Alyutor language (original) (raw)

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Chukotkan language of Kamchatka, Russia

Alyutor
алуталг’у alutalg'u
Native to Russia
Region Kamchatka
Ethnicity Alyutors
Native speakers 25 (2010 census)[1]
Language family Chukotko-Kamchatkan ChukotkanAlyutor
Dialects Alutor Palana [ru] Koryak
Writing system Cyrillic script
Official status
Official language in Tigilsky District, Karaginsky District, Kamchatka (Russia)
Language codes
ISO 639-3 alr
Glottolog alut1245
ELP Alutor
Pre-contact distribution of Alyutor (light purple) and other Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages
Alutor is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
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Alyutor or Alutor is a language of Russia that belongs to the Chukotkan branch of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages, by the Alyutors. It is moribund, as only 25 speakers were reported in the 2010 Russian census.

Sociolinguistic situation

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The Alutor are the indigenous inhabitants of the northern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The language is unwritten and moribund; in the 1970s residents of the chief Alutor village of Vyvenka under the age of 25 did not know the language. In recent years the Vyvenka village school has started teaching the language. Until 1958 the language was considered the "village" (settled) dialect of the Koryak language, but it is not intelligible with traditionally nomadic varieties of Koryak. The autonym [ˈnəməlʔən] means "villager".

Alyutor has six vowels, five of which may be long or short. The schwa /ə/ cannot be long.

| | Front | Central | Back | | | --------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Close | i iː | | u uː | | Mid | e eː | ə | o oː | | Open | | a aː | |

There are 18 consonants in Alyutor.[2]

| | Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | | | | -------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------- | | plain | palatalized | | | | | | | | | Nasal | m | n | nʲ | | ŋ | | | | | Plosive | p | t | | | k | q | | ʔ | | Fricative | v | s | | | ɣ | | ʕ | | | Approximant | w | l | lʲ | j | | | | | | Trill | | r | | | | | | |

Stress generally falls on the second syllable of polysyllabic words, and on the first syllable of disyllabic words, e.g.:

An open syllable containing schwa cannot be stressed. As a consequence, if a disyllabic term begins with such a syllable, the stress is shifted to the last syllable and thereafter a new, epenthetic syllable is added at the end, e.g.:

The final syllable of a word is never stressed.[3]

All Alyutor syllables begin with a single consonant. If the vowel is short, including a schwa, they may also close with a single consonant. Consonant clusters are not permitted in the word initial or word final positions. The schwa is used to break up disallowed clusters.

Examples are /ˈvi.tak/ 'to work', /ˈtil.mə.til/ 'eagle', /ˈʔitʔən/ 'parka'.

Alyutor word boundaries always coincide with syllable boundaries.

The Alyutor language does not have a standard orthography.

Alutor is a polysynthetic language.[4]

t-ə-plak+tavamjat-ə-tkən

1SG.S-E-boot+crumple-E-IMPERF

ɣəmmə t-ə-plak+tavamjat-ə-tkən

I.ABS 1SG.S-E-boot+crumple-E-IMPERF

'I soften boots '

The morphology is agglutinative, with extensive prefixes and suffixes.

tətu-kki

eat.with.something-CVB

ɣeqə⟩masla⟨ta

ASSOC⟩butter⟨ASSOC

qəlʲippə tətu-kki ɣeqə⟩masla⟨ta n-ə-mal-qin.

bread+NOM+SG eat.with.something-CVB ASSOC⟩butter⟨ASSOC good

'Bread (eaten) with butter is excellent.'

The argument structure is ergative.

ina-ɣal-i.

1SG.P-walk.past-3SG.A

ən-an(nə) ɣəmmə ina-ɣal-i.

he-ERG me+ABS 1SG.P-walk.past-3SG.A

'He walked past me.'

The word order is variable, and it is difficult to say which typology is basic. The verb-absolutive orders AVO and VAO are perhaps most common.

qutkinʲnʲaqu-nak

(name)-ERG+SG

ɣa⟩laʔu⟨lin

RES⟩see⟨RES+3SG.P

tita·qa qutkinʲnʲaqu-nak maŋ.ki·ʔana ɣa⟩laʔu⟨lin ʔənnə-ʔən.

once (name)-ERG+SG somewhere RES⟩see⟨RES+3SG.P fish-ABS+SG

'Once Qutkinnyaqu saw a fish somewhere.'

ɣa⟩nvə⟨lin

RES⟩poke⟨RES+3SG.P

qutkinʲnʲaqu-nak

(name)-ERG+SG

ɣa⟩nvə⟨lin qutkinʲnʲaqu-nak təlɣə-lŋən ŋan.tiŋ.

RES⟩poke⟨RES+3SG.P (name)-ERG+SG finger-ABS+SG there

'Qutkinnyaqu stuck his finger there.'

Alyutor has the following parts of speech: nouns, adjectives, numerals, pronouns, verbs, participles, adverbs, postpositions, conjunctions, and particles.

Nouns are inflected for number, case, definiteness, and grammatical person.

There are three grammatical numbers: singular, dual and plural.

There are eleven cases: absolutive, ergative, locative, dative, lative, prolative, contractive, causative, equative, comitative, and associative.

Number and case are expressed using a single affix. A suffix is used for all cases except the comitative and associative, which are expressed using circumfixes. There are two declensions, taught as three noun classes. The first class are nonhuman nouns of the first declension. Number is only distinguished in the absolutive case, though verbal agreement may distinguish number when these nouns are in the ergative. The second class are proper names and kin terms for elders. They are second declension, and distinguish number in the ergative, locative, and lative cases, as well as the absolutive. The third class are the other human nouns; they may be either first or second declension.

| | 1st declension | 2nd declension | | | | | | | ----------------- | ------------------------ | --------- | -------- | ------ | ------ | -------- | | | singular | dual | plural | singular | dual | plural | | | absolutive | (stem) | -t/-ti | -w/-wwi | (stem) | -nti | -w/-wwi | | ergative | -a/-ta | -ənak | -ətək | | | | | locative | -k/-ki | -ənak | -ətək | | | | | dative | -ŋ | -ənaŋ | -ətək | | | | | lative | -kəŋ | — | | | | | | prolative | -jpəŋ/-ɣəpəŋ (-e ~ -i) | | | | | | | contactive | -jit ~ -jita | | | | | | | causative | -kjit ~ -kjita | | | | | | | equative | -u/-nu | -u/-ənu | | | | | | comitative | ɣa⟩…⟨a/-ta | awən⟩…⟨ma | | | | | | associative | ɣeqə⟩…⟨a/-ta | — | | | | |

ənnu ɣilŋatə-tkən ujatiki-k.

he-ABS.SG drive-IMPERF sledge-LOC

'he drove away the sledge.'

Grammatical first and second person suffixes on nouns are used to equate a noun with participants in the discourse. They only appear in the absolutive, with an intervening j on nouns ending in a vowel and an i on nouns ending in a consonant.

| | singular | dual | plural | | | ----------- | ------- | ------ | ------ | | 1st person | -j-ɣəm | -muri | -muru | | 2nd person | -j-ɣət | -turi | -turu |

Alyutor has simple numerals for the numbers one to five, ten, and twenty. All other numbers are compounds based on these numerals.

ənnan one
ŋitaq two
ŋəruqqə three
ŋəraqqə four
məlləŋin five
ənnanməlləŋ(in) six (one-five)
ŋitaqməlləŋ(in) seven (two-five)
ŋəruqməlləŋ(in) eight (three-five)
ŋəraqməlləŋ(in) nine (four-five)
mənɣətkin ten
mənɣətək ənnan eleven
qəlikkə twenty (a score)
qəlikək ənnan twenty one
ŋəraqmənɣətkin forty (four tens)
ŋəraqmənɣətkin ŋəraqqə forty four
ŋitaqməlləŋin mənɣətkin seventy (seven tens)
mənɣətək mənɣətkin hundred (ten tens)

There are finite (conjugated) and non-finite verbs. There are several conjugations.

Polypersonal conjugation

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Finite verbs agree in person and number with their nuclear arguments; agreement is through both prefixes and suffixes. Transitive verbs agree with both arguments (ergative and absolutive), whereas intransitive verbs agree with their sole (absolutive) argument.

Verbs distinguish two aspects, perfective, the bare stem, and imperfective, using the suffix -tkə / -tkəni. There are five moods, indicative, imperative, optative, potential (marked by the circumfix ta…(ŋ)), and conjunctive (prefix ʔ-/a-).

Monopersonal conjugation

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Monopersonal verbs[_clarification needed_] include two conjugations, one with the third-person singular in ɣa-...-lin, and the other in n-...-qin.

Impersonal conjugation

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For impersonal forms of conjugation include verbal predicate (formed with the circumfix a...ka) and imperative (formed by circumfix ɣa...a/ta). Non-finite forms Impersonal forms include the verbal predicate[_clarification needed_] with the circumfix a…ka, and the imperative in ɣa…a/ta.

These include the infinitive, supine, gerunds, and participles.

  1. ^ Alyutor at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ^ Nagayama, Yukari (2003). Ocherk grammatiki aljutorskogo jazyka. Osaka: Osaka Gakuin University.
  3. ^ Nedoluzhko, Anja (2016). Variability of languages in time and space: Linguistic typology - phonology
  4. ^ Nagayama, Yukari (2010). Grammatical Sketches from the Field: Alutor. ILCAA: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
  5. ^ Wdzenczny, Dibella (2011). The Case for Fewer Cases in Pre-Chukotko-Kamchatkan: Grammaticalization and Semantics in Internal Reconstructions. Eastern Michigan University.