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
| Nganasan | |
|---|---|
| ня” njaʔ | |
| Pronunciation | [nʲaʔ] |
| Native to | Russia |
| Region | Taymyr Autonomous Okrug |
| Ethnicity | 860 Nganasans (2010 census)[1] |
Native speakers | 416 (2020 census)[2] |
| Dialects | |
| Cyrillic script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | nio |
| Glottolog | ngan1291 |
| ELP | Nganasan |
 | |
 Nganasan is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010) | |
The Nganasan language (formerly called тавгийский, tavgiysky, or тавгийско-самоедский, tavgiysko-samoyedsky in Russian; from the ethnonym тавги, tavgi) is a moribund Samoyedic language spoken by the Nganasan people.
Classification
Nganasan is the most divergent language of the Samoyedic branch of the Uralic language family (Janhunen 1998). There are two main dialects, Avam (авамский говор, avamsky govor) and Vadeyev (Russian: вадеевский говор, romanized: vadeyevsky govor). A part of the vocabulary can be traced to elements of unknown substrate origin, which are roughly twice as common in Nganasan than in other Samoyedic languages like Nenets or Enets, and bear no apparent resemblance to the neighboring Tungusic and Yukaghir languages. The source of this substrate remains a mystery so far.[5]
Phonology
Nganasan has 10[6] vowel phonemes and 21[7][6] consonant phonemes.
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | y | ɨ | u |
| Mid | e | ə | o | |
| Open | ⁱa | a | ᵘa | |
Several disyllabic sequences of vowels are possible:
| High First Vowel | High | Mid | Low |
|---|---|---|---|
| i- | ii | iə | ia |
| y- | yy | yə | ya |
| ɨ- | ɨɨ | ɨə | ɨa |
| u- | uu | uə | ua |
| -i | -y | -u | -ə | -a | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| e- | ei | ey | |||
| ə- | əi | əu | əə | ||
| o- | oi | ou | oa | ||
| a- | ai | ay | au | aa |
The sequences /ⁱai/ and /iu/ also occur, but only across morpheme boundaries.[8]
The vowels /e/ and /o/ only occur in initial syllables.[8][7]
Vowels can be divided two pairs of groups based on harmony: Front /ⁱa e i y/ vs Back /a o ɨ u/, and Unrounded /ⁱa e i ɨ/ vs Rounded /a o y u/. Backness harmony only applies to high vowels.[8]
Front vowels do not occur after initial dental consonants.[6]
/ə ɨ u/ do not occur after initial palatal consonants, having been neutralized into /e i y/.[6]
/ⁱa/ does not occur after palatal consonants, having been neutralized into /a/.[6]
/o/ does not occur after initial labial consonants, having been neutralized into /ə/.[6]
One of the main features of Nganasan is consonant gradation, which concerns the consonant phonemes /h, t, k, s/ alternating with /b, d, g, ɟ/ and their nasal combinations /ŋh, nt, ŋk, ns/ with /mb, nd, ŋg, ɲɟ/.[6]
| Bilabial | Dental/ Alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | c | k | ʔ |
| voiced | b | d | ɟ | ɡ | ||
| Fricative | plain | ð | h | |||
| sibilant | s | sʲ | ||||
| Rhotic | r | |||||
| Approximant | central | j | ||||
| lateral | l | lʲ | ||||
- /h/ is labialized before /a/ and /ə/[8]
- /b/ has the allophone before other consonants, though this can also be analyzed as an "unusual" allophone of /h/[6]
- /ɟ/ has the allophone when not before a vowel[6]
- /d/ is lenited to intervocalically[6]
Orthography
The language's Cyrillic-based alphabet was devised in the 1990s:
| А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Д д | Е е | Ё ё | Ж ж |
| З з | З̌ з̌ | И и | Й й | ˮ | К к | Л л | М м |
| Н н | Ӈ ӈ | О о | Ө ө | П п | Р р | С с | Т т |
| У у | Ү ү | Ф ф | Х х | Ц ц | Ч ч | Ш ш | Щ щ |
| Ъ ъ | Ы ы | Ь ь | Э э | Ә ә | Ю ю | Я я |
| Cyrillic orthography | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| А | Б | В | Г | Д | Е | Ё | Ж | З | З̌ | И | Й | ˮ | К | Л | М | Н | Ӈ | О | Ө | П | Р | С | Т | У | Ү | Ф | Х | Ц | Ч | Ш | Щ | Ъ | Ы | Ь | Э | Ә | Ю | Я |
| а | б | в | г | д | е | ё | ж | з | з̌ | и | й | к | л | м | н | ӈ | о | ө | п | р | с | т | у | ү | ф | х | ц | ч | ш | щ | ъ | ы | ь | э | ә | ю | я | |
| IPA[9] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | b | v | g | d | je | jo | ʒ | z | ð | i | j | ʔ | k | l | m | n | ŋ | o | ᵘa | p | ɹ, ɾ | s | t | u | y | f | x | t͡s | t͡ʃ | ʃ | ʃtʃ | - | ɨ | ʲ | e | ə | ju | ja |
Grammar
Morphology
Nouns
Nouns in Nganasan have the grammatical categories of number (singular, dual, plural), case (nominative, genitive, accusative, lative, locative, elative, prolative, comitative) and possessivity (non-possessive versus possessive forms). Nganasan lacks determiners; however, the possessive forms of second person singular and third person singular can be used to express definiteness (Katzschmann, 2008).