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Kott language

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The Kott (Kot) language (Russian: Коттский язык) 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.[4] The term kott may be derived from Buryat qota 'town', applied to neighbouring non-pastoral peoples, including the last few Kotts.[5]

Kott
Kot, Kottish,[1] Kott–Assan
kottuen
Native toRussia
Regionoriginally Kan and Biryusa rivers, Agul [ru] in 19th century
EthnicityKott, Asan
Extinct1850s
Early form
Old Kott
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-3zko
zko.html
Glottologkott1239
Map of pre-contact Yeniseian languages.
Kott is classified as Extinct by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010)

Geographical distribution

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Kott was spoken to the southeast of Krasnoyarsk, in the Biryusa and Kan river basins. However, hydronyms indicate a much wider area in the past, ranging from the Uda and Chuna rivers in the east to the Tom in the west.[6]

Documentation

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One of the earliest written records of Kott is in 1791, with the publication of Peter Simon Pallas's Сравнительный словарь всѣхъ языковъ и нарѣчій, по азбучному порядку расположенный, a comparative dictionary of various world languages and dialects. In 1858, Matthias Castrén published the grammar and dictionary (Versuch einer jenissei-ostjakischen und kottischen Sprachlehre), which included material on the Kott and Ket (Yenisei-Ostyak) languages, recording two different dialects of Kott in the 1840s.[2] There also exists two books written by Heinrich Werner [ru; de] about the Kott language, namely Коттский язык (Kottskij jazyk), which includes a 110-page Russian-Kott glossary,[7] and Abriß der kottischen Grammatik.[4]

Phonology

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Vowels

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In multisyllabic words, vowel length is phonemic.

Vowels in Kott[4][7]
Front Central Back
Close i [i] (ɨ [ɨ])1 u [u]
Close-mid e [e] o [o]
Open-mid ɛ [ɛ] ɔ [ɔ]
Open ä [æ] a [a]
  1. [ɨ] is only attested in a few words dated to the 18th century, and can be considered an allophone of [i].[4]

Vajda 2024 gives a different vowel system for Kott, based off of Castrén 1858.[5]

Vowels of 19th-century Kott
Front Central Back
short long short long short long
Close i [i] î [iː] u [u] û [uː]
Mid e [e] ê [eː] o [o] ô [oː]
Open a [a] â [aː]

Consonants

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Consonants according to Werner 1990[7]
Labial Dental Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Laryngeal
Occlusive plain p [p] t [t] tʼ [tʲ] k [k] q [q] ? [ʔ]
aspirated pʰ [pʰ] tʰ [tʰ]
voiced b [b] d [d] dʼ [dʲ] g [g] G [ɢ]
Fricative voiceless f [f] s [s] š [ʃ] x [x] X [χ] ħ [ħ] h [h]
voiced R [ʀ]
Affricate voiceless č [t͡ʃ]
voiced dž [d͡ʒ]
Nasal m [m] n [n] nʼ [nʲ] ŋ [ŋ]
Approximant j [j]
Lateral l [l] lʼ [lʲ]
Trill r [r]
Consonants in Kott according to Werner 1997[4]
Labial Dental Postalveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Laryngeal/
Pharyngeal
Plosive plain p [p] t [t] tʼ [tʲ] k [k] q [q] ʔ [ʔ]
aspirated pʰ [pʰ] tʰ [tʰ]
voiced b [b] d [d] dʼ [dʲ] g [g] G [ɢ]
Fricative voiceless f [f] s [s] š [ʃ] j [j] x [x] χ [χ] h [h]
voiced
Affricate č [t͡ʃ]
Lateral l [l] lʼ [lʲ]
Trill r [r]
Nasal m [m] n [n] nʼ [nʲ] ŋ [ŋ]

Consonants as recorded by Castren 1858 are presented below. Allophones are presented next to their grapheme.

Consonants of 19th-century Kott[5]
Labial Alveolar Palato-alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Glottal
Plosive plain p [p] t [t] tʼ [tʲ] k [k]/[g] q [𐞥χ]/[χ]
aspirated tʰ [tʰ]/[t]
voiced b [b]
Fricative f [f]/[p]/[pʰ] s [s] š [ʃ]/[t͡ʃ] x [x] h [h]/[g]/[k]
Affricate č [t͡ʃ]
Liquid l [l]/[lʲ]
r [r] j [j]/[dʲ] ʔ [ʔ]
m [m] n [n]/[nʲ] ŋ [ŋ]

Grammar

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Kott has special end markings to indicate that the noun being described is a hydronym which are -šet/-čet.[4][2]

Kott is an agglutinative, polysynthetic language which typically uses SVO word order, but can vary depending on situation. It uses suffixes, prefixes and infixes in its verbal inflection, however suffixation is more common than infixation. Personal-subject verbal indicators are usually suffixed to the verb form, and personal-objective indicators are affixed.

Case

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Cases in Kott according to Castrén

Kott has 7 cases. The dative, ablative and locative cases developed from possesed nouns, similarly to Ket and Yugh.

Kott cases in Verner 1990[7]
  singular plural
feminine and

neuter

masculine inanimate animate
Basic -∅
Genitive =i =aː =ŋ =i
Dative =iga =aːʔa =ŋa =iga
Locative =ihaːt =aːhaːt =ŋhaː ~ =ŋaːt =ihaːt
Ablative =ičaŋ =aːčaŋ =nčaŋ =ičaŋ
Instrumental =oː =oː =oː =oː
Comitative =oš (=aš) =oš (=aš) =oš (=aš) =oš (=aš)

Lexicon

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Kott had been influenced by Turkic languages, and had borrowed some words from Turkic languages. For example Kott baktîr- ‘to praise’ comes from Proto-Turkic *paktïr (based on phonetics, likely loaned from Kumandin or Shor), or Kott kolá ‘copper, brass’ comes from Proto-Turkic *kola (of which the source is not phonetically identifiable).[8] At the time of its extinction, it was also loaning words from Russian.

References

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  1. ^ Pulleyblank, Edwin George (1963). "The consonantal system of Old Chinese. Part II" (PDF). Asia Major. 9: 206–265. Retrieved 2011-02-06.
  2. ^ a b c d Georg, Stefan; Georg, Stefan (2007). Introduction, phonology, morphology (PDF). A descriptive grammar of Ket (Yenisei-Ostyak) / Stefan Georg. Folkestone: Global Oriental. ISBN 978-1-901903-58-4.
  3. ^ a b c Fortescue, Michael D.; Vajda, Edward J. (2022). Mid-holocene language connections between Asia and North America. Brill's studies in the indigenous languages of the Americas. Leiden ; Boston: Brill. p. 247. ISBN 978-90-04-43681-7.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Werner, Heinrich (1997). Abriß der kottischen Grammatik [Kott Grammar Outline] (in German). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. p. 13. ISBN 3-447-03971-X.
  5. ^ a b c 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
  6. ^ "КОТТСКИЙ ЯЗЫК • Большая российская энциклопедия - электронная версия". old.bigenc.ru. Retrieved 2024-06-30.
  7. ^ a b c d Verner, G. K. (Г. К. Вернер) (1990). Kottsky yazyk Коттский язык [Kott Language] (in Russian). Rostov-na-Donu: Izdatel'stvo rostovskogo universiteta. ISBN 5-7507-0357-6.
  8. ^ Khabtagaeva, Bayarma (2015). "Some Remarks on Turkic Elements of Mongolic Origin in Yeniseian". Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia. 20 (2): 111–126. doi:10.4467/20843836SE.15.008.2794.
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