Russia is a multinational country. It is not surprising that among the peoples inhabiting it, many surprising, little studied and archaic in nature languages coexist. Ethnic culture in its various manifestations, including linguistic ones, is best preserved by the northern regions. Siberia is no exception. One of the languages of the local indigenous people is Ket.
Basic language information
The first thing that needs to be said about him is that the Ket language belongs to the Yenisei language family. This fact is so simple, but at the same time almost unbelievable, since today Ket is the last representative of this language family. More recently, his brother lived - the Yugian language. However, now he has disappeared, and the Ket himself is on the verge of extinction.
Despite the fact that the family of the Ket language, it would seem, was determined quite confidently, a number of scientists made attempts to trace its relationship with other languages. For example, with the languages of the inhabitants of Tibet, and with the dialects of the North Indians; however, their attempts crashed.
The Ket language is spoken in the territory of the Yenisei River basin, namely in a small area of the Krasnoyarsk Territory.
Chum salmon
One can not help but say a few words about Kets, a nationality whose representatives are the main carriers of the Ket language.
In ethnography, they are often called Ostyaks or Yeniseis, the word "ket" is a kind of both a name and a self-name, since in ket, the word "ket" means a person.
According to 2010 data, the number of chum salmon in Russia is only about 1,200 people. Of these, almost all live in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. In the modern study of a particular nationality, it is also important to determine the paths of its origin. So, about Kets it is known that the community of their ancestors originated in the southern part of the interfluve of the Ob and Yenisei. In themselves, they combine both Siberian Caucasoid and ancient Caucasoid roots.
Before the Russians mastered Siberia, chum salmon, although they also existed in a tribal system, already owned the art of metallurgy. They became part of Russia at the beginning of the 17th century. From time immemorial, their main occupation has been hunting, fishing, and also raising livestock (including deer).
The original religion of the Kets does not have a specific name, although it can be defined as based on animism. The world, in their mythological representation, is divided into three spheres, and the space around is inhabited by many spirits of a different nature. There is a supreme deity Es - good, his wife Hosedem - evil.
With the advent of Russian chum, Russian chum begin to adopt Orthodox Christianity.
Study history
The first mention of this language was documented at the end of the 18th century: in 1788, in travel notes by P. Pallas. Since then, over the course of several centuries, a number of scientific and practical manuals on the Ket language have been published, revealing its history, features of structure and existence. In particular, the most outstanding works should be noted. The first among them can be considered the grammar and vocabulary of the Ket language, published by the Russian philologist M. Castren.
However, this did not stop the interest in language - in the Soviet years it only flared up more strongly. So, in the 1960s, several ethnographic and cultural studies expeditions were organized to the areas where the Ket language was used. Among the participants of the expedition were such famous domestic scientists and researchers as V.N. Toporov, as well as B.A. Assumption.
Features
Many of the features of the Ket language for a native speaker of the Russian language may seem at least strange. So, for example, most of the meanings in a verb are highlighted not only with the usual prefixes (prefixes), much more rare than in Russian, suffixes, but also with the use of so-called infixes (morpheme inserted in the middle of the root of the word)!
Also among the linguistic features, it is possible to note the coexistence of such qualities of the language as the presence of contrasting phonemes in hardness and softness, as well as tone differences (up to five - depends on the dialect).
Ket alphabet
In the 1930s, a certain alphabet based on the Latin alphabet was compiled for the Ket language. However, in the 1980s he was replaced by a new one - based on the Cyrillic alphabet, which in writing makes it a bit like Russian (a deceptive similarity!). Despite the fact that 17 more letters are distinguished in the educational literature, here is what the basic, accepted Ket alphabet looks like now:
Ket language today
As mentioned above, the fate of this language, like many other isolated languages of small ethnic groups, is rather sad. Today he is threatened with extinction.
The main function of its application today remains the crafts of indigenous peoples. Although in colloquial speech even among carriers, including the elderly, it is used rather sluggishly and reluctantly. Almost no children are taught him. Like many national languages, this one is often used in the presence of people who do not know it, in order to hide the subject of conversation from them, to discuss secret or personal matters.