Status
In 2010 about 40 people claimed to be native Enets speakers, while in 2020, 69 people claimed to speak Enets natively, while 97 people claimed to know Enets in total. Older generation still speaks their language, but education is in Russian and very little of Enets language is taught and the language is almost unused in everyday life.Dialects
There are two distinct dialects, and , which may be considered separate languages. Tundra 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 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 corresponds to Tundra Enets (from Proto-Samoyedic *ms, *ns, *rs and *rkʲ). ** Forest — Tundra 'wind' (from *merse < *märkʲä); ** Forest — Tundra 'meat' (from *ʊnsa < *əmså); ** Forest — Tundra 'snow'; ** Forest — Tundra 'pike'; ** Forest — Tundra 'grandmother'; * In some words, Forest Enets word-initial corresponds to Tundra Enets (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 corresponds to Tundra Enets . Lexical differences: * Forest — Tundra 'head' * Forest — Tundra 'word' * Forest — Tundra 'tobacco' * Forest — Tundra 'what'Phonology
The following phoneme inventories are combined from all of the different dialects of the Enets languages. Uralicist transcription, often used in literature on Enets, is given below the IPA transcription.Vowels
Vowel length is indicated by a macron, e.g. ''ē'' .Consonants
* There is partial or complete vowel reduction in the middle and at the end of a word * Consonants preceding ''i'' and ''e'' become palatalizedStress
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 ·).Orthography
Enets is written using theGrammar
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.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 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:Nouns
Depending on the final sounds of the word stem, nouns can be divided into two groups: # nouns with a final sound other than a laryngal plosive stop, e.g. ''dʲuda'' 'horse' # 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 ''dʲuda-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. The dual case forms are produced on the basis of an uninflected dual form with the suffix ''-hɨʔ/-gɨʔ/-kɨʔ'' 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 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'. The adjective does not agree with its head 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. To strengthen a possessive connection, sometimes a respective possessive suffix may be added to the head 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.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.Syntax
TheVocabulary
Numerals
Collective numerals are formed combining a separate word namely a form ''e̮ʃ'' of the auxiliary verb 'to be' with cardinal numerals, e.g. ''siðe e̮ʃ'' 'we two, the two of us'. Distributive numerals are postpositional constructions of cardinals, combined with the postposition ''loð'', e.g. ''siðeʔ loð'' '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. ''orðede̮ʔ'' 'the first time'.Pronouns
Personal pronouns
Two-member constructions are used to decline 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 absent. : : :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.Bibliography
* * Haig, G. L., Nau, N., Schnell, S., & Wegener, C. (2011). Achievements and Perspectives. ''Documenting Endangered Languages,'' 119-150. * 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. * 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 fromReferences
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