Nenets

Nenets (Ненэця’
вада/Nenėcjaˀ vada)

Nenets belongs to the Samoyedic branch of the Finno-Ugric languages.
It is spoken by about 27,000 people in Siberia, particularly in the Nenets,
Yamalo-Nenets, and Taymyr Autonomous Okrugs, in the Komi Republic, and
in the eastern parts of Murmansk Oblast on the Kola peninsula.

There are two main dialects of Nenets: Tundra Nenets (Ненэцяʼ вада)
and Forest Nenets (Нешаӈ вата),
and there is only limited mutual intelligibility between them. About
95% of Nenets speakers speak Tundra Nenets.

Nenets first appeared in written form in the 1830s in reglious texts
published by archimandrite Venyamin Smirnov. Before then the Nenets
used various pictographic symbols called tamga to mark property.
In 1931 a standard, Latin-based orthography was established, then the
Cyrillic alphabet was adopted in 1937.

Latin alphabet for Tundra Nenets

Latin alphabet for Tundra Nenets

Cyrillic alphabet for Tundra Nenets (Ненэцяʼ вада)

Cyrillic alphabet for Tundra Nenets

Notes

  • е, ё, и, ю, я and ь palatalize some consonants
  • и = [ji] at the begining of the word: e,g, ирий /jirʲij/ (month)
  • The schwa /ə/ (transcribed as °) is not indicated in orthography. However, it is written sometimes, but its presence is very irregular, indicated using а, я, ы, ӗ or ŏ: e,g, хад /xadə/ (xad°) ныхы /nɨxə/ (nyx°)
  • In dictionaries a refined version of standard orthography is used to distinguish vowel phonemes; To distinguish /e/ and /æ/, э̇ and э are used respectively, and /ɨ/ = ы̄/ӣ, ɯ = ӯ/ю̄. Further, distinction of /ə/ and /a/ is indicated with ӑ/я̆ and а/я respectively.

Cyrillic alphabet for Forest Nenets (Нешаӈ вата)

Cyrillic alphabet for Forest Nenets

Notes

  • е, ё, и, ю, я and ь palatalize some consonants
  • и = [ji] at the begining of words
  • /æ/ (usually /aj/) is also written ай (though this also represents /ɑj/)

Some of the information on this page was provided by Wolfram Siegel and 이윤호

Sample text in Nenets

Ет хибяри ненэць соямарианта хуркари правада тнява, ӈобой ненээя ниду нись токалба, ӈыбтамба илевату тара.

Transliteration

Et xibjari nenėc’ sojamarianta xurkari pravada tnjava, ṇoboj
nenėėja nidu nic’ tokalba, ṇybtamba ilevatu tara.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with
reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Links

Information about the Nenets language and people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nenets_language
http://www.helsinki.fi/~tasalmin/tn.html
http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/nenets.shtml

  • Categoria dell'articolo:Lingue
  • Tempo di lettura:3 minuti di lettura