Kott language

Template:Short description Template:Expand language Template:Template otherTemplate:Main other The Kott (Kot) language (Template:Langx) is an extinct Yeniseian language that was formerly spoken in central Siberia by the banks of the Mana River, a tributary of the Yenisei river. It became extinct in the 1850s. Kott was closely related to Ket, still spoken farther north along the Yenisei river. Assan, a close relative, is sometimes considered a dialect of Kott. The term kott may be derived from Buryat Template:Langx 'town', applied to neighbouring non-pastoral peoples, including the last few Kotts.

Geographical distribution

Kott was spoken to the southeast of Krasnoyarsk, in the Biryusa and Kan river basins. However, hydronyms indicate a much wider area in the past, ranging from the Uda and Chuna rivers in the east to the Tom in the west.

Documentation

One of the earliest written records of Kott is in 1791, with the publication of Peter Simon Pallas's Template:Langx, a comparative dictionary of various world languages and dialects. In 1858, Matthias Castrén published the grammar and dictionary (Versuch einer jenissei-ostjakischen und kottischen Sprachlehre), which included material on the Kott and Ket (Yenisei-Ostyak) languages, recording two different dialects of Kott in the 1840s. There also exists two books written by Template:Ill about the Kott language, namely Template:Langx (Kottskij jazyk), which includes a 110-page Russian-Kott glossary, and Template:Langx.

Phonology

Vowels

In multisyllabic words, vowel length is phonemic.

Vowels in Kott

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i Template:IPAblink	(ɨ Template:IPAblink)1	u Template:IPAblink
Close-mid	e Template:IPAblink		o Template:IPAblink
Open-mid	ɛ Template:IPAblink		ɔ Template:IPAblink
Open	ä Template:IPAblink	a Template:IPAblink

1. Template:IPAblink is only attested in a few words dated to the 18th century, and can be considered an allophone of Template:IPAblink.

Vajda 2024 gives a different vowel system for Kott, based on Castrén 1858.

Vowels of 19th-century Kott

	Front		Central		Back
	short	long	short	long	short	long
Close	i Template:IPAblink	î Template:IPAblink			u Template:IPAblink	û Template:IPAblink
Mid	e Template:IPAblink	ê Template:IPAblink			o Template:IPAblink	ô Template:IPAblink
Open			a Template:IPAblink	â Template:IPAblink

Consonants

Consonants according to Werner 1990

		Labial	Dental	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Laryngeal
Occlusive	plain	p Template:IPAblink	t Template:IPAblink	tʼ Template:IPAblink	k Template:IPAblink	q Template:IPAblink		? Template:IPAblink
	aspirated	pʰ Template:IPAblink	tʰ Template:IPAblink
	voiced	b Template:IPAblink	d Template:IPAblink	dʼ Template:IPAblink	g Template:IPAblink	G Template:IPAblink
Fricative	voiceless	f Template:IPAblink	s Template:IPAblink š Template:IPAblink		x Template:IPAblink	X Template:IPAblink	ħ Template:IPAblink	h Template:IPAblink
	voiced					R Template:IPAblink
Affricate	voiceless			č Template:IPAblink
	voiced			dž Template:IPAblink
Nasal		m Template:IPAblink	n Template:IPAblink	nʼ Template:IPAblink	ŋ Template:IPAblink
Approximant				j Template:IPAblink
Lateral			l Template:IPAblink lʼ Template:IPAblink
Trill			r Template:IPAblink

Consonants in Kott according to Werner 1997

		Labial	Dental	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Laryngeal/ Pharyngeal
Plosive	plain	p Template:IPAblink	t Template:IPAblink		tʼ Template:IPAblink	k Template:IPAblink	q Template:IPAblink	ʔ Template:IPAblink
	aspirated	pʰ Template:IPAblink	tʰ Template:IPAblink
	voiced	b Template:IPAblink	d Template:IPAblink		dʼ Template:IPAblink	g Template:IPAblink	G Template:IPAblink
Fricative	voiceless	f Template:IPAblink	s Template:IPAblink	š Template:IPAblink	j Template:IPAblink	x Template:IPAblink	χ Template:IPAblink	h Template:IPAblink
	voiced
Affricate					č Template:IPAblink
Lateral			l Template:IPAblink	lʼ Template:IPAblink
Trill			r Template:IPAblink
Nasal		m Template:IPAblink	n Template:IPAblink		nʼ Template:IPAblink	ŋ Template:IPAblink

Consonants as recorded by Castren 1858 are presented below. Allophones are presented next to their grapheme.

Consonants of 19th-century Kott

		Labial	Alveolar	Palato-alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Plosive	plain	p Template:IPAblink	t Template:IPAblink		tʼ Template:IPAblink	k Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink	q Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink
	aspirated		tʰ Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink
	voiced	b Template:IPAblink
Fricative		f Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink	s Template:IPAblink	š Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink		x Template:IPAblink		h Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink
Affricate				č Template:IPAblink
Liquid			l Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink
			r Template:IPAblink		j Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink			ʔ Template:IPAblink
		m Template:IPAblink	n Template:IPAblink/Template:IPAblink			ŋ Template:IPAblink

Grammar

Kott has special end markings to indicate that the noun being described is a hydronym which are /.

Kott is an agglutinative, polysynthetic language which typically uses SVO word order, but can vary depending on situation. It uses suffixes, prefixes and infixes in its verbal inflection, however suffixation is more common than infixation. Personal-subject verbal indicators are usually suffixed to the verb form, and personal-objective indicators are affixed.

Case

File:Падежи.jpeg

Cases in Kott according to Castrén

Kott has 7 cases. The dative, ablative and locative cases developed from possesed nouns, similarly to Ket and Yugh.

Kott cases in Verner 1990

	singular		plural
	feminine and neuter	masculine	inanimate	animate
Basic
Genitive
Dative
Locative
Ablative
Instrumental
Comitative

Lexicon

Kott had been influenced by Turkic languages, and had borrowed some words from Turkic languages. For example Kott ‘to praise’ comes from Proto-Turkic *paktïr (based on phonetics, likely loaned from Kumandin or Shor), or Kott ‘copper, brass’ comes from Proto-Turkic *kola (of which the source is not phonetically identifiable). At the time of its extinction, it was also loaning words from Russian.

External links

• Kott basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database