Arin language

Last updated
Arin
Ar
Ara
Native to Russia
Region Yenisei River
Ethnicity Arin people  [ ru ]
Extinct 18th century
Language codes
ISO 639-3 xrn
xrn
Glottolog arin1243
Yeniseian languages map.svg
Map of pre-contact Yeniseian languages.

Arin is an extinct Yeniseian language formerly spoken in Russia along the Yenisei River, predominantly on its left shore, between Yeniseysk and Krasnoyarsk, [1] north of the Minusinsk region. It became extinct in the 18th century. [1] It is classified as belonging to the Arinic branch, being its only attested language. [2]

Hydronyms assocated with Arin have the suffixes -set and -sat (meaning "river") and -kul' (meaning "water"). These hydronyms, along with Khanty folklore telling of an eastern people known as the ar-jäx "Ar people", indicate that Arin may have once been spread out as far west as the Ob. [1] [2]

It is believed that the term Ar or Ara was used by speakers of Arin to refer to themselves.

Etymological analysis suggests that speakers of the Arin language, as with other members of the Yeniseian people, were bilingual in Siberian Turkic languages; for example, the Arin word teminkur (meaning "ore") has been suggested to stem from the Old Turkic compound word *tämir qān (meaning "iron blood"). [3]

The closest known relative of Arin, Pumpokol, has been suggested to be similar to the language of the ruling elite of the Xiongnu, [4] as well as that of the Jie ruling class of the Later Zhao dynasty. [5]

Related Research Articles

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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 basin by the Ket people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleo-Siberian languages</span> Group of languages in Siberia

The Paleo-Siberian languages are several language isolates and small language families spoken in parts of Siberia. They are not known to have any genetic relationship to each other; their only common link is that they are held to have antedated the more dominant languages, particularly Tungusic and latterly Turkic languages, that have largely displaced them. Even more recently, Turkic and especially Tungusic have been displaced in their turn by Russian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yeniseian languages</span> Language family of central Siberia

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ket people</span> Ethnic group in Siberia

Kets are a Yeniseian-speaking people in Siberia. During the Russian Empire, they were known as Ostyaks, without differentiating them from several other Siberian people. Later, they became known as Yenisei Ostyaks because they lived in the middle and lower basin of the Yenisei River in the Krasnoyarsk Krai district of Russia. The modern Kets lived along the eastern middle stretch of the river before being assimilated politically into Russia between the 17th and 19th centuries. According to the 2010 census, there were 1,220 Kets in Russia. According to the 2021 census, this number had declined to 1,088.

The Hunnic language, or Hunnish, was the language spoken by Huns in the Hunnic Empire, a heterogeneous, multi-ethnic tribal confederation which invaded Eastern and Central Europe, and ruled most of Pannonian Eastern Europe, during the 4th and 5th centuries CE. A variety of languages were spoken within the Hun Empire. A contemporary report by Priscus has that Hunnish was spoken alongside Gothic and the languages of other tribes subjugated by the Huns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yugh language</span> Extinct Yeniseian language of Russia

Yugh is a Yeniseian language, closely related to Ket, formerly spoken by the Yugh people, one of the southern groups along the Yenisei River in central Siberia. It was once regarded as a dialect of the Ket language, which was considered to be a language isolate, 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 nonfluent speakers remaining, and the language was virtually extinct. The 2002 Census recorded 19 ethnic Yugh in all of Russia. In the 2010 census, only one ethnic Yugh was counted, also stating their proficiency in Yugh, while in the 2020 census, 7 ethnic Yugh were counted, 2 of them stating that they were speakers of Yugh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dené–Caucasian languages</span> Proposed language family

Dené–Caucasian is a discredited language family proposal that includes widely-separated language groups spoken in the Northern Hemisphere: Sino-Tibetan languages, Yeniseian languages and Burushaski in Asia; Na-Dené languages in North America; as well as Vasconic languages and North Caucasian languages from Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kott language</span> Extinct Yeniseian language of Siberia

The Kott (Kot) language is an extinct Yeniseian language that was formerly spoken in central Siberia by the banks of the Mana River, a tributary of the Yenisei river. It became extinct in the 1850s. Kott was closely related to Ket, still spoken farther north along the Yenisei river. Assan, a close relative, is sometimes considered a dialect of Kott.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pumpokol language</span> Extinct Yeniseian language

Pumpokol is one of the Yeniseian languages. It has been extinct since the 18th century. Along with Arin, it shares many features with the ancient Xiongnu and Jie languages, and according to Alexander Vovin, Edward Vajda, and Étienne de la Vaissière, is closely related to them. It is poorly attested, the only available lexicon amounting to about 65 words, and some of them have been identified as being Yugh, not Pumpokol.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assan language</span>

The Assan language was a Yeniseian language spoken to the south of Krasnoyarsk in Russia. It went extinct in the 18th century. It is similar enough to the Kott language that it can be regarded as a dialect of it, but the Assan identified as a separate ethnicity from the Kotts.

The Yugh people are a critically endangered Yeniseian people, an indigenous group who originally lived throughout central Siberia. The Yugh people live along the Yenisei River from Yeniseisk to the mouth of the Dupches River. The Yughs speak the Yugh language, which is believed to be extinct.

Dené–Yeniseian is a proposed language family consisting of the Yeniseian languages of central Siberia and the Na-Dené languages of northwestern North America.

The Jie language is an unclassified extinct language formerly spoken in northeast China during the Later Zhao dynasty by the Jie people, who were formerly part of the Xiongnu confederation. It has been variously considered to be of either Yeniseian or Turkic affiliation.

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. Many studies about Proto-Yeniseian phonology have been done, however there are still many things unclear about Proto-Yeniseian. 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yeniseian people</span> Indigenous peoples of Central Siberia in Russia

The Yeniseian people refers either to the modern or ancient Siberian populations speaking Yeniseian languages. Despite evidence pointing to the historical presence of Yeniseian populations throughout Central Siberia and Northern Mongolia, only the Ket and Yugh people survive today. The modern Yeniseians live along the eastern middle stretch of the Yenisei River in Northern Siberia. According to the 2021 census, there were 1,088 Kets and 7 Yugs in Russia.

Para-Yeniseian is a proposed group of languages that is considered to be an extinct sister branch of the Yeniseian languages. Para-Yeniseian contains a few extinct languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pumpokolic languages</span> Extinct branch of Yeniseian languages

The Pumpokolic languages form one of the principal subgroups of the Yeniseian languages. All constituent languages are now extinct.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Georg, Stefan (2007). A Descriptive Grammar of Ket (Yenisei-Ostyak). Folkestone, Kent: Global Oriental. ISBN   978-1-901903-58-4.
  2. 1 2 Vajda, Edward (2024-02-19), Vajda, Edward (ed.), "8 The Yeniseian language family", The Languages and Linguistics of Northern Asia, De Gruyter, pp. 365–480, doi:10.1515/9783110556216-008, ISBN   978-3-11-055621-6 , retrieved 2024-06-26
  3. Khabtagaeva, Bayarma (2015). "On the Yeniseian Arin word teminkur 'ore'". Words and Dictionaries: A Festschrift for Professor Stanisław Stachowski on the Occasion of His 85th Birthday: 149–154. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
  4. Vovin, Alexander (2000). "Did the Xiong-nu Speak a Yeniseian Language?". Central Asiatic Journal. 44 (1): 87–104. ISSN   0008-9192.
  5. VOVIN, Alexander; VAJDA, Edward; DE LA VAISSIÈRE, Étienne (2016). "Who were the *Kjet and What Language did they Speak?". Journal Asiatique (1): 125–144. doi:10.2143/JA.304.1.3146838. ISSN   1783-1504.