Eskimo–Aleut languages



The Eskimo–Aleut languages, Eskaleut languages, or Inuit-Yupik-Unangan languages are a language family native to Alaska, the Canadian Arctic (Nunavut and Inuvialuit Settlement Region), Nunavik, Nunatsiavut, Greenland, and the Chukotka Peninsula in the far east of Russia. It is also known as Eskaleutian, Eskaleutic or Inuit–Yupik-Unangan.

The Eskimo–Aleut language family is divided into two branches: the Eskimo languages and the Aleut language. The Aleut branch consists of a single language, Aleut, spoken in the Aleutian Islands and the Pribilof Islands. It is divided into several dialects. The Eskimo languages are divided into two branches: the Yupik languages, spoken in western and southwestern Alaska and in Chukotka, and the Inuit languages, spoken in northern Alaska, Canada and Greenland. Inuit, which covers a huge range of territory, is divided into several varieties. Neighbouring varieties are quite similar, although those at the farthest distances from the centre in the Diomede Islands and East Greenland are quite divergent.

The proper place of one language, Sirenik, within the Eskimo family has not been settled. While some linguists list it as a branch of Yupik, others list it as a separate branch of the Eskimo family, alongside Yupik and Inuit.

History
The Alaska Native Language Center believes that the common ancestral language of the Eskimo languages and of Aleut divided into the Eskimo and Aleut branches at least 4,000 years ago. The Eskimo language family split into the Yupik and Inuit branches around 1,000 years ago.

The Eskimo–Aleut languages are among the native languages of the Americas. This is a geographical category, not a genealogical one. The Eskimo–Aleut languages are not demonstrably related to the other language families of North America and are believed to represent a separate, and the last, prehistoric migration of people from Asia.

Alexander Vovin (2015) notes that Northern Tungusic languages, which are spoken in eastern Siberia and northeastern China, have Eskimo-Aleut loanwords that are not found in Southern Tungusic, implying that Eskimo-Aleut was once much more widely spoken in eastern Siberia. Vovin (2015) estimates that the Eskimo-Aleut loanwords in Northern Tungusic had been borrowed no more than 2,000 years ago, which was when Tungusic was spreading up north from its homeland in the middle reaches of the Amur River. Vovin (2015) considers the homeland (Urheimat) of Proto-Eskimo-Aleut to be in Siberia rather than in Alaska.

Eskimo–Aleut languages

 * Aleut
 * Western–Central dialects: Atkan, Attuan, Unangan, Bering (60–80 speakers)
 * Eastern dialects: Unalaskan, Pribilof (400 speakers)


 * Eskimo languages (or Yupik–Inuit languages)
 * Yupik (11,000 speakers)
 * Central Alaskan Yup'ik (10,000 speakers)
 * General Central Alaskan Yup’ik language (or Yugtun)
 * Chevak Cup’ik (or Cugtun)
 * Nunivak Cup'ig (or Cugtun)
 * Alutiiq or Pacific Gulf Yupik (400 speakers)
 * Koniag Alutiiq
 * Chugach Alutiiq
 * Central Siberian Yupik or Yuit (Chaplino and St. Lawrence Island, 1,400 speakers)
 * Chaplino dialect (Uŋazigmit)
 * St. Lawrence Island Yupik (Sivuqaghmiistun)
 * Naukan (70 speakers)
 * Sirenik (extinct) (viewed as an independent branch by some)
 * Inuit (98,000 speakers)
 * Inupiaq or Inupiat (northern Alaska, 3,500 speakers)
 * Qawiaraq or Seward Peninsula Inupiaq
 * Inupiatun or Northern Alaska Inupiaq (including Uummarmiutun (Aklavik, Inuvik))
 * Inuvialuktun (western Canada, 765 speakers)
 * Siglitun (Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour, Tuktoyaktuk)
 * Inuinnaqtun (in Ulukhaktok also known as Kangiryuarmiutun)
 * Natsilingmiutut (Nattilik area, Nunavut)
 * Inuktitut (eastern Canada; together with Inuinnaqtun, 40,000 speakers)
 * Nunatsiavummiutut (Nunatsiavut, 550 speakers)
 * Nunavimmiutitut (Nunavik)
 * Qikiqtaaluk nigiani (South Baffin)
 * Qikiqtaaluk uannangani (North Baffin)
 * Aivilimmiutut (Eastcentral Nunavut)
 * Kivallirmiutut (Southeast Nunavut)
 * Greenlandic (Greenland, 54,000 speakers)
 * Kalaallisut (West Greenlandic, 50,000 speakers)
 * Tunumiisut (East Greenlandic, 3,500 speakers)
 * Inuktun or Avanersuaq (Polar Eskimo, approx 1,000 speakers)

Position among the world's language families
Eskimo–Aleut does not have any genetic relationship to any of the world's other language families that is generally accepted by linguists at the present time. There is general agreement that it is not closely related to the other language families of North America. The more credible proposals on the external relations of Eskimo–Aleut all concern one or more of the language families of northern Eurasia, such as Chukotko-Kamchatkan just across the Bering Strait. One of the first such proposals was made by the pioneering Danish linguist Rasmus Rask in 1818, upon noticing similarities between Greenlandic and Finnish. Perhaps the most fully developed such proposal to date is Michael Fortescue's Uralo-Siberian hypothesis, published in 1998.

More recently Joseph Greenberg (2000–2002) suggested grouping Eskimo–Aleut with all of the language families of northern Eurasia (Indo-European, Uralic, Altaic, Korean, Japanese, Ainu, Nivkh/Gilayak, and Chukchi-Kamchatkan), with the exception of Yeniseian, in a proposed language family called Eurasiatic. Such proposals are not generally accepted. Criticisms have been made stating that Greenberg's hypothesis is ahistorical, meaning that it lacks and sacrifices known historical elements of language in favour of external similarities. Although the Eurasiatic hypothesis is generally disregarded by linguists, one critique by Stefan Georg and Alexander Vovin, stated that they were not willing to disregard the theory immediately, although ultimately agreed that Greenberg's conclusion was dubious. Greenberg explicitly states that his developments were based on the previous macro-comparative work done by Vladislav Illich-Svitych and Bomhard and Kerns. By providing evidence of lexical comparison, Greenberg hoped that it would strengthen his hypothesis.

Despite all these efforts, the Eurasiatic language theory was overruled on the basis that mass comparison is not accurate enough an approach. In comparative linguistics, the comparative method bases its validity on highly regular changes, not occasional semantic and phonological similarities, which is what the Eurasiatic hypothesis provides.

In the 1960s Swadesh suggested a connection with the Wakashan languages. This was picked up and expanded by Holst (2005).

Notable features
Every word must have only one root (free morpheme) always at the beginning. Eskimo–Aleut languages have a relatively small number of roots: in the case of Central Alaskan Yup'ik, around two thousand. Following the root are a number of postbases, which are bound morphemes that add to the basic meaning of the root. If the meaning of the postbase is to be expressed alone, a special neutral root (in the case of Central Alaskan Yup'ik and Inuktitut pi) is used.

The basic word schema is as follows: root-(affixes)-inflection-(enclitic). Below is an example from Central Siberian Yupik. There are a total of three affixes internal to the word 'angyagh.' The root (or free morpheme) 'angyagh' and the inflection '-tuq' on the right consist of the indicative mood marker plus third person singular. The enclitic –lu ‘also’ follows the inflection.

Following the postbases are non-lexical suffixes that indicate case on nouns and person and mood on verbs. The number of cases varies, with Aleut languages having a greatly reduced case system compared to Eskimo. The Eskimo languages are ergative–absolutive in nouns and in Yup'ik languages, also in verbal person marking. All Eskimo–Aleut languages have obligatory verbal agreement with agent and patient in transitive clauses, and there are special suffixes used for this purpose in subordinate clauses, which makes these languages, like most in the North Pacific, highly complement deranking.

At the end of a word there can be one of a small number of clitics with meanings such as "but" or indicating a polar question.

Phonologically, the Eskimo–Aleut languages resemble other language families of northern North America (Na-Dene and Tsimshianic) and far-eastern Siberia (Chukotko-Kamchatkan). There are usually only three vowels—,, —though some Yup'ik dialects also have. All Eskimo–Aleut languages lack ejectives, in which they resemble the Siberian languages more than the North American ones. Eskimo–Aleut languages possess voiceless plosives at four positions (bilabial, coronal, velar and uvular) in all languages except Aleut, which has lost the bilabial stops (though it has retained the nasal). There are contrasting voiced and voiceless fricatives at the same positions, and in the Eskimo subfamily a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative is also present. A rare feature of many dialects of Yup'ik and Aleut is contrasting voiceless nasals.

Eskimo
The following vowels and consonants were taken from Michael Fortescue et al., 2010

Vowels
Eskimo /ə/ corresponds to Aleut /i/.

Consonants
Inuit allows only a single initial consonant and no more than two successive consonants between vowels.

Yupik lacks the consonant assimilation process so common to Inuit.

Consonants in parentheses are non-Proto-Eskimo phonemes.

Aleut
The following vowels and consonants were taken from Knut Bergsland, (1997).

Vowels
The Aleut language has six vowels in total: three short vowels /i/, /u/, /a/, and three long vowels /iː/, /uː/, /aː/. Orthographically, they would be spelled ii, uu, and aa. There are no diphthongs in Aleut vowels. The length of the vowel is dependent upon three characteristics: stress, surrounding consonants, and in particularly Eastern Aleut, surrounding vowels. Short vowels are in initial position if a following consonant is velar or labial. For example: the demonstratives uka, ika, and aka.

Long vowels are lower than their short counterpart vowels, but are less retracted if they make contact with a uvular consonant. For example: uuquchiing 'blue fox,' qiiqix̂ 'storm-petrel', and qaaqaan 'eat it!'

Consonants
The Aleut consonants featured below include single Roman letters, digraphs, and one trigraph. Phonemes in parenthesis are found only in Russian and English loanwords, the phoneme in italics is found only in Eastern Aleut, and the bold phonemes are a part of the standard Aleut inventory.

Aleut lacks labial stops and allows clusters of up to three consonants as well as consonant clusters in word initial position.

Noteworthy phonological features: lack of a [p] and its voiceless nasals

Polysynthetic language
Eskimo-Aleut is polysynthetic, which is the process in which a single word is able to contain multiple post-bases or morphemes. The Eskimo–Aleut languages are exclusively suffixing (with the exception of one prefix in Inuktitut which appears in demonstratives). Suffixes are able to combine and ultimately create an unlimited number of words. Some of the morphemes that are able to attach contain features such as, carrying nominal subjects and objects, adverbial information, direct objects, and spatial noun phrases. Polysynthetic languages are said to be a form of extreme agglutination, which allows single words to carry the same information that another language expresses in whole clauses. For example, in central Alaskan Yupik, one can say:

As a polysynthetic language, Eskimo-Aleut is concerned with what "each morpheme means, which categories it can attach to, whether there is any category change, etc. and what type of morphophonological effect occurs to the left as it attaches to the stem".

Morphosyntactic alignment
Ergative-absolutive language:

Eskimo-Aleut follows the basic word order of Subject-Object-Verb (SOV).

Eskimo is an ergative–absolutive language. This means subjects of intransitive verbs and objects of transitive verbs are marked with the absolutive case, while subjects of transitive verbs are marked with the ergative case.

Aleut is not an ergative-absolutive language. It doesn't matter if the verb is transitive or intransitive—subjects and objects are not marked differently.

If a transitive object or an object of possession is openly communicated, ergative case marking will not be expressed. If a transitive object or object of possession is not openly communicated, then ergative case marking will be expressed.

Example of case marking in Aleut:

Syntax
The syntax of Eskimo-Aleut is concerned with the functional use of its morphological structure. The two language branches, although part of the same family, have separated and detached themselves in relation to grammatical similarities. Bergsland states that Aleut, which was once a language more similar to Proto-Eskimo than the current Eskimo languages themselves, has distanced itself from the ancient language.

The case inflections, "relative *-m, instrumental *-mEk/meN, and locative *-mi have undergone phonological merger and led to a completely different explanation of ergative morphology in Proto-Eskimo.

In order to further explain the profound changes that have occurred in Aleutian syntax, Bergsland proposed the Domino Effect, which is ultimately the chronological order of Aleut’s unique features. Below is a step by step list of the 'domino effect':

The Domino Effect:
 * 1) The phonological reduction of final syllables and the ensuing syncretism of locative, relative, and instrumental case markers;
 * 2) The collapse of the ergative system (and of the distinction between relative and locative case in postpositional constructions;
 * 3) The development of the unusual Aleut anaphoric reference system from the debris of this collapse, going hand in hand with a strict fixation of SOV word order;
 * 4) The simple 3rd person forms when the original morphemes began to refer to any anaphoric (non-overt) referent, and;
 * 5) The spread of such a referent's own number (including that of a possessor of some overt argument) to the final verb of the (complex) sentence, overriding agreement with the subject.

Vocabulary comparison
The following is a comparison of cognates among the basic vocabulary across the Eskimo–Aleut language family (about 122 words). Note that empty cells do not imply that a particular language is lacking a word to describe the concept, but rather that the word for the concept in that language is formed from another stem and is not a cognate with the other words in the row. Also, there may be shifts in the meaning from one language to another, and so the "common meaning" given is only approximate. In some cases the form given is found only in some dialects of the language. Forms are given in native Latin orthographies unless otherwise noted.

Cognates of the Eskimo language can be found in Michael Fortescue et al., 2010.

Cognates of the Aleut language can be found in Knut Bergsland, 1997.


 * Persons


 * Pronouns

There are two types of pronouns in Eskimo-Aleut: independent pronouns and pronominal pronouns.


 * Pronouns in relation to nouns

In Eskimo-Aleut, singular, dual and plural nouns are marked by inflectional suffixes, and if they are possessed, the number marker is followed by pronominal suffixes that specify the (human) possessor. There are no genders in the Eskimo–Aleut languages, and this can be seen in the 4 persons: my, your, his/her, his/her own.

"His/Her own" specifies ownership, in contrast with "his/her", which does not. E.g., his house vs. his own house. (See Possessive determiner § Semantics.)


 * Pronouns in relation to verbs

Aleut uses independent pronouns, instead of pronominal marking on verbs. On the other hand, Eskimo languages has 4 persons and 3 numbers marked by pronominal suffixes.


 * Independent pronouns


 * Pronominal suffixes


 * Interrogative words


 * Body parts


 * Animals


 * Other nouns


 * Adjectives


 * Numbers