Central Siberian Yupik language


Central Siberian Yupik, is an endangered Yupik language spoken by the indigenous Siberian Yupik people along the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula in the Russian Far East and in the villages of Savoonga and Gambell on St. Lawrence Island.
In Alaska, it is estimated that fewer than 1000 of the 1200 residents of St. Lawrence Island speak the language, while, in Russia, approximately 200 speakers remain out of an ethnic population of 1,200.

Dialects and Subgroups

Siberian Yupik has two dialects: Chaplino Yupik is spoken on the shores of the Chukchi Peninsula in the Russian Far North, and St. Lawrence Island Yupik is spoken on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska.
Chaplino, or Uŋazigmit, is the largest Yupik language of Siberia, and is named after the settlement of Уӈазиӄ. The word Ungazighmii / Уңазиӷмӣ means "Ungaziq inhabitant". People speaking this language live in several settlements in the southeastern Chukchi Peninsula, Uelkal, Wrangel Island, and Anadyr. The majority of Chaplino Yupik speakers live in the villages of Novoye Chaplino and Sireniki. In another terminology, these people speak Chaplino, and Ungazighmiit people speak one of its dialects, along with other dialects spoken by Avatmit, Imtugmit, Kigwagmit, which can be divided further into even smaller dialects.
The second dialect, St. Lawrence Island Yupik, is believed to be an offspring of Chaplino with only minor phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactical and lexical differences, and both dialects are virtually identical.

Phonology

Consonants

Unlike the Central Alaskan Yupik languages, Siberian Yupik has a series of retroflex fricatives, more similar to the Alaskan Inuit dialects.

Vowels

Grammar

Morphology

Most Siberian Yupik words consist of a "base" or "stem", followed by zero or more "postbases", followed by one "ending", followed by zero or more "enclitics":
Noun endings indicate number, case, and whether or not the noun is possessed. If the noun is possessed, the ending indicates the number and person of the possessor.
Siberian Yupik has seven noun cases:

Other Yupik languages

, or Nuvuqaghmiistun, the second largest Yupik language spoken in Siberia, is spoken in settlements including Uelen, Lorino, Lavrentiya, and Provideniya.

Debated classifications

Additionally, the Sireniki Eskimo language, locally called Uqeghllistun, was an Eskimo language once spoken in Siberia. It had many peculiarities. Sometimes it is classified as not belonging to the Yupik branch at all, thus forming a stand-alone third branch of the Eskimo languages. Its peculiarities may be the result of a supposed long isolation from other Eskimo groups in the past.
Sireniki became extinct in early January 1997.

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