siberia be merged into this article or section. ... A language isolate, in the absolute sense, is a natural language with no demonstrable genealogical (or genetic) relationship with other living languages; that is, one that has not been demonstrated to descend from an ancestor common to any other language. ... The Yenisei-Ostyak language family is spoken in central Siberia. ... Енисей Length 5,550 (4,102) km Elevation of the source m Average discharge 19,600 m³/s Area watershed 2,580,000 km² Origin  ? Mouth Arctic Ocean Basin countries Russia The Yenisei basin, Lake Baikal, and the cities of Dikson, Dudinka, Turukhansk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk... Kets (Кеты in Russian) are Siberian people that speak Ket language. ... Soviet redirects here. ... Burushaski is a language isolate spoken by some 87,000 (as of 2000) Burusho people in the Hunza, Nagar, Yasin, and parts of the Gilgit valleys in northern Pakistan and Kashmir. ... The Sino-Tibetan languages form a putative language family composed of Chinese and the Tibeto-Burman languages, including some 250 languages of East Asia. ... The Dene-Caucasian (or Sino-Caucasian) language family is a conjectural macrofamily containing the Sino-Tibetan, North Caucasian, Yeniseian, Basque and Na-Dene languages. ...

The language is threatened with extinction—the number of ethnic Kets that are native speakers of the language has dropped from 1,225 in 1926 to 537 in 1989. Another Yeniseian language, Yugh, is believed to have recently gone extinct. Yugh(Yug) is usually considered to be an extinct language. ...

Documentation

The earliest observations about the language were published by P. S. Pallas in 1788 in a travel diary (Путешествия по разным провинциям Русского Государства Puteshestviya po raznim provintsiyam Russkogo Gosudarstva). In 1858, M. A. Castrén published the first grammar and dictionary (Versuch einer jenissei-ostjakischen und Kottischen Sprachlehre), which also included material on the Kot language. During the 19th century, the Kets were mistaken for a tribe of the Finno-Ugric Khanty. A. Karger in 1934 published the first grammar (Кетский язык Ketskij jazyk), as well as a Ket primer (Букварь на кетском языке Bukvar' na ketskom jazyke), and a new treatment appeared in 1968, written by A. Kreinovich. E. Alekseyenko has written a historical-ethnological treatment of the Kets (Кеты Kety, 1967). Edward Vajda's (2004) monograph Ket, based on the author's original fieldwork in Siberia, is the first modern scholarly grammar of the Ket language in English.^{[citation needed]} 1788 was a leap year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Matthias Castrén Matthias Alexander Castrén (December 2, 1813-May 7, 1853) was a Finnish ethnologist and philologist. ... Kot language (Russian: ) is an extinct Yeniseian language, closely related to Ket, formerly spoken in central Siberia by the banks of Mana River. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

Phonology

Vowels

Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ... A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. ... A close-mid vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. ... The open-mid vowels make a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages. ... An open vowel is a vowel sound of a type used in most spoken languages. ...

Consonants

In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. ... In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lips and the upper teeth, or viceversa. ... Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets) of the superior teeth. ... Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. ... Glottal consonants are consonants articulated with the glottis. ... Palatalization means pronouncing a sound nearer to the hard palate, making it more like a palatal consonant; this is towards the front of the mouth for a velar or uvular consonant, but towards the back of the mouth for a front (e. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... A stop or plosive or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... In phonetics, a voiceless consonant is a consonant that does not have voicing. ... A voiced consonant is a sound made as the vocal cords vibrate, as opposed to a voiceless consonant, where the vocal cords are relaxed. ... An affricate is a consonant that begins like a stop (most often an alveovelar, such as [t] or [d]) and that doesnt have a release of its own, but opens directly into a fricative (or, in one language, into a trill). ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... In phonetics, a voiceless consonant is a consonant that does not have voicing. ... A voiced consonant is a sound made as the vocal cords vibrate, as opposed to a voiceless consonant, where the vocal cords are relaxed. ... The term lateral can refer to: an anatomical definition of direction. ... In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. ...

Ket Alphabet

In 1930's a Latin based alphabet was developed and used:

In 1980's a new, Cyrillic-based, alphabet was created:

Literature

• N. K. Karger, Кетский язык. — Языки и письменность народов Севера. Ч. III, Moscow, Leningrad (1934)
• E. A. Kreinovich, Кетский язык. — Языки народов СССР. Т. V, Leningrad (1968)
• Edward J. Vajda. Ket Prosodic Phonology. (2000) Munich: Lincom Europa Languages of the World vol. 15.
• Edward J. Vajda. Ket. (2004) Munich: Lincom Europa Languages of the World vol. 204.
• E. Vajda, M. Zinn. Morfologicheskii slovar ketskogo glagola : na osnove iuzhno-ketskogo dialekta. = Morphological dictionary of the Ket verb : Southern dialect / E. Vajda, M. Zinn. (2004)

External links

• Ethnologue on Ket
• Kets
• Ket Language
• Endangered Languages of the Indigenious Peoples of Siberia - The Ket Language
• The Ket People - Google Video
• Ket and other Yeneseic Peoples