Eskaleut languages
Language family of northern North America and northeastern Asia.
Last updated
The Eskaleut language family is spoken from the Russian Far East to the east coast of Greenland.[1][2]
Quick Facts
- Family
- One of the world's primary language families
Facts from the source article.
Key facts and history
Aleut is spoken in the Aleutian Islands and the Pribilof Islands and is divided into several dialects.[3] Inuit languages are spoken in northern Alaska, Canada, and Greenland.[3] The proper classification of the Sirenik language remains unsettled among linguists.[4] Rasmus Rask suggested a connection between Greenlandic and Finnish in 1818, one of the earliest external relation proposals.[5]
Speakers of Yupik languages reside in western and southwestern Alaska as well as in Chukotka.[3] No demonstrable genetic relationship has been established between Eskaleut languages and other language families found in North America.[6][5]
What the cited sources add
Gutman (2013) notes that Eskimo-Aleut languages are spoken by a little more than 100,000 people.[7] The same source states that most Yupik languages are severely endangered.[7] Gutman describes the vowel systems of all Eskimo-Aleut languages as having three basic vowels: a, i, u.[7] Gutman explains that Eskimo languages are much more closely related to each other than to Aleut.[7]
Gutman adds that a variety of Roman and Cyrillic scripts are used, except East Inuktitut which uses a syllabary adapted from Cree script.[7] Gutman notes that Eskimo languages allow only one consonant at the beginning of a word and a maximum of two consecutive consonants between vowels.[7]
References
- "Due to the pejorative nature of the term 'Eskimo' in some locales, and the increasing preference for 'Unangan' as opposed to 'Aleut' in Alaska, this family may. facts only, no text reused. uaf.edu
- Wikipedia, "Eskaleut languages" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Due to the pejorative nature of the term 'Eskimo' in some locales, and the increasing preference for 'Unangan' as opposed to 'Aleut' in Alaska, this family may (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Eskaleut languages" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kaplan, "Inupiaq and the Schools – A Handbook for Teachers", Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1984 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Eskaleut languages" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Ethnologue report for Yupik Sirenk", Ethnologue, Retrieved 25 August 2008.; "Alaska Native Languages – An Overview" . Retrieved 25 August 2008. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Eskaleut languages" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Sebeok, "Native Languages of the Americas: Volume 1", Springer Science & Business Media, 2013-11-11 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Eskaleut languages" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Jacobson, "Central Yupik and the Schools – A Handbook for Teachers", Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1984 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Gutman, "Eskimo–Aleut Languages", 2013. facts only, no text reused. languagesgulper.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Eskaleut languages (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Eskaleut languages (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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