Nenets (ненэцяʼ вада / Nenėcjaˀ vada)

Nenets belongs to the Samoyedic branch of the Finno-Ugric languages. It is spoken by about 27,000 people in Siberia, particularly in the Nenets, Yamalo-Nenets, and Taymyr Autonomous Okrugs, in the Komi Republic, and in the eastern parts of Murmansk Oblast on the Kola peninsula in the Russian Federation.

There are two main dialects of Nenets: Tundra Nenets and Forest Nenets, and there is only limited mutual intelligibility between them. About 95% of Nenets speakers speak Tundra Nenets.

Nenets first appeared in written form in the 1830s in religious texts published by Venyamin Smirnov, an archimandrite or superior bishop in the Eastern Orthodox church. Before that, the Nenets used various pictographic symbols called "tamga" to mark property. In 1931, a standard, Latin-based orthography was established. That was abandoned when the Cyrillic alphabet was adopted in 1937

Latin alphabet for Tundra Nenets

Latin alphabet for Tundra Nenets

Cyrillic alphabet for Tundra Nenets (Ненэцяʼ вада)

Cyrillic alphabet for Tundra Nenets

Notes

Cyrillic alphabet for Forest Nenets (Нешаӈ вата)

Cyrillic alphabet for Forest Nenets

Notes

Some of the information on this page was provided by Wolfram Siegel and 이윤호

Sample text in Nenets

Ет хибяри ненэць соямарианта хуркари правада тнява, ӈобой ненээя ниду нись токалба, ӈыбтамба илевату тара.

Transliteration

Et xibjari nenėc’ sojamarianta xurkari pravada tnjava, ṇoboj nenėėja nidu nic’ tokalba, ṇybtamba ilevatu tara.

Translation

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)

Sample video in Nenets

Information about Nenets | Numbers

Links

Information about the Nenets language and people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nenets_language
http://www.helsinki.fi/~tasalmin/tn.html
http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/nenets.shtml

Samoyedic languages

Enets, Nenets, Nganasan

Languages written with the Cyrillic alphabet

Abaza, Abkhaz, Adyghe, Aghul, Akhvakh, Akkala Sámi, Aleut, Altay, Alyutor, Andi, Archi, Assyrian / Neo-Assyrian, Avar, Azeri, Bagvalal, Balkar, Bashkir, Belarusian, Bezhta, Bosnian, Botlikh, Budukh, Bulgarian, Buryat, Chamalal, Chechen, Chelkan, Chukchi, Chulym, Chuvash, Crimean Tatar, Dargwa, Daur, Dolgan, Dungan, Enets, Erzya, Even, Evenki, Gagauz, Godoberi, Hinukh, Hunzib, Ingush, Interslavic, Itelmen, Juhuri, Kabardian, Kaitag, Kalderash Romani, Kalmyk, Karaim, Karakalpak, Karata, Karelian, Kazakh, Ket, Khakas, Khanty, Khinalug, Khorasani Turkic, Khwarshi, Kildin Sámi, Kili, Komi, Koryak, Krymchak, Kryts, Kubachi, Kumandy, Kumyk, Kurdish, Kyrgyz, Lak, Lezgi, Lingua Franca Nova, Lithuanian, Ludic, Macedonian, Mansi, Mari, Moksha, Moldovan, Mongolian, Montenegrin, Nanai, Negidal, Nenets, Nganasan, Nivkh, Nogai, Old Church Slavonic, Oroch, Orok, Ossetian, Pontic Greek, Romanian, Rushani, Russian, Rusyn, Rutul, Selkup, Serbian, Shor, Shughni, Siberian Tatar, Sirenik, Slovio, Soyot, Tabassaran, Tajik, Talysh, Tat, Tatar, Teleut, Ter Sámi, Tindi, Tofa, Tsakhur, Tsez, Turkmen, Tuvan, Ubykh, Udege, Udi, Udmurt, Ukrainian, Ulch, Urum, Uyghur, Uzbek, Veps, Votic, Wakhi, West Polesian, Xibe, Yaghnobi, Yakut, Yazghulami, Yukaghir (Northern / Tundra), Yukaghir (Southern / Kolyma), Yupik (Central Siberian)

Languages written with the Latin alphabet

Page last modified: 23.04.21

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