Assan language

Assan
Assan
kottuen
Native to	Russia
Region	Krasnoyarsk Krai
Ethnicity	Asan people
Extinct	1790
Language family	Dené–Yeniseian? Yeniseian Kottic Assan; ; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	xss (retired)
Linguist List	xss
Glottolog	assa1266 (retired)
IETF	xss
	Map of pre-contact Yeniseian languages.

The Assan language (Russian: 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.^[2]

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.^[3]

Assan itself was very close to Kott, another extinct Yeniseian language, such that Assan is usually represented as a dialect of Kott.^[4]^[5]^[6] However, due to its poor attestation, its status is unclear.^[7]

Phonology

Vowels

Vowels of Assan^[8]
	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ	u
Close-mid	e		o
Open-mid	ɛ	(ʌ)	ɔ
Open	æ	a

Consonants

Consonants of Assan^[8]
			Labial	Dental	Palatal/ Postalveolar	Velar	Uvular	Laryngeal/ Pharyngeal
Plosive	voiceless	plain	p	t	(tʲ)	k	q	(ʔ)
	voiceless	aspirated	(pʰ)	(tʰ)
	voiced		b	d	(dʲ)	g	ɢ
Fricative	voiceless			(s)	ʃ	x	χ	h
Fricative	voiced		(v)
Affricate	voiceless				t͡ʃ
Affricate	voiced				d͡ʒ
Nasal			m	n		ŋ
Lateral				l
Approximant					j
Trill				r

Notes and references

^ "The ASJP Database - Wordlist Assan". asjp.clld.org. Retrieved 2024-08-04.
^ 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
^ Werner, Heinrich (2004). Zur jenissejisch-indianischen Urverwandtschaft (in German). Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-447-04896-5.
^ "Glottolog 5.0 - Assan". glottolog.org. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
^ "2022-010 | ISO 639-3". iso639-3.sil.org. Retrieved 2024-04-22.
^ Fortescue, Michael D.; Vajda, Edward J. (2022). Mid-holocene language connections between Asia and North America. Brill's studies in the indigenous languages of the Americas. Leiden ; Boston: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-43681-7.
^ 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.
^ ^a ^b Werner, Heinrich (2005). Die Jenissej-Sprachen des 18. Jahrhunderts. Veröffentlichungen der Societas Uralo-Altaica. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 978-3-447-05239-9.

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.

[1] "The ASJP Database - Wordlist Assan". asjp.clld.org. Retrieved 2024-08-04.

[2] 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

[3] Werner, Heinrich (2004). Zur jenissejisch-indianischen Urverwandtschaft (in German). Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-447-04896-5.

[4] "Glottolog 5.0 - Assan". glottolog.org. Retrieved 2024-04-22.

[5] "2022-010 | ISO 639-3". iso639-3.sil.org. Retrieved 2024-04-22.

[6] Fortescue, Michael D.; Vajda, Edward J. (2022). Mid-holocene language connections between Asia and North America. Brill's studies in the indigenous languages of the Americas. Leiden ; Boston: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-43681-7.

[Georg-7] 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.

[:1-8] Werner, Heinrich (2005). Die Jenissej-Sprachen des 18. Jahrhunderts. Veröffentlichungen der Societas Uralo-Altaica. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 978-3-447-05239-9.

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v t e Yeniseian languages
Ketic	Ket Yugh
Kottic	Kott Yastin Baikot Yarin Assan
Arinic	Arin
Pumpokolic	Pumpokol Jie?
Para-Yeniseian?	Xiongnu? Hunnic?
Reconstructed	Proto-Yeniseian
Italics indicate extinct languages.