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Article published In: Identity and Communication in Asian Contexts
Edited by Asmah Haji Omar and Michael Dimitrios Hadzantonis
[Journal of Asian Pacific Communication 32:1] 2022
► pp. 108–132

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Language contact and areal convergence in North Asia

The case of Ket

 | Hamburg University
 | University of Zielona Góra
Published online: 4 August 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/japc.00086.nef
Abstract
Ket is the sole surviving member of the Yeniseian language family, spoken in the central part of North Asia. This large territory is also home to other language families: Samoyedic, Ob-Ugric, Tungusic, and Turkic. Apart from Yeniseian, which are strikingly unique, all language groups in the area conform to a common typological profile. Subsequent to contact over several hundred years, many of the core grammatical features that distinguish Yeniseian from the other language families have undergone a ‘typological accommodation,’ a phenomenon most prominent in Modern Ket, to mimic the dominant language type in the area. The present article aims to provide an overview of some ways in which typological accommodation has affected the phonemic tones and nominal and verbal morphology in Modern Ket, and to show that this peculiar phenomenon is also attested at the syntactic level in formation of adverbial and relative clauses. As such, the paper presents that the phonemic and morphological structures of Modern Ket uniquely position the language for discourse and communication. Here, its speakers deploy these communicative devices, specifically designed followed extended contact with other languages, as representative of their language community.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The contact situation in North Asia
  • 3.Core typological features of the Yeniseian family
    • 3.1Phonological features
    • 3.2Morphological features
      • 3.2.1The nominal system
      • 3.2.2The verbal system
  • 4.Typological accommodation
    • 4.1Typological accommodation at the phonological level
    • 4.2Typological accommodation at the morphological level
      • 4.2.1The nominal system
      • 4.2.2The verbal system
    • 4.3Typological accommodation at the discursive and syntactic levels
      • 4.3.1Adverbial clauses at discursive and syntactic levels
      • 4.3.2Relative clauses at discursive and syntactic levels
    • 4.4On typological accommodation at the discourse level
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
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