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Proto-Samoyedic, orProto-Samoyed, is thereconstructed ancestral language of theSamoyedic languages:Nenets (Tundra andForest),Enets,Nganasan,Selkup, as well as extinctKamas andMator. Samoyedic is one of the principal branches of theUralic language family, and its ancestor isProto-Uralic. It has been suggested that Proto-Samoyedic greatly influenced the development ofTocharian, anIndo-European language.^[1]

A fairly complex system of vowel phonemes is reconstructed for Proto-Samoyedic:

The system is retained relatively faithfully inSelkup (though expanded withvowel length). Two of the vowel contrasts are however only retained inNganasan: the distinction of front and back reduced vowels, and that of *i versus *e. For the remainder of the family, following the mergers *e > *i and *ǝ̑ > *ə, a further shared change is raising of *ä > *e.^[2] Earlier works often thus give a slightly different transcription of several vowels:^[3]

Even though the number of vowel phonemes was high, there were no long vowels or phonemic diphthongs. A peculiar feature of the reconstructed vowel system is the occurrence of vowel sequences, which consisted of any full vowel followed by a reduced vowel: for example, *tuǝ̑ 'feather', *kåǝ̑så 'man'. These sequences were not diphthongs; the vowels belonged to separate syllables. Evidence of the vowel sequences has been preserved in only part of the Samoyedic languages, primarily in Nganasan andEnets. Wagner-Nagy (2004)^[4] lists the following examples:

• Close + reduced: *iə, *iǝ̑, *üə, *üǝ̑, *uə, *uǝ̑
• Mid + reduced: *öǝ̑, *e̮ǝ̑, *oǝ̑, *oə
• Open + reduced: *äǝ̑ (> *eǝ̑), *åǝ̑
• Close + open: *uå
• Reduced + open: *ǝ̑å

Proto-Samoyedic hadvowel harmony like many other Uralic languages. Harmony determined whether a front vocalic or a back vocalicallomorph of asuffix was used. However, the restrictions imposed by vowel harmony were not absolute because also disharmonic word-stems can be reconstructed. Such stems break vowel harmony by combining front and back vowels: e.g. Proto-Samoyedic *kålä 'fish', *wäsa 'iron'.

In contrast to the vowel system, the consonant system is rather simple with only 13 phonemes:

The exact sound value of the affricate is not entirely clear; it may originally have beenretroflex[ʈ͡ʂ] rather than dental or alveolar[t͡s]. It has remained distinct only in Selkup, merging elsewhere with *t.

As inProto-Uralic, the ancestor of Proto-Samoyedic, the first syllable of words was always stressed, and hence there was no contrastivestress. Contrastivetones did not occur either.

As in Proto-Uralic, words could begin with a maximum of one consonant: initialconsonant clusters were not allowed. Anotherphonotactic constraint inherited from Proto-Uralic was that the consonants *r and *ŋ were not allowed word-initially. Proto-Samoyedic had, however, innovated final consonant clusters in a few words. In all of them, the first consonant in the cluster was the semivowel *j, as in *wajŋ 'breath'. Thus, thesyllable structure of Proto-Samoyedic was altogether (C)V(j)(C).

Inside words, clusters of two consonants were common. Clusters of three consonants were again possible only if the first consonant of the cluster was *j, as in *wajkkǝ̑ 'neck'.

Palatalization of consonants, most prominently *k, has occurred in all recorded Samoyedic languages. This is however a post-Proto-Samoyedic development, as the details differ in each branch due to vowel developments.^[5]

• The Nenets-Enets group palatalizes both *k and *s to /sʲ/.
• Nganasan, Selkup and Kamassian palatalize *k to a distinct /ʃ/. Nganasan also palatalizes *s to /sʲ/.
• Mator appears to have no palatalization of *k; however, *s is, somewhat unusually, velarized to /k/.
• Nenets-Enets and Nganasan have prominent palatalization of other consonants as well, leading to contraction of the vowel system.

Other widespread developments includeprothesis of *ŋ, initial lenition of *p, andfortition of the semivowels *w, *j.

• In Nganasan, Nenets and Enets, PS vowel-initial words gain an initial /ŋ/ viarhinoglottophilia (which may be subsequently palatalized to /nʲ/). This is occasionally found in other Samoyedic languages as well, usually with the exception of Mator.
• PS initial *p is lenited to /f/ in Enets, /h/ in Mator and Nganasan. (/f/ still appears in the oldest Nganasan records.)
• PS initial *w remains only in Nenets. In Selkup, it becomes /kʷ/; all other varieties shift it to /b/.
• PS initial *j remains in both Nenets and Enets. It becomes /tʲ/ in Selkup, and /dʲ/ in other varieties.
• In Mator and Kamassian, /b/, /dʲ/ are furthermore nasalized to /m/, /nʲ/ preceding a word-internal nasal. This has been anareal change, shared also withSiberian Turkic languages such asKhakas.^[6]

Proto-Samoyedic was a fairly typicalagglutinative language with only littlemorphophonological alteration, apart from vowel harmony. In the following,-A marks anarchiphoneme realized as-å in words with back-vocalic harmony,-ä in words with front-vocalic harmony.

Threenumbers were distinguished: singular,dual andplural. Possession was indicated withpossessive suffixes.

Nouns distinguished seven cases:

• Nominative: (no ending)
• Genitive: *-n
• Accusative: *-m
• Locative: *-kə-nA
• Ablative: *-kə-tə
• Dative: *-kə-
• Prosecutive: *-mə-nA

Verbs were conjugated formood,tense,number andperson. There were also separate subjective and objectiveconjugations.

Derivational suffixes were numerous, and could form both verbs and nominals.^[7]

Most Proto-Samoyedic phonemes continue the corresponding Proto-Uralic phonemes unchanged. The most prominent changes are:^[5][8]

• PU *s, š > PS *t.
• PU *ś > PS *s.
• PU *δ > PS *r.
• PU *δ́ > PS *j.
• PU *l in most positions > PS *j. *l remains initially before PU *i̮,^[9] as well as in PS intervocalic positions.
• PU *u > PS *ǝ̑ preceding a PU stem vowel *a.
• PU *i̮ > PS *e̮ in PS closed syllables.
• PU *ü > PS *i. PS *ü is of secondary origin.
• PU stem-final *i is reduced to PS *ə/ǝ̑ (per harmony), and if not preceded by an original consonant cluster, subsequently lost.
• PU *a, o generally become PS *å, though in many cases PS *a also appears; the conditioning for this is not entirely clear.
• PU stem-final *å becomes PS *ä after a lateral consonant (PU *l or *δ́; this points to an intermediate stage *ĺ in the development of the latter.)
• PU *o remains in monosyllabic roots (both primary, and those resulting from loss of final *ø).
• PU *k, *x, *w, *j are lost between vowels in roots of the shape *CVCi, yielding monosyllabic PS roots.
• PU *k and preconsonantal *w are generally lost in medial consonant clusters.

Examples:

• PU *äjmä "needle" > PS *äjmä
• PU *kala "fish" > PS *kålä
• PU *muna "egg" > PS *mǝ̑nå
• PU *weti "water" > PS *wet
• PU *nüδi "handle" > PS *nir
• PU *i̮pti "hair" > PS *e̮ptǝ̑
• PU *täwδi "full" > PS *tärə
• PU *mośki- "to wash" > PS *måsǝ̑-
• PU *suksi "ski" > PS *tutǝ̑
• PU *ńi̮xli "arrow" > PS *ńe̮ǝ̑j
• PU *käxli "tongue" > PS *käəj

Proto-Samoyedic numerals with wider Uralic cognates are:^[10]

• *ketä '2'
• *säjʔwǝ '7'
• *wüt '10' (cognate with Finno-Ugric numerals for '5')

Innovative Proto-Samoyedic numerals with no apparent wider Uralic cognates:^[10]

• *nakur '3'
• *tättǝ '4'
• *sǝmpǝlaŋkǝ '5'
• *mǝktut '6'

Janhunen, Juha 1998. Samoyedic. In: Daniel Abondolo (ed.),The Uralic Languages, pp. 457–479. London / New York: Routledge.

• Janhunen, Juha (1977).Samojedischer Wortschatz: Gemeinsamojedische Etymologien. Castreanumin toimitteita. Vol. 17. Helsinki.ISBN 951-45-1161-1.ISSN 0355-0141.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

• Samoyedic languages
• Proto-languages

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