Assan language
{{short description|Yeniseian language}}{{Infobox language
| iso1 =
| iso2 =
| iso3 = xss
| ietf = xss
| name = Assan
| familycolor = Dene-Yeniseian
| extinct = 1790
| fam1 = Dené–Yeniseian?
| fam2 = Yeniseian
| fam3 = Kottic
| iso3comment = (merged into {{ISO 639|zko}} zko)
| region = Krasnoyarsk Krai
| states = Russia
| ethnicity = Asan people
| linglist = xss
| glotto = assa1266
| glottoname = (retired)
| nativename = {{lang|zko|kottuen}}
| map = File:Yeniseian_languages_map.svg
| mapcaption = Map of pre-contact Yeniseian languages.
}}
Assan ({{langx|ru|Ассанский язык}}) is an extinct Yeniseian language spoken to the south of Krasnoyarsk in Russia. It went extinct in the 18th century. It is similar enough to the Kott language that it can be regarded as a dialect of it, but the Assan identified as a separate ethnicity from the Kotts.{{Citation |last=Vajda |first=Edward |title=8 The Yeniseian language family |date=2024-02-19 |work=The Languages and Linguistics of Northern Asia |pages=365–480 |editor-last=Vajda |editor-first=Edward |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110556216-008/html |access-date=2024-06-26 |publisher=De Gruyter |doi=10.1515/9783110556216-008 |isbn=978-3-11-055621-6|url-access=subscription }}
Before its extinction, in 1735-1740, there were two to three speakers of Assan.{{Cite web |title=Исчезающие народы/языки: Ассаны, Ассанский (Assan) {{!}} СМДО КубГУ |url=https://moodle.kubsu.ru/mod/folder/view.php?id=8832&forceview=1 |access-date=2025-01-01 |website=moodle.kubsu.ru}}
Classification
It has been difficult to properly classify the Yeniseian languages into a larger family. It is only recently that a possible link to the Na-Dené languages, a family of Indigenous language of the Americas spoken in Alaska, Western Canada and the southwestern United States, was suggested by Heinrich Werner. According to this argument, the Yeniseian and Na-Dené languages form two branches of an ancient family represented on both sides of the Bering Strait: the Dené–Yeniseian languages.{{Cite book |last=Werner |first=Heinrich |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dNjiDojHafUC |title=Zur jenissejisch-indianischen Urverwandtschaft |date=2004 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=978-3-447-04896-5 |language=de}}
Assan itself was very close to Kott, another extinct Yeniseian language, such that Assan is usually represented as a dialect of Kott.{{Cite web |title=Glottolog 5.0 - Assan |url=https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/assa1266 |access-date=2024-04-22 |website=glottolog.org}}{{Cite web |title=2022-010 {{!}} ISO 639-3 |url=https://iso639-3.sil.org/request/2022-010 |access-date=2024-04-22 |website=iso639-3.sil.org}}{{Cite book |last=Fortescue |first=Michael D. |url=https://brill.com/display/title/58384?language=en |title=Mid-holocene language connections between Asia and North America |last2=Vajda |first2=Edward J. |date=2022 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-90-04-43681-7 |series=Brill's studies in the indigenous languages of the Americas |location=Leiden ; Boston}} However, due to its poor attestation, its status is unclear.{{Cite book |last1=Georg |first1=Stefan |title=Introduction, phonology, morphology |last2=Georg |first2=Stefan |date=2007 |publisher=Global Oriental |isbn=978-1-901903-58-4 |series=A descriptive grammar of Ket (Yenisei-Ostyak) / Stefan Georg |location=Folkestone}}
Phonology
= Vowels =
= Consonants =
| class="wikitable" border="1" style="text-align:center;"
! colspan="3" | |
| rowspan="3" |Plosive
! rowspan="2" |{{Small|voiceless}} !{{Small|plain}} |{{IPAlink|p}} |{{IPA link|t}} |({{IPA link|tʲ}}) |{{IPA link|k}} |{{IPA link|q}} |({{IPA link|ʔ}}) |
|---|
| aspirated
|({{IPA link|pʰ}}) |({{IPA link|tʰ}}) | | | | |
| colspan="2" |{{Small|voiced}}
|{{IPA link|b}} |{{IPA link|d}} |({{IPA link|dʲ}}) |{{IPA link|g}} |{{IPA link|ɢ}} | |
| rowspan="2" |Fricative
! colspan="2" |voiceless | |({{IPA link|s}}) |{{IPA link|ʃ}} |{{IPA link|x}} |{{IPA link|χ}} |{{IPA link|h}} |
| colspan="2" |voiced
|({{IPA link|v}}) | | | | | |
| rowspan="2" |Affricate
! colspan="2" |voiceless | | |{{IPA link|t͡ʃ}} | | | |
| colspan="2" |voiced
| | |{{IPA link|d͡ʒ}} | | | |
| colspan="3" |Nasal
|{{IPA link|m}} |{{IPA link|n}} | |{{IPA link|ŋ}} | | |
| colspan="3" |Lateral
| |{{IPA link|l}} | | | | |
| colspan="3" |Approximant
| | |{{IPA link|j}} | | | |
| colspan="3" |Trill
| |{{IPA link|r}} | | | | |
Notes and references
Sources
- (ru) Г.К. Вернер (Heinrich Werner), Енисейскиe языки, dans Языки Мира, Палеоазиатские Языки, pp. 169-177, Moscou, Izd. Indrik, 1997 {{ISBN|5-85759-046-9}}.
- (ru) Г.С. Старостин, К.Ю. Решетников, Кетский сборник. Лингвистика, Moscou, Vostotchnaya Literatura RAN, 1995 {{ISBN|5-88766-023-6}}.
{{Yeniseian languages}}
{{Paleosiberian languages}}