The languages are Tundra Nenets, which has a higher number of speakers, spoken by some 30,000 to 40,000 people[5][6] in an area stretching from the Kanin Peninsula to the Yenisei River,[7] and Forest Nenets, spoken by 1,000 to 1,500 people in the area around the Agan, Pur, Lyamin and Nadym rivers.

Tundra Nenets has, to a lesser degree, been influenced by Komi and Northern Khanty.

[9] An overarching feature of the Nenets languages is the introduction of systematic palatalization of almost all consonants.

[10] The velar consonants *k and *ŋ were additionally shifted to *sʲ and *nʲ when palatalized.

Similar changes have also occurred in the other Samoyedic languages spoken in the tundra zone: Enets, Nganasan and the extinct Yurats.