User:Books-are-my-love-language/Enets language

Not to be confused with Nenets languages.

Enets
Онэй база (Onei baza)
Native to	Russia
Region	Krasnoyarsk Krai, along the lower Yenisei River
Ethnicity	260 Enets people (2010 census)
Native speakers	43 (2010 census)
Language family	Uralic Samoyedic (core) Enets–Nenets Enets
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: enf – Forest Enets enh – Tundra Enets
Glottolog	enet1250

Enets is a moribund Samoyedic language of Northern Siberia spoken on the Lower Yenisei within the boundaries of the Taimyr Municipality District, a subdivision of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia Federation. The language is moribund. Around 10 fluent speakers are left; the overall number of potential speakers is less than 40 individuals. All speakers are found in the generation of 50 years and older. Recent local statistics indicate that there are around 260 individuals of ethnic Enets origin. Enets belongs to the Northern branch of the Samoyedic languages, in turn a branch of the Uralic language family.

Dialects

There are two distinct dialects, Forest Enets (Bai) and Tundra Enets (Madu or Somatu), which may be considered separate languages.

Forest Enets is the smaller of the two Enets dialects. In the winter of 2006/2007, approximately 35 people spoke it (6 in Dudinka, 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.

The two dialects differ both in phonology and in lexicon. Additional variation was found in early Enets records from the 17th to 19th centuries, though all these varieties can be assigned as either Tundra Enets or Forest Enets.

Phonological differences:

• In some words, Forest Enets /s/ corresponds to Tundra Enets /ɟ/ (from Proto-Samoyedic *ms, *ns, *rs and *rkʲ).
  • Forest mese — Tundra meɟe 'wind' (from *merse < *märkʲä);
  • Forest osa — Tundra uɟa 'meat' (from *ʊnsa < *əmså);
  • Forest sira — Tundra silra 'snow';
  • Forest judado — Tundra judaro 'pike';
  • Forest kadaʔa — Tundra karaʔa 'grandmother';
• In some words, Forest Enets word-initial /na/ corresponds to Tundra Enets /e/ (from Proto-Samoyedic *a- > *ä-).
• Certain vowel + glide sequences of Proto-Samoyedic have different reflexes in Forest Enets and Tundra Enets.
• Forest Enets word-initial /ɟi/ corresponds to Tundra Enets /i/.

Lexical differences:

• Forest eba — Tundra aburi 'head'
• Forest baða — Tundra nau 'word'
• Forest ʃaru — Tundra oma 'tobacco'
• Forest abbua — Tundra miʔ 'what'

Orthography

Enets is written using the Cyrillic alphabet, though it includes the letters ԑ, ӈ, and ҫ which are not used in the Russian alphabet.

А а	Б б	В в	Г г	Д д	Е е	Ё ё	Ԑ ԑ
Ж ж	З з	И и	Й й	К к	Л л	М м	Н н
Ӈ ӈ	О о	П п	Р р	С с	Ҫ ҫ	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

The written form of the Enets language was created during the 1980s and has been used to produce a number of books. During the 1990s there was an Enets newspaper, Советский Таймыр (Soviet Taimyr) published and brief Enets broadcasts on local radio, which shut down in 2003, served as supplements for speakers.

Morphology

The parts of speech in Enets are: nouns, adjectives, numerals, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, postpositions, conjunctions, interjections and connective particles.

The grammatical number is expressed by means of the opposition of the singular, dual and plural forms. There are three declensions, the main (non-possessive), possessive and desiderative declensions, and seven cases in Enets: the nominative, genitive, accusative, lative, locative, ablative and prolative case. The meaning of those cases is expressed by means of suffixes added to nouns, adjectives, pronouns and substantivized verbs. In their fixed forms they also belong to adverbs and postpositions. The possession is is expressed by means of the genitive case or possessive suffixes.

Local orientation is based on the three-member distribution: the suffixes of local cases of nouns, adverbs and postpositions are divided among the lative (to where?), locative (where?) and ablative (from where?). The prolative case (along what? or through what?) expresses an additional fourth local characteristic.

The verbal negation is expressed by the combination of the main verb with a preceding auxiliary negative verb. The auxiliary verb is conjugated according to general rules, but the main verb is in a special inconjugated negative form. There are also some verbs of absence - non-possessiveness. Six moods are contrasted in the Enets language: indicative, conjunctive, imperative, optative, quotative and interrogative. There are three tenses: aorist, preterite and future.

The category of person with nouns is expressed by means of possessive suffixes, differing in all three numbers of all three persons and used in nouns, pronouns, substantivized verbs, adverbs and postpositions. The category of person with verbs is expressed by means of particular personal suffixes of the verb, differing in all three numbers of all three persons.

There are three conjugations in Enets: subjective, objective and reflexive. These conjugations differ from each other by personal suffixes. Additionally, the objective conjugation uses numerical suffixes, referring to all three numbers of the object. In the case of the reflexive conjugation, the person of the subject and object is the same and a separate suffix indicates reflexivity.

Nouns

Depending on the final sounds of the word stem, nouns can be divided into two groups:

1. nouns with a final sound other than a laryngal plosive stop, e.g. d'uda 'horse'
2. nouns with a final laryngal plosive stop, e.g. tauʔ 'Nganasan'

Either group uses variants of suffixes with a different initial sound (e.g. Loc d'uda-han, tau-kon).

There are seven cases in Enets: the nominative, genitive, accusative, lative, locative, ablative and prolative case. The case suffixes are combined with numeral markers, often in a fairly complex manner.

	Singular	Plural
Nominative	-	-ʔ
Genitive	-ʔ	-ʔ
Accusative	-	-ʔ
Lative	-d/-t	-hi̮δ/-gi̮δ/-ki̮δ
Locative	-hVn/-gon/-kon	-hi̮n/-gi̮n/-ki̮n
Ablative	-hVδ/-gi̮δ/-ki̮δ	-hi̮t/-gi̮t/-ki̮t
Prolative	-on/-mon	-i̮n/-on

The dual case forms are produced on the basis of an uninflected dual form with the suffix -hi̮ʔ/-gi̮ʔ/-ki̮ʔ by adding the respective singular case endings of some postpositions (mainly nə-) in local cases.

Adjectives

There are a number of adjectives that have no specific suffixes, e.g. utik 'bad', sojδa 'good', lodo 'low' and piδe 'high'.

Alongside of these there are various suffixal adjectives, e.g. buse̮-saj ne̮ 'a married woman', bite-δa 'waterless', uδa-šiδa 'handless', mȯga-he 'belonging to the forest', same-raha 'wolf-like', narδe-de̮ 'red', polδe-de̮ 'black'.

An adjective does not agree with the following main word either in number or case, e.g. agga koja 'big sterlet', agga koja-hone (locative), agga koja-hi̮t (plural ablative). As an exception , we can refer to the use of the adjective instead of an elliptical noun and as a predicate in the nominal conjugation.

With the aim of strengthening a possessive connection, sometimes a respective possessive suffix may be added to the main word of an attribute, e.g. keδerʔ koba-δa ŋul'ʔ mujuʔ 'the wild reindeer skin is very strong' ("its-skin of-the-wild-reindeer...").

The comparative degree is formed by means of an adjective in the positive degree (in the nominative form) with the word to be compared in the ablative form.

Numerals

Cardinals

1. ŋōʔ

2. siδe

3. nehuʔ

4. teto

5. sobboreggo

6. mottuʔ

7. seʔo

8. sidiʔeto

9. nēsā

10. biwʔ

11. ŋoʔbodade

12. side bodade

13. nehuʔ bodade

14. teto bodade

20. sidiuʔ

21. sidiuʔ ŋōʔ

30. nehibiʔ

40. tetujʔ

50. sobboreggujʔ

60. motujʔ

70. seʔujʔ

80. siδetujʔ

90. nēsauʔ

100. juʔ

Ordinals

1. orδede̮

2. ne̮kujde̮

3. ne̮hode̮

4. tetode̮

5. sobode̮

6. motode̮

7. se̮ʔode̮

8. siδetode̮

9. ne̮satode̮

10. biwde̮

100. d'urde̮

Other numerals

Collective numerals are formed combining a separate word namely a form e̮š of the auxiliary verb 'to be' with cardinal numerals, e.g. siδe e̮š 'we two, the two of us'.

Distributive numerals are postpositional constructions of cardinals, combined with the postposition loδ, e.g. siδeʔ loδ 'by (in) twos'.

Iteratives are the plural forms of cardinals, e.g. ŋobuʔ 'one time, once'.

Fractional numerals are cardinals that are combined with the word boʔ 'a half', e.g. nehuʔ boʔ 'one-third'.

Temporal numerals are formed from cardinals by means of the suffix -ʔ, e.g. orδede̮ʔ 'the first time'.

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Two-member constructions are used are used in declining personal pronouns. The second member of these constructions is either an independent word stem si- or a postpositional stem no-. The first member may be lacking.

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	modi, mod' 'I'	modiniʔ 'we two'	modinaʔ 'we'
Genitive	mod' siń	modińʔ siδińʔ	modinaʔ siδnaʔ
Accusative	mod' siʔ	modińʔ siδińʔ	modinaʔ siδnaʔ
Lative	mod' noń	modińʔ nońʔ	modinaʔ nonaʔ
Locative	mod' none̮ń	modińʔ none̮ńʔ	modinaʔ nonnaʔ
Ablative	mod' noδoń	modińʔ noδońʔ	modinaʔ noδnaʔ
Prolative	mod' noone̮ń	modińʔ noone̮ńʔ	modinaʔ noone̮naʔ

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	ū 'you'	ūdiʔ 'you two'	ūdaʔ 'you'
Genitive	ū sit	ūdiʔ siδtiʔ	ūdaʔ siδtaʔ
Accusative	ū sit	ūdiʔ siδδiʔ	ūdaʔ siδδaʔ
Lative	ū nod	ūdiʔ nodiʔ	ūdaʔ nodaʔ
Locative	ū none̮d	ūdiʔ nondiʔ	ūdaʔ nondaʔ
Ablative	ū noδod	ūdiʔ noδdiʔ	ūdaʔ noδdaʔ
Prolative	ū noone̮d	ūdiʔ noone̮diʔ	ūdaʔ noone̮daʔ

Case	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	bu 'he/she'	budiʔ 'they two'	buduʔ 'they'
Genitive	bu sita	budiʔ sitiʔ	buduʔ siδtuʔ
Accusative	bu sita	budiʔ siδδiʔ	buduʔ siδδuʔ
Lative	bu noda	budiʔ nodiʔ	buduʔ noduʔ
Locative	bu nonda	budiʔ nondiʔ	buduʔ nonduʔ
Ablative	bu noδda	budiʔ noδdiʔ	buduʔ noδduʔ
Prolative	bu noone̮da	budiʔ noone̮diʔ	buduʔ noone̮duʔ

Other Pronouns

Reflexive pronouns are pairs of words whose first component consists of personal pronouns, the second is a separate word stem ker-, combined with their respective possessive suffixes, e.g. mod' keriń 'I myself', ū kerit 'you yourself', bu kerta 'she herself/he himself' or modiń keriń 'we two ourselves'.

Interrogative pronouns are kurse̮ 'which?', sēa 'who?' (used only for humans) and obu 'what?' (used for animals and lifeless objects).

Negative pronouns are formed from interrogative pronouns by adding the suffix -hȯru, e.g. obuhȯru.

Verbs

The verbs in Enets can be distributed into two groups in principally the same manner as the noun depending on the final sounds of the word stem. Either group uses the variants of suffixes with different initial sounds.

Seven moods are contrasted: indicative, conjunctive, imperative, optative, quotative and interrogative. There are three tenses: aorist, preterite and future. (These tenses exist practically only in the indicative mood.) The verb has three conjugations: subjective, objective and reflexive. These conjugations differ from each other by personal suffixes. In addition to this the objective conjugation uses numerical suffixes, referring to all three numbers of the object. In the case of reflexive conjugation a separate suffix indicates reflexivity.

Finite forms

The aorist is either unmarked or with the marker -ŋV-/-V-. The temporal meaning of the aorist depends on the aspect of the verb. A prolonged or recurrent action should be understood as taking place in the present, a short-time or single action as having taken place in the past, whereas the influence of the latter is still felt in the present. A distinctly past action is expressed by the preterite with the marker -ś/-š/-d'/-t'/-č, whereas the marker is placed after personal suffixes. The future action is expressed by the future marker -d-/-dV-/-t-/-tV- before personal suffixes.

The objective conjugation uses one type of personal suffixes when the object is in the singular and another type of them with the object in the dual or the plural. In the case of the dual object the dual marker -hu-/-gu-/-ku- precedes the dual personal suffixes of the second type, whereas in the case of the plural object, the rise of the stem vowel can be observed. The marker of the reflexive mood is -i-, which is standing before personal suffixes.

Aorist and future

	Subjective conjugation		Objective conjugation		Reflexive conjugation
			Singular object	Dual and plural object
1. Singular	-δʔ		-a, -b	-n	-jʔ, -b'ʔ
2. Singular	-d		-r	-δ	-d'
3. Singular	-		-δa	-δa	-δʔ
1. Dual	-jʔ, -b'ʔ		-jʔ, -b'ʔ	-ńʔ	-ńʔ
2. Dual	-riʔ		-riʔ	-δiʔ	-δiʔ
3. Dual	-hiʔ		-δiʔ	-δiʔ	-hiʔ
1. Plural	-aʔ, -baʔ		-aʔ, -baʔ	-naʔ	-naʔ
2. Plural	-raʔ		-raʔ	-δaʔ	-δaʔ
3. Plural	-ʔ		-δuʔ	-δuʔ	-δʔ

Preterite

	Subjective conjugation		Objective conjugation		Reflexive conjugation
			Singular object	Dual and plural object
1. Singular	-δȯd'		-bȯś	-noś	-nid', bid'
2. Singular	-dȯś		-rȯś	-δȯś	-diś
3. Singular	-sʲ		-δasʲ	-δasʲ	-δȯd'
1. Dual	-bid'		-bid'	-nid'	-nid'
2. Dual	-rid'		-rid'	-δid'	-δid'
3. Dual	-hid'		-δid'	-δid'	-hid'
1. Plural	-bat'		-bat'	-nat'	-nat'
2. Plural	-rat'		-rat'	-δat'	-δat'
3. Plural	-t'		-δȯd'	-δȯd'	-δȯd'

Imperative

The imperative has its own personal suffixes, a distinct mood marker is lacking.

	Subjective conjugation		Objective conjugation		Reflexive conjugation
			Singular object	Dual and plural object
2. Singular	-ʔ		-d, -δ	-nʔ	-δʔ
3. Singular	-j, -b'		-da	-da	-d
2. Dual	-riʔ		-riʔ	-δiʔ	-δiʔ
3. Dual	-giʔ		-diʔ	-diʔ	-giʔ
2. Plural	-raʔ		-raʔ	-δaʔ	-δaʔ
3. Plural	-jʔ, -b'ʔ		-duʔ	-duʔ	-dʔ

Non-finite forms

The marker of the infinitival gerund is -ś/-sʲ/-d'/-t'/-cʲ.

The conjunctive gerund is formed by adding the suffix -buʔ/-bʔ/-puʔ/-pʔ. Adding to it the genitive suffixes of the possessive declension, the conditional is formed.

Enets has several participles, e.g. dire-da 'living', dir-ē 'the one who lived', dire-wda 'the one who has to live', dire-wδaj 'the one who has not lived yet'. Example of use: e̮kke ne̮ dire-wδaj 'the woman has not lived yet'.

Negation

The negation of the verb is formed by conjugating a particular negative auxiliary verb ne- 'not be' while the main verb follows it in a special unchangeable negative form with the marker -ʔ, e.g. e̮kkon ne-δʔ dire-ʔ 'I do not live here'. In case of the imperative, the stem of the negative auxiliary is i-, e.g. i-δʔ ne̮ber-ʔ! 'do not run!'.

There are also other negative auxiliary verbs used in the same manner, e.g. ke̮ti-jʔ sumo-ʔ 'I was very close to falling down'.

There are also verbs indicating absence or inability, e.g. e̮kke d'ahon keδerʔ d'agȯʔ 'there are no wild reindeer at this place' ("... wild reindeer are-absent").

There are also negative particles, e.g. d'agȯ, sēhȯru ni kańʔ 'no, no-one went away', (from Russian) ni, ni, tiker kerhada torse̮ 'no, no, it is just so'.

Aspect

The most common suffixes of the aspect are as follows:

The inhoative -ro-/-lo-, e.g. d'aδu-lo-ś 'to start to walk' (d'aδu-d' 'to walk'). These inhoatives conjugate according to the reflexive conjugation, e.g. d'aδu-lejʔ 'I started to walk', d'aδule̮d' 'You started to walk', d'aδule̮δʔ 'She/He started to walk'.

The durative -gu-/-ku-, e.g. baδa-gu-ś 'to be bringing up'.

The pluralitive -ʔ- or its trace, e.g. to-d' 'to keep coming'. A few pluralitives express an interrupted to-and-from action, e.g. sobusu-d' 'to keep taking out and putting in'.

The cumulative -do-/-to-, e.g. souhu-do-ś 'to keep improving'.

The factitive -δa-, e.g. olasne̮ ēbiʔ ka-δa-biδa 'the sorceress must have killed my mother'.

The frequentative -re-, e.g. minse̮ met pe̮ cʲu-re 'the old woman brought firewood into the tent'.

The intransitive -ta-, e.g. mod' ēhań perδi̮-ta-guaδʔ 'I am being helpful to my mother'.

The finitive -wd'/-od', e.g. met kani te̮hiʔ kaδa-wd' 'he entered the tent to slay two reindeer'.

Peculiarities of verb forms

In the objective conjugation the verb form may, by itself, express both the subject and the object, e.g. kāsa oddoda d'ad ne̮rtaδa 'the man stopped his boat on the bank'.

The other form of the conjuctive, besides the one already described above, is the one in which the suffix -ni- is followed by the personal suffixes of the aorist, whereby its meaning expresses a wish or an urgent appeal, e.g. d'ohoʔ barhoδ meδʔ deδruʔ šimo-ni-δiʔ 'from the river bank towards the tent do run away'.

The auditive form with the suffix -munȯ-/-onȯ-/-ōnu- is very near to an independent mood, expressing an auditively perceived action, e.g. pe̮hon bune̮k maδu-munȯ-δa 'the dog is heard barking outside'.

The pairs of verbs in which the first component (an auxiliary verb) does not conjugate but the second (a main verb) does are widely used, e.g. oŋat' pe̮bi 'he began to eat', d'agȯw, sēhȯru pinȯju kanisʲ lȯδiaδʔ 'no, at night no-one can go'.

Noun conjugation

In Enets, not only verbs can be conjugated. Nouns, adjectives, numerals, pronouns and participles from the substantivized verb forms are conjugated as well. They can occur in the aorist and preterite, however, in the latter only exceptionally.

Aorist

Singular	Plural	Dual
mod' e̮se̮δʔ 'I am father'	modiʔ e̮sejʔ 'the two of us are fathers'	modinaʔe̮se̮ʔ 'we are fathers'
ū e̮se̮d 'you are father'	ūdiʔ e̮se̮riʔ 'the two of you are fathers'	ūdaʔ e̮se̮raʔ 'you are fathers'
bu e̮se̮ 'he is father'	budiʔ e̮se̮hiʔ 'the two of them are fathers'	buduʔ e̮se̮ʔ 'they are fathers'

Preterite

Singular	Plural	Dual
mod' e̮se̮δȯd' 'I was father'	modiń e̮se̮bid' 'the two of us were fathers'	modinaʔ e̮se̮bat' 'we were fathers'
ū e̮se̮dȯsʲ 'you were father'	ūdiʔ e̮se̮rid' 'the two of you were fathers'	ūdaʔ e̮se̮rat' 'you were fathers'
bu e̮se̮sʲ 'he was father'	budiʔ e̮sbat' 'the two of them were fathers'	buduʔ e̮se̮t' 'they were fathers'

Adverbs

The adverbs of place often have four local case forms, e.g. kuoʔ 'to where?', kunne̮ 'where?', kuhoδ 'from where?', kuʔon 'by which way?', tosiʔ 'to down, below', tosin 'down, below', tosiδ 'from below', tosion 'by below'.

A suffix of the adverbs of time is -nȯju, e.g. nara-nȯju 'in spring', otuδ-nȯju 'in autumn', pi-nȯju 'at night'.

The form of the adverbs of manner is often the prolative of adjectives, e.g. piδe-on 'high', d'ore-on 'deep', d'abu-on 'at length'.

Examples of several other forms of the adverbs: teδaʔ 'now', ŋokaδ 'always', purδi̮ʔ 'back', pone 'after'.

Postpositions

The main word of postpositions is usually in the genitive, e.g. pe̮-ʔ irʔ '(to) under the tree', pe̮-ʔ iron 'under the tree', pe̮-ʔ iroδ 'from under the tree', pe̮-ʔ iroon 'through under the tree'. The postposition diun 'about; owing to, because of' has a very broad meaning. Furnished with possessive suffixes the postpositons form a category of postpositional pronouns, e.g. ū diunad d'adularijʔ 'I came late because of you'.

Interjections and connective particles

Common interjections expressing surprise are owʔ and how, expressing regret odejʔ, expressing unpleasant feelings naa, unpleasant surprises amij, when it is too hot nee'.

When using an interjection, the direct address may be provided with a separate connective particle of addresses -jo, e.g. disi̮-jo, kaδa-jo, siδińʔ kosajʔ! 'grandpa, granny, come and take us!'.

At the end of verb forms in exclamatory sentences, we can find the same connective particle -ōw/-ōw- as in interrogative sentences, e.g. kuoʔ d'aδad-ōwʔ d'ad ne̮rtaδ-ōw, or-ōw-ʔ! odaδ-ōw, odaδ-ōw! 'Where are you driving? Make a stop near the bank, eat! I'll eat, I'll eat!'.

Syntax

The syntax of Enets is typical for the language family and the area. The Enets language follows Subject-object-verb (SOV), head marking in the noun phrase, both head and dependent marking within the clause, non-finite verbal forms used for clause combining. Consequently, the finite verb form (the predicate) is always at the end of a sentence. The negative auxiliary verb immediately precedes the main verb. The object of a sentence always keeps to the word it belongs to.

The role of a logical stress is significant: when the logical stress falls on the object, it immediately precedes the verb. When the object is without a logical stress, it may be placed away from the verb.

The place of an adverbial depends on the context of a sentence. The adverbial modifying only the verb immediately precedes the verb. Sometimes and particulary when the adverbial modifies the whole sentence, it may be placed away from the verb. The adverbial follows the verb in the case of inversion, caused by a necessity to once more emphasize what was expressed by the verb.

The adverbial of time is usually at the beginning of a sentence. The common principle states that the modifier is trying to immediately precede the word it modifies, as often the position of the modifier is the only indication about the mutual relationship between the modifier and the word modified.

The regiminal word is usually placed immediately before the verb dictating the regimen, and the object is usually placed nearer to the verb than the adverbial.

The attribute is placed immediately before its main word. This position guarantees its differentiation from the predicate (the predicative, substantially), cf. on the one hand the preposition of the attribute in the sentence te̮čiδa pi 'a frosty night' and the postposition of the predicate (predicative), on the other, in the sentence pi te̮čiδa 'the night is frosty'. Immediately before its main word is the attribute that describes the main word qualitatively, e̮kke pe̮ d'ogȯ mokatabat' 'this wooden trap was set up by us'. From among several qualitative attributes, the one which indicates the material an object is made of is placed in the immediate vicinity of the object.

Quantitative attributes are mostly placed before qualitative ones. The attribute expressed by demonstrative, interrogative and determinative pronouns is placed before the other ones. In the foremost (the farthest away from the main word) position is the possessive attribute. The processual attribute may be placed before the possessive attribute.

In fixed pairs of words, the adjectival attribute may be placed after its main word.

The above described rules also reveal a more concrete position of the subject in a sentence. The subject can be expressed by the nominative of a noun, adjective, pronoun or substantivized verbal form.

Grammar

Enets nouns vary for number, case, and person-number of the possessor. There is also an intriguing nominal case in which ‘destinativity’ determines the entity is destined for someone. Possessor markers are also used for discourse related purposes, where they are completely devoid of the literal possessive meaning. Enets postpositions are marked for person-number; many postpositions are formed from a small set of relational nouns and case morphology.

Phonology

Phoneme Inventory

The following phonemes are combined from all of the different dialects of the Enets languages; Enets (Künnap 1999), Forest Enets (Siegl 2013), Tundra Nenets (Nikolaeva 2014).

Vowels

There are 8 vowel phonemes in Enets:

	Front		Middle		Back
	Non-labial	Labialized	Non-labial	Labialized	Non-labial	Labialized
High	i		i̮			u
Middle	e		e̮			ȯ
Low					ɑ	o

Consonants

There are 25 consonant phonemes in Enets:

	bilabial	dental	palatal	velar	laryngal
plosives	p, b	t, d	t', d'	k, g	ʔ
affricates		č	cʲ
fricatives		s, š, δ	ś, sʲ	h
nasals	m	n	ń	ŋ
laterals		l
trills		r
glides	w		j

1. There is partial or complete vowel reduction in the middle and at the end of a word.
2. Consonants preceding i and e become palatalized.

Stress

The type of stress in Enets is quantitative. Stressed vowels are pronounced relatively longer than unstressed vowels. Based on the available data, the stress is not (as a rule) used as a feature for distinguishing the meaning. The stress in a word usually falls on the first vowel. The primary stress usually falls on the first syllable and is accompanied by a secondary stress, which falls on the third and the fifth syllable. Sometimes the stress distinguishes the meaning, e.g. in mo·di ('I') vs. modi· ('shoulder'). (The primary stress is marked by ·).

Literature

• A. Künnap: Enets. Lincom Europa, München 1999.
• A rare type of benefactive construction: Evidence from Enets. (2014). Linguistics, 52(6), 1391-1431. doi:10.1515/ling-2014-0025
• Haig, G. L., Nau, N., Schnell, S., & Wegener, C. (2011). Achievements and Perspectives. Documenting Endangered Languages, 119-150. doi:10.1515/9783110260021.vii
• Khanina, O. (2018). Documenting a language with phonemic and phonetic variation: the case of Enets. Language Documentation & Conservation 12. 430-460. http://hdl.handle.net/10125/24772
• Khanina, O., & Shluinsky, A. (2008). Finites structures in Forest Enets subordination: A case study of language change under strong Russian influence. Subordination and Coordination Strategies in North Asian Languages Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 63-75. doi:10.1075/cilt.300.07kha
• Khanina, O., & Shluinsky, A. (2013). Choice of case in cross-reference markers: Forest Enets non-finite forms. Finnisch-Ugrische Mitteilungen Band, 37, 32-44. Retrieved from http://iling-ran.ru/Shluinsky/ashl/ChoiceOfCase_2013.pdf
• Mikola T.: Morphologisches Wörterbuch des Enzischen. Szeged, 1995 (= Studia Uralo-Altaica 36)
• Nikolaeva, Irina (2014). A grammar of Tundra Nenets.
• Siegl, F. (2012). More on Possible Forest Enets – Ket Contacts. Eesti ja soome-ugri keeleteaduse ajakiri. Journal of Estonian and Finno-Ugric Linguistics, 3(1), 327-341. doi:10.12697/jeful.2015.6.3.00
• Siegl, F. (2012). Yes/no questions and the interrogative mood in Forest Enets . Per Urales ad Orientem. Iter polyphonicum multilingue, 399-408. Retrieved from http://www.sgr.fi/sust/sust264/sust264_siegl.pdf
• Siegl, Florian (2013). Materials on Forest Enets, an Indigenous Language of Northern Siberia.
• Siegl, F. (2015). Negation in Forest Enets. Negation in Uralic Languages Typological Studies in Language, 43-74. doi:10.1075/tsl.108.02sie
• Vajda, E. J. (2008). Subordination and Coordination Strategies in North Asian Languages. Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 63-73. doi:10.1075/cilt.300
• Болина, Д. С.: Русско-энецкий разговорник. Санкт-Петербург: Просвещение, 2003, 111p. ISBN 5-09-005269-7
• Сорокина, И. П.; Болина, Д .С.: Энецкий-русско и русско-энецкий словарь. Санкт-Петербург: Просвещение, 2001, 311p. ISBN 5-09-002526-6
• Сорокина, И. П.; Болина, Д .С.: Энецкие тексты. Санкт-Петербург: Наука, 2005, 350 p.. ISBN 5-02-026381-8. Online version.
• Сорокина, И. П.; Болина, Д. С.: Энецкий словарь с кратким грамматическим очерком: около 8.000 слов. Санкт-Петербург: Наука 2009, 488p. ISBN 978-5-98187-304-1
• Сорокина, И. П.: Энецкий язык. Санкт-Петербург: Наука 2010, 411p. ISBN 978-5-02-025581-4

External links

• Enets bibliography
• Bibliography on Enets studies
• Linguistic items (Texts, vocabularies, links, ...)
• ELAR archive of Enets language documentation materials
• http://www.siberianlanguages.surrey.ac.uk/summary/

Category:Northern Samoyedic languages Category:Languages of Russia Category:Krasnoyarsk Krai Category:Subject–object–verb languages Category:Endangered Uralic languages