Chukchi language

thumb|A Chukchi speaker, recorded in [[Romania]]

Chukchi ( ), also known as Chukot, is a Chukotko–Kamchatkan language spoken by the Chukchi people in the easternmost extremity of Siberia, mainly in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. The language is closely related to Koryak, and is distantly related to Kerek, Alutor, and Itelmen. There are many cultural similarities between the Chukchis and Koryaks, including economies based on reindeer herding. Both peoples refer to themselves by the endonym Luorawetlat ( ), meaning 'the real people'. All of these peoples and other unrelated minorities in and around Kamchatka are known collectively as Kamchadals.

Chukchi and Chukchee are anglicised spellings of the Russian exonym Chukchi ( Chukcha). This came into Russian from , the term used by the Chukchis' Tungusic-speaking neighbours, which is itself a rendering of the Chukchi word , meaning '[a man who is] rich in reindeer [herding]'.

Although Chukchi is taught in 28 elementary schools in the Chukotka Autonomous Region, and there are several hours of daily TV and radio broadcasts in Chukchi, proficiency in and daily usage of the language is declining among native Chukchis. According to the 2020 census, 2,607 of the 16,200 Chukchi people speak Chukchi, and only 1,670 use it in daily life. Most Chukchi now speak Russian (fewer than 100 report not speaking Russian at all). The language is on the list of endangered languages in the UNESCO Red Book.

People

The Chukchi people have a history and culture that is traditionally centered around warfare. The Chukchi prize warriors and the fighting spirit that they embody. This emphasis on conflict can be seen in the interactions between the Chukchi and the Russians, which date back to the middle of the seventeenth century and tell of glorious battles between the two groups.

Besides trading with Russia, the Chukchi make their living off of herding reindeer and bartering with other tribes.

is mostly heard as an alveolar trill between vowels.
is phonetically in free variation and only occurs in the male dialect.
becomes before and only occurs in the female dialect.
have different distributions between the male and female dialects.

There are no voiced stops in the language; these are only found in loanwords.

Notably, Chukchi men and women use different pronunciation for the same words. While men pronounce r or rk, women pronounce ts or tsts in the same word.

Vowels

The vowels are , , , , , , and . and are pronounced identically but behave differently in the phonology. (Cf. the two kinds of in Iñupiaq, caused by a historical merger of and , which are still separate in the related Yupik languages.)

A notable feature of Chukchi is its vowel harmony system largely based on vowel height. alternate with , respectively. The second group is known as "dominant vowels" and the first group as "recessive vowels"; that is because whenever a "dominant" vowel is present anywhere in a word, all "recessive" vowels in the word change into their "dominant" counterpart. The schwa vowel does not alternate but may trigger harmony as if it belonged to the dominant group.

Chukchi phonotactics generally avoid initial and final consonant clusters, and schwa epenthesis is pervasive.

Stress generally falls on the penultimate syllable, stays within the stem, and avoids schwas.

Orthography

thumb|72 of the graphemes created by Chukchi reindeer herder [[Tenevil in the 1920s]]

right|thumb|250px|The cover of a Chukchi-language textbook from 1996, illustrating the then-new [[El with hook|Cyrillic El with hook. The title reads: 'Chukchi language'.]]

Chukchi is one of few languages to have autonomously produced its own written script, and the northernmost language in the world to have done so. The script was invented by a man named Tenevil, but never saw widespread use.

Until 1931, the Chukchi language had no official orthography, in spite of attempts in the 1800s to write religious texts in it.

At the beginning of the 1900s, Vladimir Bogoraz discovered specimens of pictographic/logographic writing by the Chukchi herdsman Tenevil. Tenevil's writing system was entirely his own invention. Chukchi allows free incorporation of adjuncts, such as when a noun incorporates its modifier.

In the nominals, there are two numbers and about 13 morphological cases: absolutive, ergative/instrumental, equative (copula), locative, allative, ablative, orientative, inessive, perlative, sublative, comitative, associative, and privative. Nouns are split into three declensions influenced by animacy: the first declension, which contains non-humans, has plural marking only in the absolutive case; the second one, which contains personal names and certain words for mainly older relatives, has obligatory plural marking in all forms; the third one, which contains other humans than those in the second declension, has optional plural marking. These nominal cases are used to identify the number of nouns, as well as their purpose and function in a sentence.

Vocabulary

A large number of words in the Chukchi language are reduplicated in their singular forms, i.e. 'iceberg' and 'tree'. There is also significant influence from the Russian language, especially in formal vocabulary and modern concepts, i.e. —from Russian 'tea'. The extent to which Chukchi and the Inuit languages borrowed vocabulary between one another, or a relationship between the two, has not been studied in detail.

Numbers

The numeral system was originally purely vigesimal and went up to 400, but a decimal system was introduced for numerals above 100 via Russian influence. Many of the names of the basic numbers can be traced etymologically to words referring to the human body ('finger', 'hand', etc.) or to arithmetic operations (6 = 1 + 5, etc.).

{| class="wikitable"

! Number !! Cyrillic !! Latin !! Gloss

| 1 || ыннэн || ynnen || 'one'

| 2 || ӈирэӄ || ṇireḳ || 'two'

| 3 || ӈыроӄ || ṇyroḳ || 'three'

| 4 || ӈыраӄ || ṇyraḳ || 'four'

| 5 || мэтԓыӈэн || metḷyṇen || 'five'

| 6 || ыннанмытԓыӈэн || ynnanmytḷyṇen || 'one-five'

| 7 || ӈэръамытԓыӈэн || ṇer’amytḷyṇen || 'two-five'

| 8 || амӈырооткэн, ӈыръомытԓыӈэн || amṇyrootken, ṇyr’omytḷyṇen || 'eight, three-five'

| 9 || ӄонъачгынкэн, ӈыръамытԓыӈэн || ḳon’ačgynken, ṇyr’amytḷyṇen || 'nine, four-five'

| 10 || мынгыткэн || myngytken || 'ten'

| 11 || мынгыткэн ыннэн пароԓ || myngytken ynnen paroḷ || 'ten [and] one extra'

| 12 || мынгыткэн ӈиръэ пароԓ || myngytken ṇir’e paroḷ || 'ten [and] two extra'

| 13 || мынгыткэн ӈыръо пароԓ || myngytken ṇir’o paroḷ || 'ten [and] three extra'

| 14 || мынгыткэн ӈыръа пароԓ || myngytken ṇyr’a paroḷ || 'ten [and] four extra'

| 15 || кыԓгынкэн || kyḷgynken || 'fifteen'

| 16 || кыԓгынкэн ыннэн пароԓ || kyḷgynken ynnen paroḷ || 'fifteen [and] one extra'

| 17 || кыԓгынкэн ӈиръэ пароԓ || kyḷgynken ṇir’e paroḷ || 'fifteen [and] two extra'

| 18 || кыԓгынкэн ӈыръо пароԓ || kyḷgynken ṇyr’o paroḷ || 'fifteen [and] three extra'

| 19 || кыԓгынкэн ӈыръа пароԓ (15, 4 extra) || kyḷgynken ṇyr’a paroḷ || 'fifteen [and] four extra'

| 20 || ӄԓиккин || ḳḷikkin || 'twenty'

| 21 || ӄԓиккин ыннэн пароԓ || ḳḷikkin ynnen paroḷ || 'twenty [and] one extra'

| 30 || ӄԓиккин мынгыткэн пароԓ || ḳḷikkin myngytken paroḷ || 'twenty [and] ten extra'

| 40 || ӈирэӄӄԓиккин || ṇireḳḳḷikkin || 'two-twenty'

| 50 || ӈирэӄӄԓиккин мынгыткэн пароԓ || ṇireḳḳḷikkin myngytken paroḷ || 'two-twenty [and] ten extra'

| 60 || ӈыроӄӄԓеккэн || ṇyroḳḳḷekken || 'three-twenty'

| 70 || ӈыроӄӄԓеккэн мынгыткэн пароԓ || ṇyreḳḳḷekken myngytken paroḷ || 'three-twenty [and] ten extra'

| 80 || ӈыраӄӄԓеккэн || ṇyraḳḳḷekken || 'four-twenty'

| 90 || ӈыраӄӄԓеккэн мынгыткэн пароԓ || ṇyraḳḳḷekken myngytken paroḷ || 'four-twenty [and] ten extra'

| 100 || мытԓыӈӄԓеккэн || mytḷyṇḳḷekken || 'hundred'

| 101 || мытԓыӈӄԓеккэн ыннэн пароԓ || mytḷyṇḳḷekken ynnen paroḷ || 'hundred [and] one extra'

| 111 || мытԓыӈӄԓеккэн мынгыт ыннэн пароԓ || mytḷyṇḳḷekken myngyt ynnen paroḷ || 'hundred' [and] ten-one extra'

| 200 || мынгытӄԓеккэн || myngytḳḷekken || 'ten-twenty' (10 × 20)

| 300 || кыԓгынӄԓеккэн || kyḷgynḳḷekken || 'fifteen-twenty' (15 × 20)

| 400 || ӄԓиӄӄԓиккин || ḳḷiḳḳḷikkin || 'twenty-twenty' (20 × 20)

| 500 || мытԓыӈча мытԓыӈӄԓеккэн пароԓ || mytḷyṇča mytḷyṇḳḷekken paroḷ || 400 + 100

| 600 || ыннанмытԓынча мытԓыӈӄԓеккэн пароԓ || ynnanmytḷynča mytḷyṇḳḷekken paroḷ || 400 + 200

| 700 || ӄԓиӄӄԓиккин кыԓгынӄԓеккэн пароԓ || ḳḷiḳḳḷikkin kyḷgynḳḷekken paroḷ || 400 + 300

| 800 || ӈирэче ӄԓиӄӄԓиккин || ṇireče ḳḷiḳḳḷikkin || 2 × 400

| 900 || ӈирэче ӄԓиӄӄԓиккин мынгытӄԓеккэн пароԓ || ṇireče ḳḷiḳḳḷikkin mytḷyṇḳḳekken paroḷ || (2 × 400) + 100

Ordinary numbers are formed with the suffix -ӄeв (after close vowels) or -ӄaв (after open vowels).

External influence

The external influences of Chukchi have not been well-studied. In particular, the degree of contacts between the Chukchi and Eskimo languages remains an open question. Research into this area is problematic in part because of the lack of written evidence. (Cf. de Reuse in the Bibliography.) Contact influence of Russian, which is increasing, consists of word borrowing and pressure on surface syntax; the latter is primarily seen in written communication (translated texts) and is not apparent in day-to-day speech.

References

Bibliography

Alevtina N. Zhukova, Tokusu Kurebito,"A Basic Topical Dictionary of the Koryak-Chukchi Languages (Asian and African Lexicon Series, 46)",ILCAA, Tokyo Univ. of Foreign Studies (2004),
Bogoras, W., 1922. "Chukchee". In Handbook of American Indian Languages II, ed. F. Boas, Washington, D.C.
Comrie, B., 1981. The Languages of the Soviet Union, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Cambridge Language Surveys). (hardcover) and (paperback)
De Reuse, Willem Joseph, 1994. Siberian Yupik Eskimo: The Language and Its Contacts with Chukchi, Univ. of Utah Press,
Dunn, Michael John (1999). A Grammar of Chukchi (PhD Thesis). Australian National University.
Dunn, Michael, 2000. "Chukchi Women's Language: A Historical-Comparative Perspective", Anthropological Linguistics, Vol. 42, No. 3 (Fall, 2000), pp. 305–328
Kolga, M. (2001). The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire. Tallinn: NGO Red Book.
Krause, Scott R. (1980). Topics in Chukchee Phonology and Morphology. Ann Arbor: UMI.
Nedjalkov, V. P., 1976. "Diathesen und Satzstruktur im Tschuktschischen" [in German]. In: Ronald Lötzsch (ed.), Satzstruktur und Genus verbi (Studia Grammatica 13). Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, pp. 181–211.
Skorik, P[etr] Ja., 1961. Grammatika čukotskogo jazyka 1: Fonetika i morfologija imennych častej reči (Grammar of the Chukchi Language: Phonetics and morphology of the nominal parts of speech) [in Russian]. Leningrad: Nauka.
Skorik, P[etr] Ja., 1977. Grammatika čukotskogo jazyka 2: Glagol, narečie, služebnye slova (Grammar of the Chuckchi Language: Verb, adverb, function words) [in Russian]. Leningrad: Nauka:
Weinstein, Charles, 2010. Parlons tchouktche [in French]. Paris: L'Harmattan.