Data on the Ket language

Alternative names: Ostyak, Imbak

Main dialects: There are three main Ket dialects: Northern Ket, Middle Ket and Southern Ket. Their differences are quite small and the comprehension between the speakers of different dialects is highly effective.

Classification: Ket is the last living representative of the Yenisei languages (spoken in the area of the Yenisei river). The other languages of the group are extinct: Kott, Arin, Baikot and Pumpokol extincted in the 19th century. Yugh would have become extinct in the 1980’s.

There have been several attempts, non-conclusive at the time, at linking the Yenisei languages to other languages or language groups such as the Tungusic languages, the Sino-Tibetan languages, and even Basque!

In 2008, the linguist E. Vajda suggested a link between Ket and Athabaskan languages (plus Tlingit) spoken in the West and the North-West of the American continent. This hypothesis, seen as promising, has not been entirely proven yet.

Geographic area: Russia, Siberia, along the stream of the Yenisei river and its tributaries: the Podkamennaya Tunguska in the South and the Kureyka in the North. They mainly live in the district of Turukhansk (Krasnoïarsk region) and in the district of Baikit, in the independent region of Evenki. There are also Kets in big cities such as Krasnoïarsk. Three villages (Kellog, Sertovo and Sulomai) are mainly Ket. In other cities and villages, the Kets are always a minority.

Number of speakers: The latest 2002 census listed a total Ket population of 1,494 people. But according to Olga Kazakevich, the number of speakers wouldn’t reach more than 150 people, including a small proportion of native speakers.

Status of the language: Ket is recognized as a “minority indigenous language” which allows it generic protection.

Vitality and transmission: The Ket language is severely endangered and is losing ground among the young generations who drop it in favor of Russian. Language transmittal came to a complete stop in the 80s. Survival of the language beyond the next two generations is in jeopardy.

In the 70s, over 70% of the Ket people spoke the ancestral languages. This rate fell to 15% at (in) the beginning of the 21st century.

The youngest Ket speakers are over 45 years old, and very few still use it, even in the private sphere. People under 45 usually speak Russian, even if some of them have limited knowledge of Ket.

Teaching: The language enjoys a writing system invented during the Perestroïka (in 1988) and is taught during the first three years of school in certain establishments. But this teaching of (the language) Ket is purely symbolic and does not allow to efficiently fight against the abandonment of the language in favor of Russian among the Ket population. This partly explains the difficulty of training teachers with sufficient knowledge of Ket to transmit it correctly.

Historical and ethnographic observations

The Ket are one of the most enigmatic people of Siberia. There is little information on their origin and presence in the area. If the theory relating Ket to Tlingit and Athabaskan languages turns out to be proven, Ket would then come from one of the primitive branches of this group, which would date back to 20,000 years ago! The study of modern Ket is crucial to better understand the history of human migrations in Siberia and in the North of America.

We think that the Yeniseian people moved to their current territory 2,000 years ago, from the Altai and Saïan mountains. The Ket were the Yeniseian people living in the far North. They followed the lifestyle of semi-nomad hunter-gatherers in the Siberian taiga. The Kets living more to the North also raised reindeers they probably bought from their Samoyed neighbors. The tribes living more to the South lived in house-boats on the Yenisei during the summer.

They started being influenced by imperial Russia from the 17th century. Many villages were relocated at the time in order to avoid any form of resistance to imperial colonization.

Today, the Ket live in poverty, which drives a large number of them to migrate to the city. This economic migration plays a large part in the abandonment of the Ket language and culture.

Sources

Kazakevich, O .2004. Ket

Vajda, Edward J. 2000. The Ket and Other Yeniseian Peoples

Vajda, Edward.J. 2001. Yeniseian peoples and languages. A history of Yeniseian studies with an annotated bibliogfaphy and a source guide. Curzon,.

Vajda, Edward J. 2010. “Siberian Link with Na-Dene Languages.” The Dene-Yeniseian Connection, ed. by J. Kari and B. Potter, 33-99. Anthropological Papers of the University of Alaska, new series, vol. 5. Fairbanks: University of Alaska Fairbanks, Department of Anthropology.

A few links for more information

Page dedicated to Ket on the Endangered Languages of Indigenous Peoles of Siberia website

The Multimedia Database of Ket, from the University of Moscow-Lomonosov