Ket language

Not to be confused with Bra–ket notation.

Ket
Yenisei Ostyak
остыганна ӄаʼ
ostɯɣanna qaʼ
Native toRussia
RegionKrasnoyarsk Krai
Ethnicity1,088 Ket (2021)
Native speakers
153 (2020)[1]
Dialects
  • Northern
  • Central
  • Southern
Cyrillic
Language codes
ISO 639-3ket
Glottologkett1243
ELPKet
Linguasphere43-AAA-a
Map of pre-contact Yeniseian languages.
Ket is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
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The Ket (/ˈkɛt/ KET[2]) language, or more specifically Imbak and formerly known as Yenisei Ostyak (/ˈɒstiæk/ OSS-tee-ak[2]), is a Siberian language long thought to be an isolate, the sole surviving language of a Yeniseian language family. It is spoken along the middle Yenisei basin by the Ket people.

The language is threatened with extinction—the number of ethnic Kets that are native speakers of the language dropped from 1,225 in 1926 to 537 in 1989. According to the UNESCO census, this number has since fallen to 150. A 2005 census reported 485 native speakers, but this number is suspected to be inflated.[3] According to a local news source, the number of remaining Ket speakers is around 10 to 20.[4] Another Yeniseian language, Yugh, has recently become extinct.[5][6]

  1. ^ "Росстат — Всероссийская перепись населения 2020". rosstat.gov.ru. Archived from the original on 24 January 2020. Retrieved 3 January 2023.
  2. ^ a b Bauer, Laurie (2007). The Linguistic Student's Handbook. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  3. ^ "UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
  4. ^ "Последний бард последнего народа". Троицкий вариант — Наука (in Russian). 10 September 2019. Retrieved 22 April 2021.
  5. ^ "Yug". Ethnologue. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
  6. ^ Vajda, Edward (19 February 2024), 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 26 June 2024