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Arin language

Arin is an extinct Yeniseian language formerly spoken in Russia by the Arin people along the Yenisei River, predominantly on its left shore, between Yeniseysk and Krasnoyarsk, north of the Minusinsk region. However, it has been suggested that the Arin people had historically occupied a larger geographical range. It became extinct in the 18th century, with the death of Arzamas Loskutov, who was an informant for Gerhard Friedrich Müller in 1731, and for a Cossack adventurer named Ivan Kovrigin on November 27, 1735.

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Arin
Ar, Ara
Native toRussia
RegionYenisei River
EthnicityArin people
Extinctlate 1730s, with the death of Arzamas Loskutov1
Yeniseian
  • Arinic
    • Arin
Early form
Language codes
ISO 639-3xrn
Glottologarin1243
Map of pre-contact Yeniseian languages. Arin is in   blue.

Arin is an extinct Yeniseian language formerly spoken in Russia by the Arin people along the Yenisei River, predominantly on its left shore, between Yeniseysk and Krasnoyarsk,3 north of the Minusinsk region. However, it has been suggested that the Arin people had historically occupied a larger geographical range. It became extinct in the 18th century,34 with the death of Arzamas Loskutov,1 who was an informant for Gerhard Friedrich Müller in 1731,5 and for a Cossack adventurer named Ivan Kovrigin on November 27, 1735.617

It is believed that the term Ar or Ara was used by speakers of Arin to refer to themselves.3

Classification

It is classified as belonging to the Arinic branch, being its only attested language.8 The closest known relative of Arin, Pumpokol, has been suggested to be similar to the language of the ruling elite of the Xiongnu,92 as well as that of the Jie ruling class of the Later Zhao dynasty.10

Geographical distribution

Hydronyms associated with Arin have the suffixes -set, -igai, -lat, -zat, -zet and -sat (meaning "river") and -kul'/-kul (meaning "water").7 These hydronyms, along with Khanty folklore telling of an eastern people known as the ar-jäx "Ar people", indicate that Arin may have once been spread out as far west as the Ob.38

Phonology

One notable aspect of the Arin phonology is the correspondence of words starting with the word-initial k- and words in other Yeniseian languages that start with a bare vowel. For example, the Arin word kul (meaning 'water') corresponds to the Ket word uˑl’ and the Kott word ûl.11 This feature of Arin allows for far more accurate reconstructing of the Proto-Yeniseian language by historical linguistics, for instance, the Proto-Yeniseian term for "water" is reconstructed as *xuɬ, where the initial *x- could not be inferred if not for Arin attestation.

Vowels

The vowel system in Arin is as follows:7

Front Central Back
Close i ɨ u
Close-mid e o
Open-mid ɛ (ʌ)1 ɔ
Open æ a
  1. The sound [ʌ], transcribed as ö, is only attested in the words ögga 'six', qoa-ögga 'sixteen', ögťuːŋ 'sixty', and utqʼöːnoŋ 'ear', and potentially also in pon’a (also recorded as pun) 'duck'.

Consonants

Labial Dental Palatal Velar Uvular Laryngeal/
Pharyngeal
plain pal. plain pal. plain pal.
Plosive voiceless p [p] pʼh [pʲ] t [t] tʼ [tʲ] k [k] kʼ [kʲ] q [q] qʼ [qʲ] (ʔ [ʔ])1
voiced b [b] d [d] dʼ [dʲ] g [g]
Fricative voiceless (f [f]) s [s] š [ʃ] sʼ [sʲ] x [χ] (h [h])
voiced (v [v]) z [z] ž [ʒ]
Affricate c [t͡s] č [t͡ʃ] (dž [d͡ʒ])
Nasal m [m] mʼ [mʲ] n [n] nʼ [nʲ] ŋ [ŋ]
Lateral l [l] lʼ [lʲ]
Approximant j [j]
Trill r [r] (rʼ [rʲ])

Consonants in parentheses are sparsely attested or unattested.

  1. [ʔ] is only assumed from other Yeniseian languages and is only a prosodic device of tone.

There are 11 palatal-nonpalatal consonant oppositions.7

Lexicon

Etymological analysis suggests that speakers of the Arin language, as with other members of the Yeniseian people, were bilingual in Siberian Turkic languages; for example, the Arin word teminkur (meaning "ore") has been suggested to stem from the Old Turkic compound word *tämir qān (meaning "iron blood").12 There are over 400 lexica for the Arin language, recorded in the 18th century.5

General

Arin words in Pallas 178913
Russian gloss бог небо вечер лес глина поле снег ветер вино
English translation God sky, heaven evening forest clay field snow spirit wine
Arin translation еc эc пись още тьюбурунг кья́ба тье паи арага́

Body parts

Arin body parts in Pallas 178913
Russian gloss волос голова ухо глаз нос рот язык щёки борода плечо рука пальцы нога живот спина плоть сердце
English translation hair head ear eye nose mouth tongue cheek beard shoulder hand fingers leg stomach back flesh heart
Arin translation кья́ганг колкья уткьэно́нг тенг аркӷуй бюкьо́н алъяп быкӷолю́нг королеп хинанг пъӷяга кӷо́лпас пил пъӷорга кӷоп ис шеноугбу

Family members

Arin family member words in Pallas 178913
Russian gloss отец мать сын дочь брат сестра муж жена девочка мальчик дитя человек
English translation father mother son daughter brother sister husband wife girl boy child human, person
Arin translation ипя, бъяп бя́мя бикял бик-ялья бамага́л бамагалья бикъярьят бикӷама́л бикъялья бикъял алполат кьит

Numerals

Numerals in Arin714
No. Numerals (Werner 2005) Numerals (Pallas 1789)
1 qusej Кг̧узей
2 kina Ки́на
3 tʼoŋa Тьюнга
4 šája ~ šaga ~ šeja Ша́га
5 qala ~ qaga ~ kala Ка́ла
6 ögga ~ ɨga ~ ɛge Эгга
7 ɨnʼa ~ ona ~ una Ыньа
8 kinamančau Кинаманчау́
9 qusamančau Кг̧усаманчау
10 qoa Кг̧оа
11 qóa-qúsa
12 qóa-kina
13 qóa-tʼoŋa
14 qoa-šaja
15 qoa-qala
16 qoa-ögga
17 qoa-ɨnʼa
18 qoa-kinamančaú
19 qoa-qusamančau
20 kintʼuŋ
30 tʼoŋtʼuːŋ
40 šájtʼuːŋ
50 qaltʼuːŋ
60 ögtʼuːŋ ~ uj-tuŋ
70 ɨ́ntʼuŋ
80 kina-mančaú tʼuːŋ
90 qusamančautʼuːŋ
100 jus Іусь
200 kin-jus
300 tʼoŋ-jus
1000 qo-jus
References

References

  1. "Исчезающие народы/языки: Аринцы, Аринский (Arin) | СМДО КубГУ". moodle.kubsu.ru. Retrieved 1 January 2025.
  2. Bonmann, Svenja; Fries, Simon (16 June 2025). "Linguistic Evidence Suggests that Xiōng-nú and Huns Spoke the Same Paleo-Siberian Language". Transactions of the Philological Society 1467-968X.12321. doi:10.1111/1467-968X.12321. ISSN 0079-1636.
  3. Georg, Stefan (2007). A Descriptive Grammar of Ket (Yenisei-Ostyak). Folkestone, Kent: Global Oriental. ISBN 978-1-901903-58-4.
  4. "The ASJP Database - Wordlist Arin". asjp.clld.org. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
  5. "Аринский язык // «Историческая энциклопедия Сибири» (2009)". ИРКИПЕДИЯ - портал Иркутской области: знания и новости (in Russian). Retrieved 1 January 2025.
  6. "A 10,000-year-old word puzzle". The Globe and Mail. 14 April 2008. Retrieved 16 March 2025.
  7. Werner, Heinrich (2005). Die Jenissej-Sprachen des 18. Jahrhunderts. Veröffentlichungen der Societas Uralo-Altaica. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. ISBN 978-3-447-05239-9.
  8. Vajda, Edward (19 February 2024), Vajda, Edward (ed.), "8 The Yeniseian language family", The Languages and Linguistics of Northern Asia, De Gruyter, pp. 365–480, doi:10.1515/9783110556216-008, ISBN 978-3-11-055621-6, retrieved 26 June 2024{{citation}}: CS1 maint: work parameter with ISBN (link)
  9. Vovin, Alexander (2000). "Did the Xiong-nu Speak a Yeniseian Language?". Central Asiatic Journal. 44 (1): 87–104. ISSN 0008-9192. JSTOR 41928223.
  10. VOVIN, Alexander; VAJDA, Edward; DE LA VAISSIÈRE, Étienne (2016). "Who were the *Kjet and What Language did they Speak?". Journal Asiatique. 304 (1): 125–144. doi:10.2143/JA.304.1.3146838. ISSN 1783-1504.
  11. Fries, Simon; Bonmann, Svenja (22 December 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. Retrieved 22 July 2024.
  12. Khabtagaeva, Bayarma (2015). "On the Yeniseian Arin word teminkur 'ore'". Words and Dictionaries: A Festschrift for Professor Stanisław Stachowski on the Occasion of His 85th Birthday: 149–154. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
  13. Pallas, Peter Simon (1786). Linguarum totius orbis vocabularia comparativa (in Russian). Schnoor.
  14. Pallas, Peter Simon (1789). Linguarum Totius Orbis Vocabularia Comparativa, Pars 2.
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