The Nenets languages are classified in the Uralic language family, making them distantly related to some national languages spoken in Europe – namely Finnish, Estonian, and Hungarian – in addition to other minority languages spoken in Russia. Both of the Nenets languages have been greatly influenced by Russian. Tundra Nenets has, to a lesser degree, been influenced by Komi and Northern Khanty. Forest Nenets has also been influenced by Eastern Khanty. Tundra Nenets is well documented, considering its status as an indigenous and minority language. It has a literary tradition going back to the 1930s, while Forest Nenets was first written during the 1990s and has been little documented.[6]
Apart from the word 'Nenets', only one other Nenets word has entered the English language: 'parka', their traditional long, hooded jacket, made from skins and sometimes fur.[8]
Common features of Nenets languages
Tundra Nenets has 16 moods, most of which reflect different degrees of certainty in what in English might be called indicative statements or different degrees of force in what in English might be called imperative commands.[9] An overarching feature of the Nenets languages is the introduction of systematic palatalization of almost all consonants. This originates from contrasts between different vowel qualities in the Proto-Samoyedic language.[10]
*Cä, *Ca → *Cʲa, *Ca
*Ce, *Cë → *Cʲe, *Ce
*Ci, *Cï → *Cʲi, *Ci
*Cö, *Co → *Cʲo, *Co
*Cü, *Cu → *Cʲu, *Cu
The velar consonants *k and *ŋ were additionally shifted to *sʲ and *nʲ when palatalized.
Similar changes have also occurred in the other Samoyedic languages spoken in the tundra zone: Enets, Nganasan and the extinct Yurats.
Differences between Tundra and Forest Nenets
Tundra Nenets generally has remained closer to Proto-Nenets than Forest Nenets, whose phonology has been influenced by eastern Khanty dialects. Changes towards the modern languages include:[11][10]
Tundra Nenets:
Delabialization of /wʲ/ → /j/
Lenition of initial /k/ → /x/
Simplification of /ʔk/ → /k/
Forest Nenets:
Initial /s/ → /x/
Medial denasalization of /nʲ/ → /j/
The change of rhotics to lateral fricatives: /r/, /rʲ/ → /ɬ/, /ɬʲ/
Shortening of geminate nasals
Breaking of geminate /lː/ → /nɬ/
Phonemicization of palatalized velars /kʲ/, /xʲ/, /ŋʲ/ due to vowel changes
Raising of non-close vowels preceding a syllable with an original close vowel
Loss of vowel distinctions in unstressed syllables
Introduction of short/long contrasts for /a/ and /æ/
^ abSammallahti, Pekka (1988), "Historical phonology of the Uralic languages, with special reference to Samoyed, Ugric, and Permic", The Uralic Languages: Description, History and Foreign Influences, Leiden: Brill, pp. 478–554
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