Reconstruction:Proto-Yeniseian/-xejn

This Proto-Yeniseian entry contains reconstructed terms and roots. As such, the term(s) in this entry are not directly attested, but are hypothesized to have existed based on comparative evidence.

Proto-Yeniseian

Alternative reconstructions

  • *senVŋ (per Starostin 1994-2005)[1]
  • *sen-, *senʌŋ (per Vajda-Werner 2022)
  • *sēˑnVŋʷ (for Proto-Ketic, per Fortescue-Vajda 2022)

Etymology

Compared to Proto-Na-Dene *sxin ~ *xejn (“shamanistic magic”); Proto-Athabaskan *xʸən (“spiritual power, medicine, medicine song”) ~ *ɣʸən (“to act as a shaman”),[2] Navajo sin (“song”), Eyak xiˑl (“shaman”) and Tlingit -saʼn (“to heal”), alongisde Tlingit at shí (“singing”) (verbal noun).[3]

Ketic forms are folk-etymologically connected to Ket сель, сеʼӈ (sʲɛ̄lʲ, sʲɛˀŋ, “reindeer”), owing to the traditional belief system of Yeniseian peoples, though two terms are unrelated to each other.

Verb

*-xejn (action nominal *xejn-Vŋʷ)

  1. (shamanism, intransitive) to shamanize, to cure by singing

Descendants

  • Ketic:
    • ⇒ Ket: сэнбэдъӈ (sɛ́nbɛɾʌŋ, “to make magic”) (Central dialects, action nominal)
  • ⇒ Proto-Yeniseian: *xejnVŋʷ (“shamanizing, magic-casting”) (action nominal)
    • Ketic:
      • Imbak Ket: seäneŋ (listed as 'Jenissej-Ostjakisch')
      • Imbak Ket: séeneŋ (“male shaman”), kiːm-séeneŋ (“female shaman”)
        • Ket: сенаӈ (sʲɛ́naŋ), сенъӈ (sʲɛ́nʌŋ, “male shaman”)
        • ⇒ Ket: сенам (sʲɛ́nam, “female shaman”) (cf. *-m (feminine noun suffix))
      • Yug: сэныӈ (sɛnɨŋ)
        • ⇒ Yug: сэнаӈ-хачит (sɛnaŋ-χáčit, “Orthodox priest”, literally “old shaman”)
    • Kottic:
      • Kott: šênaŋ (“magic”) (action nominal)
        • Kott: šênaŋâkn (“I cast magic.”)
        • ⇒ Kott: šênaŋ-hit (“male shaman”)
    • Pumpokolic:
      • >? Pumpokol: phening (“shaman”) (recorded only once by a traveler in the 18th century, not found in recorded wordlists. ph- either stands for the velar fricative /x/, or this term is analyzable as p-hening, "my shaman", for which compare p-hálla (“my son”).)

References

  1. ^ https://starlingdb.org/cgi-bin/response.cgi?single=1&basename=%2fDATA%2fYENISEY%2fYENET&text_number=616&root=config
  2. ^ Leer, Jeff (1996), Comparative Athabaskan Lexicon‎[1], volume yə, ye, Alaska Native Language Archive, pages 56-58a
  3. ^ Twitchell, X̱ʼunei Lance (2020), Tlingit Online Dictionary, Juneau, Alaska: Independently published, supported by Goldbelt Heritage Foundation and the University of Alaska Southeast, →ISBN, pages 12, 204

Further reading

  • Fortescue, Michael; Vajda, Edward (2022), “81.) ~*xejn”, in Mid-Holocene Language Connections between Asia and North America (Brill's Studies in the Indigenous Languages of the Americas; 17)‎[2], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 364-365
  • Vajda, Edward; Werner, Heinrich (2022), “*senbedʌŋ”, in Comparative-Historical Yeniseian Dictionary (Languages of the World/Dictionaries; 79, 80), volume 2, Muenchen: LINCOM GmbH, →ISBN, page 776
  • Vajda, Edward; Werner, Heinrich (2022), “*senʌŋ (1, 2)”, in Comparative-Historical Yeniseian Dictionary (Languages of the World/Dictionaries; 79, 80), volume 2, Muenchen: LINCOM GmbH, →ISBN, pages 778-779
  • Vajda, Edward (2024), “*xejn-Vŋʷ”, in The Languages and Linguistics of Northern Asia: Language Families (The World of Linguistics [WOL]; 10.1)‎[3], volume 1, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, →DOI, →ISBN, page 421
  • Werner, Heinrich (2002), “s'ɛ́naŋ/s'ɛ́nəŋ”, in Vergleichendes Wörterbuch der Jenissej-Sprachen, volume 2, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISBN, page 184
  • Werner, Heinrich (2005), “shaman, shaman woman”, in Die Jenissej-Sprachen des 18. Jahrhunderts, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, →ISBN, page 320
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