A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
| Enets | |
|---|---|
| Онэй база (Onei baza)[1] | |
| Native to | Russia |
| Region | Krasnoyarsk Krai, along the lower Yenisei River |
| Ethnicity | 260 Enets people (2010 census) |
Native speakers | 69 (2020 census)[2] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:enf – Forest Enetsenh – Tundra Enets |
| Glottolog | enet1250 |
 | |
 Forest Enets is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
Enets is a 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. Enets belongs to the Northern branch of the Samoyedic languages, in turn a branch of the Uralic language family.[5] In 2010 about 40 people claimed to be native Enets speakers, while In 2020, 69 people claimed to speak Enets natively, while 97 people answered to know Enets in total.[6]
Dialects
There are two distinct dialects, Forest Enets (Bai) and Tundra Enets (Madu or Somatu), 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 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.[7]
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';[8]
- 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'[8]
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 ъ | Ы ы |
| Ь 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 a local newspaper with insert in local languages (including Enets language), Советский Таймыр (Soviet Taimyr, modern simple Taymyr) published and brief Enets broadcasts on local radio, which shut down in 2003,[9] served as supplements for speakers.[10]
In 2019, the Enets alphabet was reformed, and in April 2020, the Enets primer was published in a new version of the alphabet. The alphabet contains the following letters:[11]
| А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Д д | Е е | Ԑ ԑ | Ё ё |
| Ж ж | З з | И и | Й й | К к | Л л | М м | Н н |
| Ӊ ӊ | О о | О̂ о̂ | П п | Р р | С с | 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 | ˮ |
Phonology
 | This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: This section should use IPA and provide a key for the non-IPA symbols which are used in all other sections. (July 2021) |
Phoneme Inventory
The following phonemes are combined from all of the different dialects of the Enets languages;
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | ɨ | u |
| Mid | e, ɛ | ə | o, ɔ |
| Low | ɑ | ||
Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | pal. | plain | pal. | plain | pal. | ||||
| Nasal | m | mʲ | n | nʲ | ŋ | ||||
| Stop/ Affricate |
voiceless | p | pʲ | t | tʲ | t͡ʃ | t͡ʃʲ | k | ʔ |
| voiced | b | bʲ | d | dʲ | g | ||||
| Fricative | plain | ð | x | h | |||||
| sibilant | s | sʲ | ʃ | ʃʲ | |||||
| Trill | r | rʲ | |||||||
| Approximant | w | l | lʲ | j | |||||
- There is partial or complete vowel reduction in the middle and at the end of a word
- Consonants preceding i and e become palatalized[12]
Uralist transcription
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| unrounded | unrounded | unrounded | rounded | |
| High | i | i̮ | u | |
| Mid | e | e̮ | ȯ | |
| Low | ɑ | o | ||
Vowel length is indicated by a macron, e.g. ē .