Arin is an extinct Yeniseian language formerly spoken in Russia along the Yenisei River, predominantly on its left shore, between Yeniseysk and Krasnoyarsk,[1] north of the Minusinsk region. It became extinct in the 18th century.[1] It is classified as belonging to the Arinic branch, being its only attested language.[2]
Hydronyms assocated with Arin have the suffixes -set and -sat (meaning "river") and -kul' (meaning "water"). These hydronyms, along with Khanty folklore telling of an eastern people known as the ar-jäx "Ar people", indicate that Arin may have once been spread out as far west as the Ob.[1][2]
It is believed that the term Ar or Ara was used by speakers of Arin to refer to themselves.
Etymological analysis suggests that speakers of the Arin language, as with other members of the Yeniseian people, were bilingual in Siberian Turkic languages; for example, the Arin word teminkur (meaning "ore") has been suggested to stem from the Old Turkic compound word *tämir qān (meaning "iron blood").[3]
The closest known relative of Arin, Pumpokol, has been suggested to be similar to the language of the ruling elite of the Xiongnu,[4] as well as that of the Jie ruling class of the Later Zhao dynasty.[5]