Ket is one of the languages spoken in the Siberian region of Russia.
- Ket is the only surviving Yeniseian language. The only other Yeniseian language that survived into the 20th century was Yugh, which went extinct around 1990.
- There is a proposed language family called Dené-Yeniseian which links Ket and the other Yeniseian languages to Na-Dené a group of Native American languages.
As of 2010, there was estimated to be approximately 210 native speakers of Ket.
- According to UNESCO, the number of speakers has fallen to 150.
The language was first documented in 1788.
- The first grammar and dictionary book was published in 1858.
- The first grammar and primer for the Ket language in Russian was published in 1934.
Ket is written in Cyrillic script.
- First, a Latin script was created for the language in the 1930s.
- The Cyrillic script was adapted for Ket in the 1980s.
Ket’s decline began in the early Soviet period.
- During this period, all Soviet citizens, including the Ket people, were required to use Russian.
- From the 1930s to the 1960s, Ket children were sent to Russian only boarding schools.
- Ket is currently taught in some primary schools; however, the only fluent speakers today are older adults.
Listen to a sample of the Ket language:
References
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ket_language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeniseian_languages
http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/index.php
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