Ket

LANGUAGE FAMILY: ISHADIC   # SPEAKERS / WORLD RANKING: 1.2M / #31   SPOKEN IN: Sekh Anoob (Tpoth) - 1.2M   PERIOD OF USE:   SCRIPT USED:   PARENT LANGUAGE: Soreb-Ket*  

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  "...and he stood holding his hat and turned his wet face to the wind..."   Translation: we khmnwa wsyru ma qaguchyah fi we ma hugi bdisan ruh mankh wa   Pronunciation: we xmnwa wsjru ma qaguˈcah fi we ma huˈgi bdiˈsan ruh manx wa     Ket word order: and he stood his hat holding and his wet face turned the wind to  

Spelling & Phonology

  Consonant inventory: /b c d f g h j k l m n p q r s t w x z/  

↓Manner/Place→	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasal	m		n
Stop	p b		t d	c	k g	q
Fricative		f	s z		x		h
Approximant				j
Trill			r
Lateral approximant			l

  Co-articulated phonemes  

↓Manner/Place→	Labial-velar
Approximant	w

  Vowel inventory: /a e i o u y/  

	Front	Back
High	i y	u
High-mid	e	o
Low	a

  Syllable structure: Custom defined
Stress pattern: Ultimate — stress is on the last syllable
Word initial consonants: b, bd, bw, c, d, dh, dj, f, g, h, hrw, j, jmntjw, k, l, m, mdt, mdw, mm, mn, mrtwf, msw, n, nb, nf, nfr, nk, nn, nswt, nt, ntj, nw, nwn, pr, ps, ptr, pw, q, r, rf, rr, rt, rw, s, sh, sn, sr, sw, t, tm, tmm, tp, w, wn, wnn, wp, ws, wsjr, wt, x, xmnw, xnt, xpr, xr, xt, xw
Mid-word consonants: b, bm, bt, c, cch, cl, d, dd, dk, g, gg, gl, gs, h, k, l, lk, ll, lm, m, mnt, n, nk, nn, nt, q, qd, r, rb, rk, rt, s, sh, shr, sk, st, t, wg, wlg, wsh, x, z
Word final consonants: b, d, f, g, h, m, mf, mntt, mt, n, nx, r, rnf, rs, s, t, w, wf, wl, wr   Phonological changes (in order of application):  

• a → e / _m
• wi → o / C_

  Spelling rules:  

Pronunciation	Spelling
y	ǔ
x	kh
c	chy
j	y

 

Grammar

  Main word order: Subject Object Verb (Prepositional phrase).
"Mary opened the door with a key" turns into Mary the door opened with a key.
Adjective order: Adjectives are positioned before the noun.
Adposition: postpositions  

Nouns

  Nouns have four cases:

• Ergative is the doer of a verb, when the verb is done to something: dog bites man.
• Absolutive is used in two scenarios: the doer of a verb when not done to something (dog bites), and the done-to of a verb (man bites dog).
• Genitive is the possessor of something: dog’s tail hits man.
• Dative is the recipeint of something: man gives ball to dog.

Ergative	Suffix -e takhie /taxiˈe/ dog (doing the verb to something)
Absolutive	No affix takhi /taˈxi/ dog (doing the verb, but not to something)
Genitive	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -an takhin /taˈxin/ dogʼs
Dative	If ends with vowel: Suffix -r Else: Suffix -ar takhir /taˈxir/ to (the/a) dog

   

Singular	No affix takhi /taˈxi/ dog
Plural	If ends with vowel: Suffix -d Else: Suffix -ad takhid /taˈxid/ dogs

 

Articles

 

	Definite	Indefinite
Singular	pra /pra/ the	qa /qa/ a
Plural	mrtwfid /mrtwfid/ the	khtug /xtug/ some

 

Pronouns

 

	Ergative	Absolutive	Genitive	Dative
1st singular	arnf /arnf/ I	kha /xa/ me, I	sǔ /sy/ mine	ka /ka/ to me
2nd singular	re /re/ you	do /do/ you	mab /mab/ yours	man /man/ to you
3rd singular	khmnwa /xmnwa/ he, she, it	sǔr /syr/ him, her, it, he, she	ma /ma/ his, hers, its	wur /wur/ to him, her, it
1st plural	bwe /bwe/ we	nfrirs /nfrirs/ us, we	sin /sin/ ours	dha /dha/ to us
2nd plural	nba /nba/ you all	sih /sih/ you all	war /war/ yours (pl)	khwad /xwad/ to you all
3rd plural	khpri /xpri/ they	wamf /wamf/ them, they	wnǔ /wny/ theirs	pra /pra/ to them

 

Possessive determiners

 

1st singular	sǔ /sy/ my
2nd singular	mab /mab/ your
3rd singular	ma /ma/ his, her, its
1st plural	sin /sin/ our
2nd plural	war /war/ your (pl)
3rd plural	wnǔ /wny/ their

 

Verbs

 

	Singular	Plural
Present	Suffix -a bega /beˈga/ (I/you/he/she) learns	If ends with vowel: Suffix -b Else: Suffix -ob begob /beˈgob/ (we/they) learn
Past	Suffix -ag begag /beˈgag/ (I/you/he/she) learned	If ends with vowel: Suffix -n Else: Suffix -an began /beˈgan/ (we/they) learned
Remote past	Suffix -an began /beˈgan/ (I/you/he/she) learned (long ago)	Suffix -oh begoh /beˈgoh/ (we/they) learned (long ago)

  Ket uses a standalone particle word for future tense:

Future

Particle before the verb: sne - sne beg /sne beg/ will learn

 

Numbers

  Ket has a base-20 number system:   1 - ta
2 - imntt
3 - si
4 - bdi
5 - swa
6 - ti
7 - wpas
8 - qarnf
9 - wnnen
10 - o
11 - sǔmubǔs
12 - gudkemnta
13 - khashra
14 - madkowr
15 - nswtǔskemǔ
16 - sibeqan
17 - nswtǔskag
18 - rtǔhi
19 - bwumt
20 - dharkukhi
21 - dharkukhi we ta “twenty and one”
400 - ta ob “one fourhundred”
401 - ta ob we ta “one fourhundred and one”
800 - imntt ob “two fourhundred”
8000 - ta chyushan “one eightthousand”  

Derivational morphology

  Adjective → adverb = If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -os
Adjective → noun (the quality of being [adj]) = Suffix -i
Adjective → verb (to make something [adj]) = Suffix -or
Noun → adjective (having the quality of [noun]) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -h Else: Suffix -uh
Noun → adjective relating to noun (e.g. economy → economic) = Suffix -a
Noun to verb = Suffix -u
Verb → adjective (result of doing [verb]) = Suffix -in
Tending to = If ends with vowel: Suffix -r Else: Suffix -ur
Verb → noun (the act of [verb]) = Suffix -a
Verb → noun that verb produces (e.g. know → knowledge) = Suffix -as
One who [verb]s (e.g. paint → painter) = Suffix -yrs
Place of (e.g. wine → winery) = If ends with vowel: Suffix -h Else: Suffix -yh
Diminutive = If ends with vowel: Suffix -s Else: Suffix -os
Augmentative = Suffix -id