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| Alyutor | |
|---|---|
| алуталг’у alutalg'u | |
| Native to | Russia |
| Region | Kamchatka |
| Ethnicity | Alyutors |
Native speakers | 25 (2010 census)[1] |
Chukotko-Kamchatkan
| |
| Dialects | |
| 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 otherChukotko-Kamchatkan languages | |
 Alutor is classified as Severely Endangered by theUNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger | |
| This article containsIPA phonetic symbols. Without properrendering support, you may seequestion marks, boxes, or other symbols instead ofUnicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, seeHelp:IPA. | |
Alyutor orAlutor is alanguage ofRussia that belongs to the Chukotkan branch of theChukotko-Kamchatkan languages, by theAlyutors. It ismoribund, as only 25 speakers were reported in the2010 Russian census.
The Alutor are the indigenous inhabitants of the northern part of theKamchatka 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 year,s the Vyvenka village school has started teaching the language. Until 1958, the language was considered the "village" (settled) dialect of theKoryak 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. Theschwa/ə/ cannot be long.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | iiː | uuː | |
| Mid | eeː | ə | ooː |
| Open | aaː |
There are 18 consonants in Alyutor.[3]
| 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.:
Anopen 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.[4]
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 apolysynthetic language.[5]
ɣəmmə
I.ABS
t-ə-plak+tavamjat-ə-tkən
ɣəmmə t-ə-plak+tavamjat-ə-tkən
I.ABS 1SG.S-E-boot+crumple-E-IMPERF
'I soften boots '
The morphology isagglutinative, with extensive prefixes and suffixes.
tətu-kki
eat.with.something-CVB
ɣeqə⟩masla⟨ta
ASSOC⟩butter⟨ASSOC
n-ə-mal-qin.
good
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 isergative.
ən-an(nə)
he-ERG
ɣəmmə
me+ABS
ina-ɣal-i.
ən-an(nə) ɣəmmə ina-ɣal-i.
he-ERG me+ABS 1SG.P-walk.past-3SG.A
'He walked past me.'
Theword order is variable, and it is difficult to say which typology is basic. The verb-absolutive orders AVO and VAO are perhaps most common.
tita·qa
once
maŋ.ki·ʔana
somewhere
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.'
ŋan.tiŋ.
there
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 threegrammatical numbers: singular, dual and plural.
There are eleven cases:absolutive,ergative,locative,dative,lative,prolative, contractive,causative,equative,comitative, andassociative.
Number and case are expressed using a single affix. A suffix is used for all cases except the comitative and associative, which are expressed usingcircumfixes. There are twodeclensions, 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 | — | ||||
ɣilŋatə-tkən
drive-IMPERF
ujatiki-k.
sledge-LOC
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 interveningj on nouns ending in a vowel and ani 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.
Finite verbs agree in person and number with their nucleararguments; 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, andimperfective, using the suffix-tkə / -tkəni. There are five moods,indicative,imperative,optative, potential (marked by the circumfixta…(ŋ)), and conjunctive (prefixʔ-/a-).
Monopersonal verbs[clarification needed] include two conjugations, one with the third-person singular inɣa-...-lin, and the other inn-...-qin.
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 circumfixa…ka, and the imperative inɣa…a/ta.
These include the infinitive,supine, gerunds, and participles.
| Chukotko-Kamchatkan |
| .svg) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yeniseian |
| |||||
| Yukaghir | ||||||
| Nivkh | ||||||
| Ainu | ||||||
| Eskaleut | ||||||
| Proposed groupings | ||||||
Italics indicateextinct languages | ||||||
