Mator or Motor was a Uralic language belonging to the group of Samoyedic languages, extinct since the 1840s. It was spoken in the northern region of the Sayan Mountains in Siberia, close to the Mongolian north border. The speakers of Mator, Motorians or Motors [ru], lived in a wide area from the eastern parts of the Minusinsk District (okrug) along the Yenisei River to the region of Lake Baikal. Three dialects of Mator were recorded: Mator proper as well as Taygi and Karagas (occasionally portrayed as separate languages, but their differences are few). Mator was influenced by Mongolic, Tungusic and Turkic languages before it went extinct, and may have even been possibly influenced by the Iranic languages.[3]

Mator
Native toRussia
Extinct1839
Dialects
  • Mator
  • Taygi
  • Karagas
Language codes
ISO 639-3mtm
mtm
 ymt
Glottologmato1250
nucl1288
Traditional distribution of the extinct Sayan Samoyedic languages including Mator[1][2]

Today the term "Mator people" is simply an alternate name of the Koibal, one of the five territorial sub-division groups of the Khakas. (Note that the name "Koibal" likewise derives from the related Samoyedic Koibal language.)

Mator has been frequently grouped together with Selkup and Kamassian as "South Samoyedic". This is however a grouping by geographical area, and not considered to constitute an actual sub-branch of the Samoyedic languages.

Example of words in Mator[3] edit

  • kälä = fish
  • mondoh = root
  • sörüh = rain
  • kaduh = storm
  • baada = word
  • kaasa = human
  • ämdä = horn
  • täjbä = nail
  • täär = divide, share
  • köhö = winter
  • öröh = autumn
  • teite = four
  • mən = me, I
  • tən = you
  • ter = hair
  • ajba = head
  • siime = eye

References edit

  1. ^ Rantanen, Timo; Tolvanen, Harri; Roose, Meeli; Ylikoski, Jussi; Vesakoski, Outi (2022-06-08). "Best practices for spatial language data harmonization, sharing and map creation—A case study of Uralic". PLOS ONE. 17 (6): e0269648. Bibcode:2022PLoSO..1769648R. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0269648. PMC 9176854. PMID 35675367.
  2. ^ Rantanen, Timo, Vesakoski, Outi, Ylikoski, Jussi, & Tolvanen, Harri. (2021). Geographical database of the Uralic languages (v1.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4784188
  3. ^ a b http://digit.bibl.u-szeged.hu/00000/00094/00041/altaica_041_000-475.pdf[bare URL PDF]

External links edit