Yugh (Yug) is a Yeniseian language, closely related to

Ket Kentucky Educational Television (KET) is a state network of PBS member television stations serving the U.S. Commonwealth of Kentucky. It is operated by the Kentucky Authority for Educational Television, an agency of the Kentucky state governm ...

, formerly spoken by the Yugh people, one of the southern groups along the

Yenisei River The Yenisey (russian: Енисе́й, ''Yeniséy''; mn, Горлог мөрөн, ''Gorlog mörön''; Buryat: Горлог мүрэн, ''Gorlog müren''; Tuvan: Улуг-Хем, ''Uluğ-Hem''; Khakas: Ким суғ, ''Kim suğ''; Ket: Ӄук ...

in central

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part o ...

. It was once regarded as a dialect of the

Ket language The Ket language, or more specifically ''Imbak'' and formerly known as Yenisei Ostyak , is a Siberian language long thought to be an isolate, the sole surviving language of a Yeniseian language family. It is spoken along the middle Yenisei ...

, which was considered to be a

language isolate Language isolates are languages that cannot be classified into larger language families. Korean and Basque are two of the most common examples. Other language isolates include Ainu in Asia, Sandawe in Africa, and Haida in North America. The nu ...

, and was therefore called ''Sym Ket'' or ''Southern Ket''; however, the Ket considered it to be a distinct language. By the early 1990s there were only two or three non-fluent speakers remaining, and the language was virtually extinct. In the 2010 census only one ethnic Yugh was counted.

Notes

References

*Vajda, Edward J., Yeniseian Peoples and Languages : A History of Yeniseian Studies with an Annotated Bibliography and a Source Guide, Curzon Press: 2002 .

External links

Yugh basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
Extinct languages of Asia Languages of Russia Yeniseian languages Languages extinct in the 20th century {{Yeniseian languages stub