Wikipedia

Kott language

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.[2]

Kott
Kot, Kottish
kottuen
Native toRussia
EthnicityKott, Asan
Extinctearly 19th century
Dené–Yeniseian?
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-3zko
zko.html
Glottologkott1239
Map of pre-contact Yeniseian languages.

Geography

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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.[3]

Etymology

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The term kott may be derived from Buryat qota 'town', applied to neighbouring non-pastoral peoples, including the last few Kotts.[4]

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 variuos 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.[1] 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,[5] and Abriß der kottischen Grammatik.[2]

Phonology

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Vowels

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In multisyllabic words, vowel length is phonemic.

Vowels in Kott[2]
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].[2]

Vajda 2024 gives a different vowel system for Kott, based off of Castrén 1858.[4]

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[5]
Labial Dental Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Laryngeal
Occlusive voiceless 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[2]
Labial Dental Postalveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Laryngeal/
Pharyngeal
Plosive voiceless 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]

Influence from Turkic

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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).[6] At the time of its extinction, it was also loaning words from Russian.

Grammar

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Kott has special end markings to indicate that the noun being described is a hydronym which are -šet/čet.[2][1]

Kott typically uses SVO word order, and is agglutinative.

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[5]
  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)

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Georg, Stefan; Georg, Stefan (2007). Introduction, phonology, morphology. A descriptive grammar of Ket (Yenisei-Ostyak) / Stefan Georg. Folkestone: Global Oriental. ISBN 978-1-901903-58-4.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ "КОТТСКИЙ ЯЗЫК • Большая российская энциклопедия - электронная версия". old.bigenc.ru. Retrieved 2024-06-30.
  4. ^ a b 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
  5. ^ a b c 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.
  6. ^ 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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