Ket Language
Ket is the last remaining language of the Yeniseian language family, indigenous to Siberia, specifically along the Yenisei River. The term "Ket" also refers to the people who speak this language, derived from their word for "person" or "human being." With fewer than two hundred fluent speakers among a population of approximately twelve hundred Ket people, Ket is classified as an endangered language. Historically, the Ket were nomadic, living in isolation until the twentieth century when Soviet policies forced them into closer contact with Russian speakers, leading to a significant decline in the use of their language.
Research has indicated possible ancestral links between the Yeniseian languages, including Ket, and the Na-Dene languages of North America, suggesting a shared linguistic ancestry that may trace back to the Beringia land bridge. Various linguists, particularly in recent decades, have supported this theory through comparative studies of vocabulary and structure. Unfortunately, despite efforts to revitalize Ket through educational initiatives in the late twentieth century, the language's survival remains precarious, with most Ket children now learning Russian as their primary language. The future of Ket, like many endangered languages, is uncertain, with extinction a potential risk if current trends continue.
Ket Language
Ket is the last remaining language of the Yeniseian language family of Siberia, a region of northern Asia. It is also the name ascribed to the group who speaks the language. The name comes from the group's word for "person" or "human being." Alternative names for Ket include Ostyak and Yenisei-Ostyak. Ket is an endangered language; of the roughly twelve hundred remaining Ket people, fewer than two hundred speak the language. Five other similar languages spoken by other groups in the region already have become extinct. Research by linguists in the early twenty-first century has suggested a possible ancestral link between the Yeniseian languages, including Ket, and the Na-Dene (or Na-Dené) languages of North America (Athabaskan, Tlingit, and Eyak). However, further research into this connection is necessary.
History and Classification
The Ket have lived in Siberia since ancient times. They began as nomads who hunted and foraged for food but eventually settled into permanent villages. The Ket had limited contact with other cultures for much of their history. As a result, they developed a unique language, which is rich with words that describe their subarctic forest habitat along the Yenisei River.
Until the twentieth century, Ket remained isolated from the influence of other languages. In the 1930s, however, the Soviet regime forced the Ket to live alongside Russians, and many Ket-speaking people adopted the Russian language. Later, the Soviets required the Ket to send their children to Russian-language boarding schools, and use of Ket continued to decline. The 1980s ushered in a shift toward new educational polices and a Ket-language writing system. The writing system led to the introduction of Ket-language textbooks and courses in elementary schools. By then, however, a large majority of Ket-speaking people had abandoned their native tongue in favor of Russian.
Ket belongs to the Yeniseian language family. Other Yeniseian languages included Yugh (or Yug), Kott, Assan, Arin, and Pumpokol, but most of these became extinct by the mid-nineteenth century. The exception was Yugh, which persisted until the late 1970s before disappearing completely.
In the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, a number of linguists began to recognize similarities between Yeniseian languages like Ket and languages in the Na-Dene language family of North America, which include Tlingit, the now-extinct Eyak, and the thirty to fifty languages collectively called Athabaskan. In 1998, for example, American linguist Merritt Ruhlen identified thirty-six sets of words from various Yeniseian and Na-Dene languages that, despite a massive geographical divide, share similar meanings, spellings, and pronunciations. Ruhlen considers these sets of words evidence of a historical connection between the two language families. Papers published by American linguist Edward J. Vajda in the 2000s and 2010s further support the idea of a shared linguistic ancestry between Yeniseian groups, including the Ket, and Athabaskan-speaking peoples of North America, such as the Navajo and the Apache.
In 2014, two more linguistic scholars, Mark Sicoli and Gary Holton, conducted further studies of Na-Dene and Yeniseian languages and concluded that they are related. Furthermore, they proposed that both could be traced to Beringia, a strip of land that once connected Asia to Alaska but has since been covered by the Bering Sea. Fossil evidence extracted from the seafloor suggests that Beringia once supported a forest environment where humans could have survived and thrived. Sicoli and Holton believe it is possible that Na-Dene peoples migrated to North America from Siberia by way of Beringia or that both Yeniseian and Na-Dene peoples originated in the Beringia region and eventually divided into different groups that traveled in opposite directions toward Siberia and North America.
Mounting evidence of the connection between the two language families has led to the development of a broader classification known as the Dene-Yeniseian (or Dené-Yeniseian) language family, but additional research into this connection is necessary. Unfortunately, many of the languages in the Na-Dene language family and Ket, the only remaining Yeniseian language, are quickly disappearing.
Geographic Distribution and Modern Usage
Scholars believe that the Ket once lived in a wide range across much of central-southern Siberia. Ket legends describe an ancient northward migration. Some stories indicate that the Ket crossed a mountain range—possibly the Altai or Sayan Mountains—in an attempt to elude an invading tribe. In time, the Ket ended up settling along the Yenisei River and its tributaries.
Surviving Ket still live in villages near the Yenisei River. Estimates from census counts and surveys conducted during the early twenty-first century place the number of surviving Ket to be between eleven hundred and fourteen hundred. However, few are able to speak Ket fluently. Despite receiving instruction in Ket in primary school, most Ket children speak Russian as their first language and know little more than a few words of Ket. Even at home, most Ket parents speak Russian to their children. Linguists believe that fewer than two hundred of the world's remaining Ket are able to speak the language with any degree of fluency.
Most place the blame for the rapid decline of Ket on Soviet policies that restricted use of the language throughout much of the twentieth century. Despite the reversal of such policies in the 1980s and 1990s, it is unlikely that Ket will recover. The low number of Ket speakers who actually use the language to communicate today suggests that the language could face extinction in the near future.
Bibliography
"The Ket Language." Endangered Languages of Indigenous Peoples of Siberia. IEA RAS. Web. 10 July 2015. http://lingsib.iea.ras.ru/en/languages/ket.shtml
Ruhlen, Merritt. "The Origin of the Na-Dene." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 95 (1998): 13994–13996. Web. 10 July 2015. http://www.pnas.org/content/95/23/13994.full.pdf
Stromberg, Joseph. "Ancient Migration Patterns to North America Are Hidden in Languages Spoken Today." Smithsonian.com. Smithsonian Institution. 12 Mar. 2014. Web. 10 July 2015. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/ancient-migration-patterns-north-america-are-hidden-languages-spoken-today-180950053/?no-ist
Vajda, Edward. "Vestigial Possessive Morphology in Na-Dene and Yeniseian." Working Papers in Athabaskan (Dene) Languages 2012. Ed. Sharon Hargus, Edward Vajda, and Daniel Hieber. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center, 2013. 79–91. Web. 10 July 2015. https://www.uaf.edu/files/anlc/Vajda‗2013‗Vestigial.pdf
Vajda, Edward J. "The Ket and Other Yeniseian Peoples." East Asian Studies 210 Notes: The Ket. Western Washington University. Web. 10 July 2015. http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/vajda/ea210/ket.htm
Vajda, Edward J. "Loanwords in Ket." Department of Linguistics. University of Oregon. Web. 10 July 2015. http://linguistics.uoregon.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Vajda-Ket-Loans.pdf