Nganasan language

Nganasan
ня” njaʔ
Pronunciation	[nʲaʔ]
Native to	Russia
Region	Taymyr Autonomous Okrug
Ethnicity	860 Nganasans (2010 census)
Native speakers	416 (2020 census)
Language family	Uralic Samoyedic Nganasan
Dialects	Avam Vadey
Writing system	Cyrillic script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	nio
Glottolog	ngan1291
ELP	Nganasan
Nganasan is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010)

The Nganasan language (formerly called тавгийский, tavgiysky, or тавгийско-самоедский, tavgiysko-samoyedsky in Russian; from the ethnonym тавги, tavgi) is a moribund Samoyedic language spoken by the Nganasan people.

Classification

Nganasan is the most divergent language of the Samoyedic branch of the Uralic language family (Janhunen 1998). There are two main dialects, Avam (авамский говор, avamsky govor) and Vadeyev (Russian: вадеевский говор, romanized: vadeyevsky govor). A part of the vocabulary can be traced to elements of unknown substrate origin, which are roughly twice as common in Nganasan than in other Samoyedic languages like Nenets or Enets, and bear no apparent resemblance to the neighboring Tungusic and Yukaghir languages. The source of this substrate remains a mystery so far.

Phonology

Nganasan has 10 vowel phonemes and 18 consonant phonemes.

Nganasan vowels

	Front		Central	Back
Close	i	y	ɨ	u
Mid	e		ə	o
Open	ⁱa		a	ᵘa

Several disyllabic sequences of vowels are possible:

High First Vowel	High	Mid	Low
i-	ii	iə	ia
y-	yy	yə	ya
ɨ-	ɨɨ	ɨə	ɨa
u-	uu	uə	ua

Non-High First Vowel

	-i	-y	-u	-ə	-a
e-	ei	ey
ə-	əi		əu	əə
o-	oi		ou		oa
a-	ai	ay	au		aa

The sequences /ⁱai/ and /iu/ also occur, but only across morpheme boundaries.

The vowels /e/ and /o/ only occur in initial syllables.

Vowels can be divided two pairs of groups based on harmony: Front /ⁱa e i y/ vs Back /a o ɨ u/, and Unrounded /ⁱa e i ɨ/ vs Rounded /a o y u/. Backness harmony only applies to high vowels.

One of the main features of Nganasan is consonant gradation, which concerns the consonant phonemes /h, t, k, s/ alternating with /b, d, g, ɟ/ and their nasal combinations /ŋh, nt, ŋk, ns/ with /mb, nd, ŋg, ɲɟ/.

Nganasan consonants

		Bilabial	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t	c	k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d	ɟ	ɡ
Fricative	plain		ð			h
	sibilant		s	sʲ
Rhotic			r
Approximant	central			j
	lateral		l	lʲ

• /h/ is labialized [hʷ] before /a/
• /b/ has the allophone [p] before other consonants, though this can also be analyzed as an "unusual" allophone of /h/
• /ɟ/ has the allophone [j] when not before a vowel
• /d/ is lenited to [ð] intervocalically

Orthography

The language's Cyrillic-based alphabet was devised in the 1990s:

А а	Б б	В в	Г г	Д д	Е е	Ё ё	Ж ж
З з	З̌ з̌	И и	Й й	’’	К к	Л л	М м
Н н	Ӈ ӈ	О о	Ө ө	П п	Р р	С с	Т т
У у	Ү ү	Ф ф	Х х	Ц ц	Ч ч	Ш ш	Щ щ
Ъ ъ	Ы ы	Ь ь	Э э	Ә ә	Ю ю	Я я

Cyrillic orthography
А	Б	В	Г	Д	Е	Ё	Ж	З	З̌	И	Й	ˮ	К	Л	М	Н	Ӈ	О	Ө	П	Р	С	Т	У	Ү	Ф	Х	Ц	Ч	Ш	Щ	Ъ	Ы	Ь	Э	Ә	Ю	Я
а	б	в	г	д	е	ё	ж	з	з̌	и	й	ˮ	к	л	м	н	ӈ	о	ө	п	р	с	т	у	ү	ф	х	ц	ч	ш	щ	ъ	ы	ь	э	ә	ю	я
IPA
a	b	v	g	d	je	jo	ʒ	z	ð	i	j	ʔ	k	l	m	n	ŋ	o	ᵘa	p	ɹ, ɾ	s	t	u	y	f	x	t͡s	t͡ʃ	ʃ	ʃtʃ	-	ɨ	ʲ	e	ə	ju	ja

Grammar

Morphology

Nouns

Nouns in Nganasan have the grammatical categories of number (singular, dual, plural), case (nominative, genitive, accusative, lative, locative, elative, prolative, comitative) and possessivity (non-possessive versus possessive forms). Nganasan lacks determiners; however, the possessive forms of second person singular and third person singular can be used to express definiteness (Katzschmann, 2008).

Case suffixes in Nganasan

	Sg	Dual	Plural
Nominative	Ø	-KƏJ	-"
Accusative	Ø ~ (-M)	-KI	-J
Genitive	Ø ~ (-Ŋ)	-KI	-"
Dative	-NTƏ	-	-NTI-"
Locative	-NTƏ-NU	-	-NTI-NU
Ablative	-KƏ-TƏ	-	-KI-TƏ, ~KI-TI-"
Prolative	-MƏ-NU	-	-"-MƏ-NU

Pronouns

Nganasan has personal, demonstrative, interrogative, negative and determinative pronouns. Personal pronouns are not inflected: their grammatical case forms coincide and their local case forms are expressed by the corresponding possessed forms of the postposition na-. Other pronouns are inflected like nouns (Helimski, 1998).

Personal pronouns and pronominal forms

	Nom, Gen, Acc	Lative	Locative	Elative	Prolative	Personal pronouns + clitics	Personal emphatic pronouns
Sg1	mənə	nanə	nanunə	nagətənə	namənunə	mɨlʲianə	ŋonənə
Sg2	tənə	nantə	nanuntə	nagətətə	namənuntə	tɨlʲiatə	ŋonəntə
Sg3	sɨtɨ	nantu	nanuntu	nagətətu	namənuntu	sɨlʲiatɨ	ŋonəntu
Du1	mi	nani	nanuni	nagətəni	namənuni	mɨlʲiani	ŋonəni
Du2	ti	nandi	nanunti	nagətəndi	namənundi	tɨlʲiati	ŋonənti
Du3	sɨti	nandi	nanunti	nagətəndi	namənundi	sɨlʲiati	ŋonənti
Pl1	mɨŋ	nanuʔ	nanunuʔ	nagətənuʔ	namənunuʔ	mɨlʲianɨʔ	ŋonənuʔ
Pl2	tɨŋ	nanduʔ	nanuntuʔ	nagətənduʔ	namənunduʔ	tɨlʲiatiʔ	ŋonəntuʔ
Pl3	sɨtɨŋ	nanduŋ	nanuntuŋ	nagətənduŋ	namənunduŋ	sɨlʲiatɨŋ	ŋonəntuŋ

Verbs

Verbs agree with their subjects in person and number, and have three conjugation types. Like other Samoyedic languages, Nganasan has the opposition of perfective and imperfective verbs.

Conjugation

The subjective conjugation is used when there is no object or the object is focused. The objective conjugation is used with transitive words. The reflexive conjugation is used for some intransitive verbs. Each conjugation type has its own personal endings. There are three subtypes of objective conjugation endings that correspond to object number.

	Subjective	Objective			Objectless
		singular object	dual object	plural object
1Sg	-m	-mə	-kəi-j-nə	-j-nə	-nə
2Sg	-ŋ	-rə	-kəi-j-tə	-j-tə	-ŋ
3Sg	ø	-tu	-kəi-j-tu	-j-tu	-ʔ or -tə
1Du	-mi	-mi	-kəi-j-ni	-j-ni	-ni
2Du	-ri	-ri	-kəi-j-ti	-j-ti	-nti
3Du	-kəj	-ði	-kəi-j-ti	-j-ti	-nti
1Pl	-muʔ	-muʔ	-kəi-j-nuʔ	-j-nuʔ	-nuʔ
2Pl	-ruʔ	-ruʔ	-kəi-j-tu	-j-tu	-ntuʔ
3Pl	-ʔ	-tuŋ	-kəi-j-tuŋ	-j-tuŋ	-ntəʔ

Mood

Nganasan has a broad mood paradigm with nine forms: indicative, imperative, interrogative, inferential, renarrative, irrealis, optative, admissive-cohortive, debitive, abessive and prohibitive. Mood forms are mostly built with the help of affixation but special particles are also sometimes used. All mood forms, except the imperative, have the same personal suffixes. Tenses are distinguished in the indicative, imperative and interrogative moods (Tereščenko, 1979).

Aspect and tense

Most corresponding imperfective and perfective stems have the same root, but in rare cases the roots can be different. The aspectual opposition between imperfective and perfective verbs remains semantic in most verbal forms. However, in the indicative mood it is used to express present continuous and present perfect meanings, respectively. In this case, the opposition is present formally: imperfective verbs take imperfective suffixes and the perfective ones have the perfective suffixes (Helimski, 1998). Imperfective verbs can also express future meanings. These forms are not considered tense in the strict sense. The proper tense forms of past and future include past, past perfect, future, future-in-the past (Katzschmann, 2008).

Non-finite verb forms

Participles

	Formation	Example
Present participle	S1'-NTUə(-NCx)(-Px)	koðutuə "which was killed ~ which has been killed"
Preterite participle	S1-SUə-Dʲəə(-NCx)(-Px)	kotudʲüədʲəə "which killed ~ which was killed"
Future participle	S1'-ʔSUTə(-NCx)(-Px)	koðuʔsutə "which will kill ~ which will be killed"
Future-in-the-past participle	S1'-ʔSUTə-Dʲəə(-NCx)(-Px	koðuʔsutədʲəə "which was to kill ~ which will be killed"
Abessive participle	S1-MəTUMA̩ʔ(-NCx)(-Px)	kotumətumaʔa "which has not killed ~ which has not been killed"
Preterite abessive participle	S1-MəTUMA̩ʔA̩̥-Dʲəə(-NCx)(-Px)	kotumətumaʔdʲəə "which did not kill ~ which was not killed"
Passive participle	S1-Məə(-NCx)(-Px)	kotuməə "killed"
Preterite passive participle	S1-Məə-Dʲəə(-NCx)(-Px)	kotuməədʲəə "which was killed"

Verbal adverbs

	Formation	Example
Verbal adverb	S1-SA	kotudʲa 'having killed', nʲisɪ̈ kotudʲa "having not killed"
Verbal adverb of immediate precedence	S1-KAJ-SA	kotugasʲa "having just killed"
Conditional-temporal verbal adverb	S1-HÜʔ(-Px4)	kotubüʔ "(if ~ when) to kill', kotubɪ̈nə 'if ~ when I kill", etc.
Preterite temporal verbal adverb	S1-HÜʔ-ə(-Cx))-Px)	kotubüʔə "when killed', kotubüʔəmə "when I killed", etc.
Future conditional verbal adverb	S1-HÜʔ-NÜ-Px2	kotubününə "if I will kill"

Verbal nouns

	Formation	Example
Imperfective verbal noun	S1-MUN(-Cx)(-Px)	kotumu sG kotumunə hireə "worth killing" sLat niimsiəm kotomundə "I was afraid to kill" sEla + s1 kotumu(ng)ətənə "so that I do not kill", etc.
Perfective verbal noun	(S3/S1')-ʔMUə(-Cx)(-Px)	koðaʔmuə ~ koðuʔmuə sLoc + s1 koðaʔmuəntənunə "where I killed", etc.
Preterite verbal noun	S1'-NTU(-Cx)(-Px)	koðutu sLat koðutundə "when killed" koðutundənə "when I killed"
Supine	S1'-NAKə(-Px2)	kotunakə s3 kotunagətu "in order that he killed", etc.

Syntax

Word order

The dominating word order in Nganasan is SOV, similar to other Samoyedic languages. However, Nganasan is considered to exhibit more freedom in word order than other languages of its group. According to Tereščenko (1979), other types of word orders are used for shifting the sentence focus, especially in emphatic speech. The focused constituent usually immediately precedes the verb. Wagner-Nagy (2010) suggests that Nganasan is similar to Hungarian in its behavior, in that its word order is determined by pragmatic factors rather than being fixed.

On the phrase level, the attributes within the noun phrase usually precede the noun and become focused when placed after it. Numerals and adjectives agree with the heads in case, and adjectives also agree with the head in number. The case agreement is only complete in grammatical cases; in locative cases the attribute gets genitive form. There are no prepositions in Nganasan, postpositions are composite parts of words and also require the attributes in genitive cases. Possession is expressed with genitive construction or by a possessive suffix attached to the possessed (Helimski, 1998; Katzschmann, 2008).

Nganasan is a pro-drop language: pronominal subjects are often omitted when the verb conjugation type is subjective (Tereščenko, 1979).

Negation

Standard negation is expressed by negative auxiliary (ńi-) followed by the main verb in connegative form marked with ʔ, e.g. ńi-ndɨ-m konɨʔ "I do not go". All inflectional markers are taken by the negation auxiliary (Gusev, 2015). Objects in the form of personal, negative or demonstrative pronouns can be inserted between the negative auxiliary and the main verb (Wagner-Nagy, 2011). There are a few negative verbs other than ni-, such as kasa — "nearly", ləði — "vainly", əku — "maybe", and ŋuəli — "of course", but their functionality is restricted, with only ni- having a full paradigm.

Existential sentences are negated with the negative existential predicate d'aŋku or its derivative stem d'anguj-. D'aŋku can only be used in present indicative as it behaves like a noun: it takes nominal predicative endings. D'anguj- (a composite of d'aŋku and ij- "be") is used for all other tense/mood combinations.

Subordination

Subordination is typically formed by constructions with non-finite verbal forms. Such constructions are usually placed before the constituents they modify. The relative construction is always placed immediately before the modified constituent, whereas other types of constructions allow other constituents to interfere. The word order in such construction is the same as in simple sentences (Tereščenko, 1973).

Coordination

Coordination is most often achieved by means of intonation. Sometimes pronominal and adverbial derivatives can be used as conjunctions. For example, adverb ŋonə 'also' can be used as conjunction. The category of conjunctions may be undergoing formation under the influence of Russian (Tereščenko, 1973).

Literature

• Gusev, V. (2015) Negation in Nganasan. In Miestamo, M., Tamm, A., Wagner-Nagy, B. (ed.) Negation in Uralic Languages, 103–312. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 9789027268648
• Helimski, Eugene. (1998) Nganasan. In Abondolo, Daniel (ed.), The Uralic Languages, 480–515. London: Routledge.
• Katzschmann, M. (2008) Chrestomathia Nganasanica: Texte – Übersetzung – Glossar – Grammatik, Norderstedt.
• Kortt, I. R.; Simčenko, Ju. B. (1985). Wörterverzeichnis der Nganasanischen Sprache. Berlin: Systemata Mundi. ISBN 3-925500-00-6.
• Tereščenko, N.M. (1986) Алфавит нганасанского языка, in Skorik P.A. (ed.), Палеоазиатские языки, Leningrad: Nauka.
• Tereščenko, N.M. (1979) Нганасанский язык, Leningrad: Nauka.
• Tereščenko, N.M. (1973) Синтакс самодийских языков, Leningrad: Nauka.
• Wagner-Nagy, B. (2002) Chrestomathia Nganasanica. (Studia Uralo-Altaica : Supplementum 10) Szeged. ISBN 963-482-588-5
• Wagner-Nagy, B. (2010) Existential and possessive predicate phrases in Nganasan. In Gusev, V. and Widmer, A., Finnisch-Ugrische Mitteilungen, 32/33. Hamburg: Buske.
• Wagner-Nagy, B. (2011) On the typology of negation in Ob-Ugric and Samoyedic languages (MSFOu 262). Helsinki: SUS

External links

• Endangered Languages of Indigenous Peoples of Siberia: The Nganasan Language
• The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire: The Nganasans
• Comparative Nenets–Nganasan dictionary (with Russian and English equivalents)
• Nganasan multimedia dictionary
• German–Nganasan glossary
• Nganasanica