Mator language

Not to be confused with Karagas, an alternate name of the Tofa language.
Mator
Motor, Mator-Taigi-Karagas
Native toRussia
Regionnorthern Sayan Mountains
EthnicityMators [ru], possibly also Soyots, Karagas
Extinct1839
Dialects
  • Mator
  • Taygi
  • Karagas
  • Soyot
Language codes
ISO 639-3Either:
mtm – Mator
ymt – Mator-Taygi-Karagas (deprecated)
mtm
 ymt
Glottologmato1250
nucl1288
Traditional distribution of the extinct Sayan Samoyedic languages including Mator[1][2]

Mator or Motor is an extinct Uralic language belonging to the group of Samoyedic languages, extinct since around 1839. It was spoken in the northern region of the Sayan Mountains in Siberia, close to the Mongolian north border. The speakers of Mator, Matorians or Mators [ru], lived in a wide area from the eastern parts of the Minusinsk District (okrug) along the Yenisei River to the region of Lake Baikal. Three dialects of Mator were recorded: Mator proper as well as Taygi and Karagas (occasionally portrayed as separate languages, but their differences are few). Mator was influenced by Mongolic, Tungusic and Turkic languages before it went extinct, and may have even been possibly influenced by the Iranic languages.[3][page needed] It went extinct as a result of the Mator people shifting linguistically to the related Kamas language or nearby Altaic-sprachbund languages, like Buryat, Soyot, Khakas, Evenki and Tatar.[4]

A map of Siberian peoples in the 16th century with the Mators in
  orange
, near the bottom-center of the map.

Today the term "Mator people" is simply a name of a seok of the Koibal, one of the five territorial sub-division groups of the Khakas. (Note that the name "Koibal" likewise derives from the related Samoyedic Koibal language).

Mator has been frequently grouped together with Selkup and Kamassian as "South Samoyedic". This is however a grouping by geographical area, and not considered to constitute an actual sub-branch of the Samoyedic languages.

Phonology

Consonants

Mator consonants[5]
Bilabial Dental/

Alveolar

Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive voiceless (p) t t͡ʃ k ʔ
voiced b (d) (d͡ʒ) (ɡ)
Fricative voiceless s (ʃ) h
voiced (z) (ʒ)
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Rhotic r
Approximant central j
lateral l

Vowels

Mator vowels[5]
Front Central Back
unrounded rounded
Close short i y (ɨ) u
long iː yː (ɨː)? uː
Mid short e ø ə o
long eː øː? əː oː
Open short æ a
long æː aː
Reduced e̽

Lexicon

Below are some Mator words from Helimski 1997.[3][page needed]

  • kälä 'fish'
  • mondoh 'root'
  • sörüh 'rain'
  • kaduh 'storm'
  • baada 'word'
  • kaasa 'human'
  • ämdä 'horn'
  • täjbä 'nail'
  • täär 'divide, share'
  • köhö 'winter'
  • öröh 'autumn'
  • teite 'four'
  • mən 'me, I'
  • tən 'you'
  • ter 'hair'
  • ajba 'head'
  • siime 'eye'

References

  1. ^ Rantanen, Timo; Vesakoski, Outi; Ylikoski, Jussi; Tolvanen, Harri (2021). "Geographical database of the Uralic languages". Zenodo (Data set). v. 1.0. doi:10.5281/zenodo.4784188.
  2. ^ Rantanen, Timo; Tolvanen, Harri; Roose, Meeli; Ylikoski, Jussi; Vesakoski, Outi (8 June 2022). Wichmann, Søren (ed.). "Best practices for spatial language data harmonization, sharing and map creation—A case study of Uralic". PLOS ONE. 17 (6): e0269648. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0269648. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 9176854. PMID 35675367.
  3. ^ a b Helimski 1997.
  4. ^ Bakró-Nagy, Marianne; Laakso, Johanna; Skribnik, Elena, eds. (2022). The oxford guide to the uralic languages. New York: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198767664.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-876766-4.
  5. ^ a b Helimski 1997, p. 70.

Bibliography