Proto-Yeniseian
PY
Reconstruction of	Yeniseian languages
Reconstructed ancestor	Proto-Dene-Yeniseian (hypothetical)
Lower-order reconstructions	Proto-Ketic Proto-Kottic

Proto-Yeniseian or Proto-Yeniseic is the unattested reconstructed proto-language from which all Yeniseian languages are thought to descend from. It is uncertain whether Proto-Yeniseian had a similar tone/pitch accent system as Ket.^[1] Many studies about Proto-Yeniseian phonology have been done, however there are still many things unclear about Proto-Yeniseian.^[2] The probable location of the Yeniseian homeland is proposed on the basis of geographic names and genetic studies, which suggests a homeland in Southern Siberia.^[3]

Phonology

According to Vajda, Proto-Yeniseian had the following phonemes, expressed in IPA symbols.^[4]

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Labiovelar	Velar	Uvular
Nasal		*m	*n				*ŋʷ	*ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	*p	*t	*č [t͡ʃ]	*tʳ [ʈ]	*c	*kʷ	*k	*q
Plosive	voiced	*b	*d	*ǰ [d͡ʒ]	*dʳ [ɖ]	*ɟ	*ɡʷ	*ɡ	*ɢ
Fricative			*s	*š [ʃ]	*šʳ [ʂ]	*ç	*xʷ	*x	*χ
Lateral			*ɬ	*tɬ
Approximant		*w				*j
Rhotic					*r

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ij *iw		u uj *uw
Mid	e ej *ew		o oj *ow
Open		a aj *aw

Vocabulary

*xuɬ ‘water’
*xuše ‘birch tree’
*am ‘mother’
*ejn ‘wedge’
*qed ‘man’
*bes ‘rabbit’
*don ‘knife’
*kus ‘horse’
*pub ‘son’
*bus ‘penis’
*satʳ ‘crucian (fish)’
*baŋ ‘land’
*tijk ‘snow’
*bejx ‘wind’
*tɬiwdʳ ‘lard’, ‘oil’
*ɬaɢa ‘star’

References

ANDERSON, GREGORY D. S. (2003). "Yeniseic languages from a Siberian areal perspective". STUF - Language Typology and Universals. 56 (1–2): 12–39. doi:10.1524/stuf.2003.56.12.12.
Bonmann, S.; Fries, S.; Korobzow, N.; Günther, L.; Hill, E. (2023). "Towards a New Reconstruction of the Proto-Yeniseian Sound System. Part I: Word-Initial Consonants". International Journal of Eurasian Linguistics. 5 (1): 39–82. doi:10.1163/25898833-20230037.
Fries, Simon; Bonmann, Svenja (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.
de la Fuente, José Andrés Alonso (2010). "Proto-Yeniseian *dïn ~ *dïñ 'Fir Tree'". Central Asiatic Journal. 54 (1): 12–21. JSTOR 41928529. Accessed 19 June 2023.
Janhunen, Juha (2012). "Etymological and ethnohistorical aspects of the Yenisei". Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia (SEC). 17 (1): 67–87.
Starostin, Sergei A.; Ruhlen, Merritt (1994). "Proto-Yeniseian Reconstructions, with Extra-Yeniseian Comparisons". On the Origin of Languages: Studies in Linguistic Taxonomy. Redwood City: Stanford University Press. pp. 70–92. doi:10.1515/9781503622357-006. ISBN 978-1-5036-2235-7.
Timonina, Lyudmila G. (2004). "On distinguishing loanwords from the original Proto-Yeniseic lexicon". In Vajda, E. J. (ed.). Languages and Prehistory of Central Siberia. Current Issues in Linguistic Theory. Vol. 262. pp. 135–142. doi:10.1075/cilt.262.07tim. ISBN 978-90-272-4776-6.
Vajda, Edward. "Losing semantic alignment: from Proto-Yeniseic to Modern Ket". In: The typology of semantic alignment. Eds. Tim Donohue & Soeren Wichman. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. pp. 140–161. ISBN 9780199238385.
Vajda, Edward (2022). "Yeniseian Languages". Mid-Holocene Language Connections between Asia and North America. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. pp. 246–278. doi:10.1163/9789004436824_013. ISBN 978-90-04-43682-4.
Vajda, Edward. "8 The Yeniseian language family". The Languages and Linguistics of Northern Asia: Language Families, edited by Edward Vajda, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, 2024, pp. 365-480. doi:10.1515/9783110556216-008
М. В. Филимонов. "Праенисейская падежная система и некоторые проблемы морфологии имени в енисейских языках" [PROTO-YENISSEAN CASE SYSTEM AND SOME PROBLEM OF NOUN MORPHOLOGY IN YENISSEAN LANGUAGES]. In: Вестник Томского государственного педагогического университета, no. 4 (12), 1999, pp. 64-66. URL: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/praeniseyskaya-padezhnaya-sistema-i-nekotorye-problemy-morfologii-imeni-v-eniseyskih-yazykah (дата обращения: 19.06.2023). (in Russian)

External links

Yeniseian languages

Northern

Ket
Yugh

Southern

Kott–Assan	Kott Assan
Arin–Pumpokol	Pumpokol Arin Jie?

Others

Yastin
Baikot
Yarin

Para-Yeniseian

Xiongnu
Hunnic

Historical

Proto-Yeniseian

Italics indicate extinct languages.