One of the dialects of North America is the Eskimo language. The range of its distribution is quite extensive - from the Arctic pole of North America to the extreme northeast of Asia. The Eskimo is considered the most difficult to learn among the languages of the world, along with Japanese and Chinese. Who are these mysterious carriers of the northernmost branch of the common proto-language? Find out detailed information from the article.
Eskimo and Aleutian languages: origin
The Eskimo language is closely connected with Aleutian - one of the languages of the Paleo-Asian language family, according to representatives of Russian linguistics, and in particular according to the classification of L. Schrenk, which he deduced in the 19th century.
Many scientists have tried from different angles to consider these complex northern languages and put forward their versions:
- A group of linguists (K. Uhlenbeck, O. Sauvage, T. Ulving, K. Bergsland, O. Mudrak and M. Fortescue) believed that this Eskimo-Aleutian dialect is similar to the Ural-Altai languages because of similarities in suffixes, cases and conjugation systems.
- The linguists U. Talbitzer and L. Hammerich compared the Eskimo-Aleutian with the Indo-European languages, in particular with the Hittite because of the large number of common roots.
- N. Holmer has always spoken out for the idea of kinship with the Indian tribes, and even with the Mayan languages (Kechuya and Quakiutl).
American philologists attribute the Eskimo branch to the linguistic family of the Indians, or put the Aleut and Eskimo languages as an isolated isogloss, formed separately from the languages of Native Americans.
However, scientists are still arguing about the origin of the Eskimo language, and all hypotheses have not yet acquired a practical basis, so this issue is still open to the scientific community.
Distribution area
All the languages of the Eskimo family and group are ubiquitous throughout Greenland and the Canadian Arctic coast. Eskimo settlements are strewn with the entire coast of Alaska, as well as the extreme northeastern and southeastern coast of Chukotka. In addition, this people lives on all the islands adjacent to the Aleutian ridge.
Number of carriers
Determining the total number of speakers of the Eskimo branch of languages is quite difficult, since many Asian, Alaskan and Canadian Eskimos, as well as Aleuts, lost touch with their ancient dialect, and switched to Russian or English.
Therefore, the number of people who consider themselves to be Eskimos and Aleuts is much larger than those who actually speak the corresponding language. Thus, according to the latest estimates of linguists, about 85 thousand people are potential native speakers of the Eskimo language. Those who have only Eskimo or Aleutian roots are much more numerous - about 100 thousand people.
Language group
This language is divided into two branches: Eskimo and Aleut. These directions, in turn, fall into local dialects:
- Aleutian language. There are very few speakers of this language - only about 45 people in Russia and the USA.
- Mednovsko-Aleutian language, or pidgin. The bearers of this dialect are only 5 people. Both the Aleutian and the Pidgin belong to the Aleutian branch.
- Alutic is an adverb of the Yupik subgroup of Alaskan dialects. There are about 400 people, and they all live in the United States.
- Central Yupik language is an adverb of the Yupik subgroup of Alaskan dialects. There are about 10,000 people who are also US citizens.
- The Naukan language is an adverb of the Siberian subgroup of the large Yit dialect. Carriers about 100 people living in Russia and in the United States.
- Chaplinsky is the dialect of the Siberian subgroup of the large Yit dialect. Bearers of about 1,600 people living both in Russia and in the United States.
- Sirenik language is an adverb of the Yupik subgroup. Currently considered dead.
- The Alaskan-Inuit language, or Inyupiac, is the dialect of the Inuit subgroup, which includes the Inuit language of North and North-West Alaska. There are about 3,500 carriers. All of them live in the USA.
- Greenlandic is an adverb of Greenland. There are about 47,000 carriers.
- West Canadian and East Canadian Inuit are the dialects of the Inuktitut subgroup. Bearers of about 30 thousand people living in Canada, in particular in Nunavut and Labrador.
Time of occurrence
According to the studies of philologists, the linguistic family of the Eskimo-Aleutian languages arose supposedly 4,000 years ago from the Praaleut language and Praeskimo languages, which merged together, since their speakers had to coexist.
However, if earlier the features of the Aleutian language could be found in the Eskimo, and vice versa, now these two linguistic "relatives" are mutually incomprehensible.
Phonetics and Grammar Features
Today, these two branches of the same language are so polar that only by some common features and history of origin can we conclude that they are related:
- In both, the long vowels "a", "y", and "y" prevail. In each of them there is an almost equal set of consonants, only in Aleut there are absolutely no labial “p”, “b” and “f”.
- Two languages do not have a prefix system.
- Both languages are agglutinative.
- The Eskimo language is characterized by a long word, they are there a couple of syllables longer than in Aleut.
- The Eskimo language uses many forms of conjugation, for example, in some dialects the number of personal word forms reaches 63 types.
- This group of languages is characterized by a synthetic method of word formation, in which the ending is modified, and the result is the most complex word form.
Eskimo writing
Several writing systems are distinguished for the Eskimo languages of Russia, Canada, the USA and Greenland. Many Eskimos have long switched to Cyrillic writing, corresponding to the Russian alphabet.
In addition, the Eskimo-Aleut group of languages uses Latin and Canadian syllabic, which is formed from the language of Canadian Aboriginal people.
The writing of Asian Eskimos or Yites is based on the Ossetian Cyrillic alphabet, since in 1920 the school teacher A.I. Karaev created his alphabet for the Eskimo people. But why was the Cyrillic alphabet Ossetian? Because A.I. Karaev was not only an Eskimo, but also had Ossetian roots.
Later, in 1930, when the process of creating writing for the peoples of the USSR was in full swing, Latin symbols entered this Ossetian Cyrillic alphabet . In 1932, the first Eskimo primer Xwaŋkuta Ihaput was published, which was translated as “Our Book”.
The Aleutian language was just used in it, and the Chaplinsky dialect became a more literary form.
Subsequently, in 1937, this book was completely translated into Cyrillic.
The entire Eskimo alphabet is very similar to the fusion of Cyrillic and Latin . It also contains interesting diacritics of longitude - macrons.
The Juite alphabet, which was later modernized for the Eskimos of the United States and Canada, has more from the Latin alphabet, and all Cyrillic phrases are also replaced by letters of the Latin alphabet.
Thus, the Eskimo-Aleut language group is one of the most difficult to master. The number of speakers of these languages and dialects is falling day by day. However, those residents who use the Aleut and Eskimo dialect, note its special almost mystical significance for all languages of the world. The language of the Eskimos is the language of a withering ethnic group, a huge and rich culture of the northern peoples, which is interesting and original in its own way.