Proto-Yeniseian language explained

Proto-Yeniseian
Also Known As:	Proto-Yeniseic, PY
Familycolor:	Dene–Yeniseian
Target:	Yeniseian languages
Ancestor:	Proto-Dené–Yeniseian?
Child1:	Proto-Ketic
Child2:	Proto-Pumpokolic
Child3:	Proto-Arinic
Child4:	Proto-Kottic

Proto-Yeniseian or Proto-Yeniseic is the unattested reconstructed proto-language from which all Yeniseian languages are thought to descend from. It is uncertain whether Proto-Yeniseian had a similar tone/pitch accent system as Ket.^[1] Many studies about Proto-Yeniseian phonology have been done; however, there are still many things unclear about Proto-Yeniseian.^[2] The probable location of the Yeniseian homeland is proposed on the basis of geographic names and genetic studies, which suggests a homeland in Southern Siberia.^[3]

Phonology

According to Vajda, Proto-Yeniseian had the following phonemes, expressed in IPA symbols.^[4]

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Labiovelar	Velar	Uvular
Nasal		pronounced as / m /	pronounced as / n /				pronounced as / ŋʷ /	pronounced as / ŋ /
Plosive		pronounced as / p /	pronounced as / t /	č pronounced as /[t͡ʃ]/	tʳ pronounced as /[ʈ]/	pronounced as / c /	pronounced as / kʷ /	pronounced as / k /	pronounced as / q /
		pronounced as / b /	pronounced as / d /	ǰ pronounced as /[d͡ʒ]/	dʳ pronounced as /[ɖ]/	pronounced as / ɟ /	pronounced as / ɡʷ /	pronounced as / ɡ /	pronounced as / ɢ /
Fricative			pronounced as / s /	š pronounced as /[ʃ]/	(*šʳ pronounced as /[ʂ]/)	pronounced as / ç /	pronounced as / xʷ /	pronounced as / x /	pronounced as / χ /
Lateral			pronounced as / ɬ /	pronounced as / tɬ /
Approximant		pronounced as / w /				pronounced as / j /
Rhotic					pronounced as / r /

Vowels

			Back
Close	pronounced as / i / pronounced as / ij / pronounced as / iw /		pronounced as / u / pronounced as / uj / pronounced as / uw /
Mid	pronounced as / e / pronounced as / ej / pronounced as / ew /		pronounced as / o / pronounced as / oj / pronounced as / ow /
Open		pronounced as / a / pronounced as / aj / pronounced as / aw /

Vocabulary

• *xuɬ ‘water’
• *xuše ‘birch tree’
• *am ‘mother’
• *ejn ‘wedge’
• *qed ‘man’
• *bes ‘rabbit’
• *don ‘knife’
• *kus ‘horse’
• *pub ‘son’
• *bus ‘penis’
• *satʳ ‘crucian (fish)’
• *baŋ ‘land’
• *tijk ‘snow’
• *bejx ‘wind’
• *tɬiwdʳ ‘lard’, ‘oil’
• *ɬaɢa ‘star’

Further reading

• ANDERSON . GREGORY D. S. . Yeniseic languages from a Siberian areal perspective . STUF - Language Typology and Universals . 56 . 1–2 . 2003 . 12–39 . 10.1524/stuf.2003.56.12.12.
• Bonmann . S. . Fries . S. . Korobzow . N. . Günther . L. . Hill . E. . 2023 . Towards a New Reconstruction of the Proto-Yeniseian Sound System. Part I: Word-Initial Consonants . International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics . 5 . 1 . 39–82 . 10.1163/25898833-20230037 .
• Fries . Simon . Svenja . Bonmann . The Development of Arin kul 'water' ~ Kott ûl, Ket ¹u·l', Yugh ¹ur and Its Typological Background" . International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics . 5 . 2 . 2023 . 183–198 . 10.1163/25898833-20230044.
• de la Fuente . José Andrés Alonso . Proto-Yeniseian *dïn ~ *dïñ 'Fir Tree' . Central Asiatic Journal . 54 . 1 . 2010 . 12–21 . 41928529. Accessed 19 June 2023.
• Etymological and ethnohistorical aspects of the Yenisei . Juha . Janhunen . Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia (SEC) . 17 . 2012 . 1 . 67–87 .
• Book: Starostin . Sergei A. . Sergei Starostin . Ruhlen . Merritt . Merritt Ruhlen . Proto-Yeniseian Reconstructions, with Extra-Yeniseian Comparisons . On the Origin of Languages: Studies in Linguistic Taxonomy . Redwood City . Stanford University Press . 1994 . 70–92 . 10.1515/9781503622357-006. 978-1-5036-2235-7 .
• Book: Timonina, Lyudmila G. . 2004 . On distinguishing loanwords from the original Proto-Yeniseic lexicon . Vajda . E. J. . Languages and Prehistory of Central Siberia . Current Issues in Linguistic Theory . 262 . 135–142 . 10.1075/cilt.262.07tim. 978-90-272-4776-6 .
• Vajda, Edward. "Losing semantic alignment: from Proto-Yeniseic to Modern Ket". In: The typology of semantic alignment. Eds. Tim Donohue & Soeren Wichman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. pp. 140–161. .
• Book: Vajda, Edward . Edward Vajda . 2022 . Yeniseian Languages . Mid-Holocene Language Connections between Asia and North America . Leiden, The Netherlands . Brill . 246–278 . 10.1163/9789004436824_013. 978-90-04-43682-4 .
• Vajda, Edward. "8 The Yeniseian language family". The Languages and Linguistics of Northern Asia: Language Families, edited by Edward Vajda, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, 2024, pp. 365-480.
• М. В. Филимонов. "Праенисейская падежная система и некоторые проблемы морфологии имени в енисейских языках" [PROTO-YENISSEAN CASE SYSTEM AND SOME PROBLEM OF NOUN MORPHOLOGY IN YENISSEAN LANGUAGES]. In: Вестник Томского государственного педагогического университета, no. 4 (12), 1999, pp. 64-66. URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/praeniseyskaya-padezhnaya-sistema-i-nekotorye-problemy-morfologii-imeni-v-eniseyskih-yazykah (дата обращения: 19.06.2023). (in Russian)

External links

• Proto-Yeniseian reconstructions at Wiktionary

Notes and References

1. Web site: Ket language.
2. Proto-Yeniseian ūr₁'water'. 41928405. de la Fuente. José Andrés Alonso. Central Asiatic Journal. 2006. 50. 1. 3–7.
3. Web site: Yeneseian and Dene hydronyms. 2021-03-08 . 2021-11-20 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211120135541/https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10125/24847/ldc-sp17-10-vajda.pdf . dead .
4. Fortescue, Michael D.; Vajda, Edward J. (2022), Mid-Holocene Language Connections Between Asia and North America, (Brill's Studies in the Indigenous Languages of the Americas, 17), Leiden, Boston: Brill.