Southern Khanty language

Southern Khanty is a Uralic language, frequently considered a dialect of a unified Khanty language, spoken by 56 people in 2010.^[2] It is considered to be extinct,^[1] its speakers having shifted starting in the 18th century to Russian or Siberian Tatar,^[3][4] but some speakers of the Kyshikov or Ust-Nazym dialect^[5] were found in its former territory. Speakers of Surgut Khanty have moved into the former territory of the Demyanka dialect.^[6] It was transitional between the Northern Khanty and Eastern Khanty dialect groups, but it is now a distinct language.^[1]

Southern Khanty
хандэ Khande
Native to	Russia (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug, Tyumen Oblast)
Region	lower Irtysh
Ethnicity	<1,000 southern Khanty
Extinct	mid-20th century[1] 56 (2010)[2]
Language family	Uralic Khanty Southern Khanty
Dialects	Irtysh † Demyansky † Konda † Ust-Nazym Sogom †
Writing system	unwritten
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Linguist List	1og
	kca-sou
Glottolog	sout3226  Southern Khanty
ELP	Southern Khanty Southern Khanty
Map of Khanty and Mansi varieties in the early 20th century, with   Southern Khanty

Classification

Southern and Northern Khanty share various innovations and can be grouped together as Western Khanty. These include loss of full front rounded vowels: *üü, *öö, *ɔ̈ɔ̈ > *ii, *ee, *ää (but *ɔ̈ɔ̈ > *oo adjacent to *k, *ŋ),^[7] loss of vowel harmony, fricativization of *k to /x/ adjacent to back vowels,^[8] and the loss of the *ɣ phoneme.^[9]

Dialects

Dialects of Southern Khanty:^[10]

• Upper Demjanka, Lower Demjanka, Konda, Cingali, Krasnojarsk

See also

• Southern Mansi language