Group: | Asans |
Native Name: | kottuen |
Population: | merged into Evenki people and Russians |
Popplace: | southern Siberia, along the Yenisey |
Languages: | Evenki language, Russian language, formerly Assan language |
Related Groups: | Kott people, other Yeniseian people |
The Asan or Assan were a Yeniseian speaking, hunter-fisherer people in Siberia, distinct from the Kotts. In the 18th and 19th centuries they were assimilated by the Evenki and Russians.[1] They spoke the Assan language, closely related to, and can be considered a dialect of,[2] Kott. The Assans, after their migration down the Yenisei river, settled around the and Biryusa rivers. By the time of the publication of the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary, there were less than 100 scattered families left of them, and they had been Turkicized.[3] The village, founded in 1897, bears their name.[4]