Khanty (also spelled Khanti or Hanti), previously known as Ostyak, is a Uralic language family composed of multiple dialect continuua, varyingly considered a language or a collection of distinct languages, spoken in the Khanty-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets Okrugs. There were thought to be around 7,500 speakers of Northern Khanty and 2,000 speakers of Eastern Khanty in 2010, with Southern Khanty being extinct since the early 20th century. The number of speakers reported in the 2020 census was 13,900. The Khanty language has many dialects. The western group includes the Obdorian, Ob, and Irtysh dialects. The eastern group includes the Surgut and Vakh-Vasyugan dialects, which, in turn, are subdivided into thirteen other dialects. All these dialects differ significantly from each other by phonetic, morphological, and lexical features to the extent that the three main "dialects" (northern, southern and eastern) are mutually unintelligible. Thus, based on their significant multifactorial differences, Eastern, Northern and Southern Khanty could be considered separate but closely related languages.

Literary languages

The Khanty written language was first created after the October Revolution on the basis of the Latin script in 1930 and then with the Cyrillic alphabet (with the additional letter ⟨ң⟩ for ) from 1937. Khanty literary works are usually written in three Northern dialects, Kazym, Shuryshkar, and Middle Ob. Newspaper reporting and broadcasting are usually done in the Kazym dialect.

Varieties

Khanty is divided in three main dialect groups, which are to a large degree mutually unintelligible, and therefore best considered three languages: Northern, Southern and Eastern. Individual dialects are named after the rivers they are or were spoken on. Southern Khanty is probably extinct by now.

[Language-dialects of Khanty (and Mansi):

{{legend|Yellow|Obdorsk (Salekhard) dialect}} {{legend|Orange|Ob dialects}} {{legend|Red|Southern (Irtysh) Khanty}} {{legend|Turquoise|Surgut dialects}} {{legend|LimeGreen|Far Eastern (Vakh-Vasyugan) dialects|undefined | upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Khanty///Mansi///dialects.svg]

Phonology

A general feature of all Khanty varieties is that while long vowels are not distinguished, a contrast between plain vowels (e.g. ) vs. reduced or extra-short vowels (e.g. ) is found. This corresponds to an actual length distinction in Khanty's close relative Mansi. According to scholars who posit a common Ob-Ugric ancestry for the two, this was also the original Proto-Ob-Ugric situation. Palatalization of consonants is phonemic in Khanty, as in most other Uralic languages. Retroflex consonants are also found in most varieties of Khanty. Khanty word stress is usually on the initial syllable.

Proto-Khanty

19 consonants are reconstructed for Proto-Khanty, listed with the traditional UPA transcription shown above and an IPA transcription shown below. A major consonant isogloss among the Khanty varieties is the reflexation of the lateral consonants, *ɬ (from Proto-Uralic *s and *š) and *l (from Proto-Uralic *l and *ð). These generally merge, however with varying results: /l/ in the Obdorsk and Far Eastern dialects, /ɬ/ in the Kazym and Surgut dialects, and /t/ elsewhere. The Vasjugan dialect still retains the distinction word-initially, having instead shifted *ɬ > /j/ in this position. Similarly, the palatalized lateral *ľ developed to /lʲ/ in Far Eastern and Obdorsk, /ɬʲ/ in Kazym and Surgut, and /tʲ/ elsewhere. The retroflex lateral *ḷ remains in Far Eastern, but in /t/-dialects develops into a new plain /l/. Other dialect isoglosses include the development of original *ć to a palatalized stop /tʲ/ in Eastern and Southern Khanty, but to a palatalized sibilant /sʲ ~ ɕ/ in Northern, and the development of original *č similarly to a sibilant /ʂ/ (= UPA: ) in Northern Khanty, partly also in Southern Khanty.

Grammar

The noun

The nominal suffixes include dual ', plural ', dative ', locative/instrumental '. For example: Singular, dual, and plural possessive suffixes may be added to singular, dual, and plural nouns, in three persons, for 33 = 27 forms. A few, from məs "cow", are:

Cases

Pronouns

The personal pronouns are, in the nominative case: The cases of ma are accusative manət and dative manəm. The demonstrative pronouns and adjectives are: Basic interrogative pronouns are:

Numerals

Khanty numerals, compared with Hungarian and Finnish, are: The formation of multiples of ten shows Slavic influence in Khanty, whereas Hungarian uses the collective derivative suffix -van (-ven) closely related to the suffix of the adverbial participle which is -va (-ve) today but used to be -ván (-vén). Note also the regularity of "house" and "hundred".

Nomen

Pronouns

Morphology

Verbs

Khanty verbs have to agree with the subject in person and number. There are two paradigms for conjugation. One where the verb only agrees with the subject (subjective conjugation column in the verbal suffixes table) and one where the verb agrees with both subject and object (objective conjugation in the same table). In a sentence with a subject and an object the subjective conjugation puts the object in focus. The same kind of sentence with objective conjugation leaves the object topically. Khanty verbs have to agree with the subject in person and number. There are two paradigms for conjugation. One where the verb only agrees with the subject (subjective conjugation column in the verbal suffixes table) and one where the verb agrees with both subject and object (objective conjugation in the same table). In a sentence with a subject and an object the subjective conjugation puts the object in focus. The same kind of sentence with objective conjugation leaves the object topically. Khanty has the tenses present and past, the moods indicative and imperative and two voices, passive and active. Generally, the present tense is marked and the past is unmarked, but for some verbs present and past are distinguished by vowel alternation or consonant insertion. The order of suffixes is always tense-(passive.)number-person. Non-finite verb forms are: infinitive, converb, and four particle verb forms. Infinitive can complement a modal verb or a motion verb such as go. Standing alone it means necessity or possibility. The participles are present, past, negative and conditional. The first two are in use while the latter two are seemingly going extinct.

Questions

Yes/no questions are marked only by intonation. Indirect yes/no questions are constructed with “or” For example: S/he asked if Misha was tired [or not]. Wh-questions most often contain a wh-word in the focus position.

Negation

Negation is marked by the particle əntə, which appears adjacent to the verb and between the particles of particle verbs. This is different from some other uralic languages, as they tend to have a negation verb or at least a negation particle that is inflected in some way.

Syntax

Both Khanty and Mansi are basically nominative–accusative languages but have innovative morphological ergativity. In an ergative construction, the object is given the same case as the subject of an intransitive verb, and the locative is used for the agent of the transitive verb (as an instrumental). This may be used with some specific verbs, for example "to give": the literal Anglicisation would be "by me (subject) a fish (object) gave to you (indirect object)" for the equivalent of the sentence "I gave you a fish". However, the ergative is only morphological (marked using a case) and not syntactic, so that, in addition, these may be passivized in a way resembling English. For example, in Mansi, "a dog (agent) bit you (object)" could be reformatted as "you (object) were bitten, by a dog (instrument)". Khanty is an agglutinative language and employs an SOV order.

Word order

On the phrasal level, the traditional relations are typical for an OV language. For example: PPs can come after the verb. Manner adverbs precede the verb. The verb phrase precedes the auxiliary. The possessor precedes the possessed. On the sentence level, case alignment in Surgut Khanty clauses follows a nominative-accusative pattern. Both the subject and the object can be dropped if they are pragmatically inferable. This is possible even in the same sentence. Khanty is a verb final language, but this is not absolute as about 10% of sentences have other phrases behind the verb. While the word order in matrix clauses is more variable, in embedded clauses it is quite strict. The constraints are due to grammatical relations and discourse information. In older sources these phrases have content that was already introduced in the discourse while in newer sources newly introduced content can also be placed post verbally. Schön and Gugán speculate that this is because of contact with other languages, namely Russian.

Imperative

Imperative clauses have the same structure as declarative sentences, apart from complex predicates where the verb may precede the preverb. Prohibitive sentences include a prohibitive particle.

Passive

In Khanty passive voice is achieved by moving other phrases than the subject into subject position, focus on the agent and indefiniteness of the agent.

Pro-drop

In Khanty names or pronouns can only be dropped if they are obvious from the context and marked on the verb.

Lexicon

The lexicon of the Khanty varieties is documented relatively well. The most extensive early source is Toivonen (1948), based on field records by K. F. Karjalainen from 1898 to 1901. An etymological interdialectal dictionary, covering all known material from pre-1940 sources, is Steinitz et al. (1966–1993). Schiefer (1972) summarizes the etymological sources of Khanty vocabulary, as per Steinitz et al., as follows: Futaky (1975) additionally proposes a number of loanwords from the Tungusic languages, mainly Evenki.