The Enets languages

Abstract Tundra and Forest Enets, indigenous languages spoken on the Taimyr Peninsula in Northern Siberia by several dozen elderly multilingual individuals, are the smallest Samoyedic languages and severely endangered. Until recently, both languages have been classified as dialects of a single language (in older sources also known as "Yenisey Samoyed"), but against recent data, they are better analysed as separate languages, as there are marked differences in phonology, morphology, morphosyntax, and the lexicon. Apparently, syntactic differences are to be expected too, but owing to the scarcity of published Tundra Enets data, this section inevitably remains impressionistic. As Tundra Enets is insufficiently covered, the description will inevitably focus on Forest Enets. Wherever possible, individual language differences will be addressed given that sufficient data is available.