Northern Khanty language

Northern Khanty is a Uralic language, frequently considered a dialect of a unified Khanty language, spoken by about 9,000 people.^[2] It is the most widely spoken out of all the Khanty languages, the majority composed of 5,000 speakers in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, in Russia.^[3] The reason for this discrepancy is that dialects of Northern Khanty have been better preserved in its northern reaches, and the Middle Ob and Kazym dialects are losing favor to Russian. All four dialects have been literary, beginning with the Middle Ob dialects, but shifting to Kazym, and back to Middle Ob, now the most used dialect in writing.^[4] The Shuryshkar dialects are also written, primarily due to an administrative division between the two, as the latter is spoken in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug.^[3]

Northern Khanty
хӑнты йасәӈ hănty jasəṇ[note 1]
Pronunciation	[xanti jaːsəŋ]
Native to	Russia
Region	Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug
Ethnicity	15,000 northern Khanty[1]
Native speakers	(c. 10,000 cited 1993)[1]
Language family	Uralic Khanty Northern Khanty
Dialects	Middle Ob Kazym Obdorsk Shuryshkar
Writing system	Cyrillic
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug (all Khanty varieties)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Linguist List	1of
	kca-nor
Glottolog	nort3264  Northern Khanty
ELP	8550 Northern Khanty
Map of Khanty and Mansi varieties in the early 20th century, with   Northern Khanty

Dialects

Dialects of Northern Khanty:^[5]

• Obdorsk (Priuralsky District)
• Berjozov (Synja, Muzhi, Shuryshkar), Kazym, Sherkal

Transitional

• Atlym, Nizyam

Phonology

Kazym

Consonants

The Kazym dialect distinguishes 18 consonants.

Kazym Khanty consonants^[6]

		Bilabial	Dental		Retroflex	Palatal	Velar
			plain	pal.
Nasal		m	n	nʲ	ɳ		ŋ
Plosive		p	t				k
Fricative	central		s	sʲ	ʂ		x
	lateral		ɬ	ɬʲ
Approximant	central	w				j
	lateral		l
Trill			r

Vowels

The vowel inventory is much simpler. Eight vowels are distinguished in initial syllables: six full /i e a ɒ o u/ and four reduced /ĭ ă ŏ ŭ/. In unstressed syllables, four values are found: /ɑ ə ĕ ĭ/.^[7][8]

A similarly simple vowel inventory is found in the Nizyam, Sherkal, and Berjozov dialects, which have full /e a ɒ u/ and reduced /ĭ ɑ̆ ŏ ŭ/. Aside from the full vs. reduced contrast rather than one of length, this is identical to that of the adjacent Sosva dialect of Mansi.^[9]

Shuryshkar

Shuryshkar consonants^[10]

	Bilabial	Dental/ Alveolar	Palatal/ized	Retroflex	Velar	Uvular
Nasal	m	n	nʲ		ŋ
Plosive	p	t			k ~ q
Affricate			tɕ	tʂ
Fricative		s	ɕ	ʂ		χ
Lateral		l l̥	lʲ	ɭ
Approximant	w		j
Trill		r r̥

Obdorsk

Vowels

The Obdorsk dialect has retained full close vowels and has a nine-vowel system: full vowels /i e æ ɑ o u/ and reduced vowels /æ̆ ɑ̆ ŏ/.^[9]

Consonants

However, it has a simpler consonant inventory, having the lateral approximants /l lʲ/ in place of the fricatives /ɬ ɬʲ/ and having fronted *š *ṇ to /s n/.

Alphabet

A new alphabet scheme^{[of what?]} was published in 2013.^[11] The various written standards, such as Kazym (Northern Khanty) and Surgut (Eastern Khanty), have their own versions of this alphabet, with some different letters. The influential Просвещение [ru] (Enlightenment/Education) publishing house, which publishes many of the textbooks and early literacy material for the smaller languages of Russia, designed curved-tail variants of the letters ԯ and ң with a tick, namely ԓ and ӈ, and these have been redundantly encoded in Unicode as separate characters.^[12] These hooked forms have been chosen as the preferred allographs of these letters for the Kazym alphabet.^[13] However, the respected Khanty-language journal Хӑнты ясӑӊ [ru] uses the diagonal-tail forms ӆ and ӊ for Kazym.^[14]

Kazym alphabet^[13] (ԓ ӈ typeface)

А а	Ӑ ӑ	В в	И и	Й й	К к	Л л	Ԓ ԓ[note 2]
Љ љ	М м	Н н	Ӈ ӈ[note 2]	Њ њ	О о	Ө ө	П п
Р р	С с	Т т	Ᲊ ᲊ	У у	Ў ў	Х х	Ш ш
Щ щ	Ы ы	Є є	Э э	Ә ә

Khanty–IPA correspondence chart^[11][15]

Cyrillic	а	ӑ	в	и	й	к	л	ԯ	љ	м	н	њ	ң	о	ө	п	р	с	т	ᲊ	у	ў	х	ш	щ	ы	є	э	ә
IPA	ɑ	ɐ	β	i	j	k	l	ɬ	ɬʲ	m	n	nʲ	ŋ	ɔ	ɵ	p	r	s	t	tʲ	u	ʉ	x	ʃ	sʲ	ɨ	ɛ	e	ə

[i] и and [ɨ] ы are allophones, breaking the phonemic principle of the alphabet.^[13]

Sample texts

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Kazym Khanty:

Хуԯыева мирӑт вәԯьня па имуртӑн вәԯты щира сєма питԯӑт. Ԯыв нумсаңӑт па ԯывеԯа еԯєм атум ут вєрты па кўтэԯн ԯыв ԯәхсӑңа вәԯԯӑт.^[16]

(Хуԓыева мирӑт вәԓьня па имуртӑн вәԓты щира сєма питԓӑт. Ԓыв нумсаӈӑт па ԓывеԓа еԓєм атум ут вєрты па кўтэԓн ԓыв ԓәхсӑӈа вәԓԓӑт.)

Hułyjewa mirăt wəł’nja pa imurtăn wəłty sjira sêma pitłăt. Ływ numsaṇăt pa ływjeła jełêm atum ut wêrty pa kŭtełn ływ łəhsăṇa wəłłăt.

Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English:

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.

Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Article 1 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Kazym Khanty:

Шуши мирӑт ияха муй па атэԯта вәԯты щир тӑйԯӑт, хуԯыева хӑннєхәйт па мєт вуԯаң вәԯьня вєрӑт, щитӑт мўвтєԯ мирӑт вєрӑт вантты па тўңматты тӑхи мўвтєԯ мирӑт вәԯты щир декларация нєпекн хӑншман па артаԯуман вәԯԯӑт.^[17]

(Шуши мирӑт ияха муй па атэԓта вәԓты щир тӑйԓӑт, хуԓыева хӑннєхәйт па мєт вуԓаң вәԓьня вєрӑт, щитӑт мўвтєԓ мирӑт вєрӑт вантты па тўңматты тӑхи мўвтєԓ мирӑт вәԓты щир декларация нєпекн хӑншман па артаԓуман вәԓԓӑт.)

Šuši mirăt ijaha muj pa atełta wəłty sjir tăjłăt, hułyjewa hănnêhəjt pa mêt wułaṇ wəł’nja wêrăt, sjităt mŭwtêł mirăt wêrăt wantty pa tŭṇmatty tăhi mŭwtêł mirăt wəłty sjir djeklaracija nêpjekn hănšman pa artałuman wəłłăt.

Article 1 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in English:

Indigenous peoples have the right to the full enjoyment, as a collective or as individuals, of all human rights and fundamental freedoms as recognized in the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international human rights law.

Notes

1. Wiktionary Khanty transliteration
2. These letters are digitized as ԯ ң, ԓ ӈ, or ӆ ӊ, depending on the publisher.