Arin language
Arin | |
---|---|
Ar Ara | |
Native to | Russia |
Region | Yenisei River |
Ethnicity | Arin people |
Extinct | 1790[1] |
Dené–Yeniseian?
| |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | xrn |
xrn | |
Glottolog | arin1243 |
![]() Map of pre-contact Yeniseian languages. |
Arin is an extinct Yeniseian language formerly spoken in Russia along the Yenisei River, predominantly on its left shore, between Yeniseysk and Krasnoyarsk,[2] north of the Minusinsk region. However, it has been suggested that the Arin people had historically occupied a larger geographical range. It became extinct in the 18th century.[2]
It is believed that the term Ar or Ara was used by speakers of Arin to refer to themselves.[2]
Geographical distribution
[edit]Hydronyms assocated with Arin have the suffixes -set and -sat (meaning "river") and -kul' (meaning "water"). These hydronyms, along with Khanty folklore telling of an eastern people known as the ar-jäx "Ar people", indicate that Arin may have once been spread out as far west as the Ob.[2][3]
Classification
[edit]It is classified as belonging to the Arinic branch, being its only attested language.[3] The closest known relative of Arin, Pumpokol, has been suggested to be similar to the language of the ruling elite of the Xiongnu,[4] as well as that of the Jie ruling class of the Later Zhao dynasty.[5]
Phonology
[edit]One notable aspect of the Arin phonology is the correspondence of words starting with the word-initial k- and words in other Yeniseian languages that start with a bare vowel. For example, the Arin word kul (meaning 'water') corresponds to the Ket word uˑl’ and the Kott word ûl.[6]
Vowels
[edit]The vowel system in Arin is as follows:[7]
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | ɨ | u |
Close-mid | e | o | |
Open-mid | ɛ | (ʌ)1 | ɔ |
Open | æ | a |
- The sound [ʌ], transcribed as ö, is only attested in the words ögga 'six', qoa-ögga 'sixteen', ögťuːŋ 'sixty', and utqʼöːnoŋ 'ear'.
Lexicon
[edit]Etymological analysis suggests that speakers of the Arin language, as with other members of the Yeniseian people, were bilingual in Siberian Turkic languages; for example, the Arin word teminkur (meaning "ore") has been suggested to stem from the Old Turkic compound word *tämir qān (meaning "iron blood").[8]
References
[edit]- ^ "The ASJP Database - Wordlist Arin". asjp.clld.org. Retrieved 2024-08-04.
- ^ a b c d Georg, Stefan (2007). A Descriptive Grammar of Ket (Yenisei-Ostyak). Folkestone, Kent: Global Oriental. ISBN 978-1-901903-58-4.
- ^ 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
- ^ Vovin, Alexander (2000). "Did the Xiong-nu Speak a Yeniseian Language?". Central Asiatic Journal. 44 (1): 87–104. ISSN 0008-9192.
- ^ VOVIN, Alexander; VAJDA, Edward; DE LA VAISSIÈRE, Étienne (2016). "Who were the *Kjet and What Language did they Speak?". Journal Asiatique (1): 125–144. doi:10.2143/JA.304.1.3146838. ISSN 1783-1504.
- ^ Fries, Simon; Bonmann, Svenja (22 December 2023). "The Development of Arin kul 'water' ~ Kott ûl, Ket ¹u·l', Yugh ¹ur and Its Typological Background". International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics. 5 (2): 183–198. doi:10.1163/25898833-20230044. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
- ^ Werner, Heinrich (2005). Die Jenissej-Sprachen des 18. Jahrhunderts. Veröffentlichungen der Societas Uralo-Altaica. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 978-3-447-05239-9.
- ^ Khabtagaeva, Bayarma (2015). "On the Yeniseian Arin word teminkur 'ore'". Words and Dictionaries: A Festschrift for Professor Stanisław Stachowski on the Occasion of His 85th Birthday: 149–154. Retrieved 13 July 2024.