Mednyj Aleut language
Mednyj Aleut | |
---|---|
Native to | Russia |
Region | Commander Islands |
Extinct | 5 October 2022, with the death of Gennady Yakovlev[1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | mud |
Glottolog | medn1235 |
ELP | Copper Island Aleut |
Mednyj Aleut (also called Copper Island Creole or Copper Island Aleut[2]) is an extinct mixed language spoken on Bering Island.
Mednyj Aleut is characterized by a blending of Russian and Aleut (primarily Attu) elements in most components of the grammar, but most profoundly in the verbal morphology.[2] The Aleut component comprises the majority of the vocabulary, all the derivational morphology, part of the simple sentence syntax, nominal inflection and certain other grammatical means. The Russian components comprise verbal inflection, negation, infinitive forms, part of the simple sentence syntax and all of the compound sentence syntax.[3]
History
Originally, the language was spoken by
Due to increased contact with the Russian language in the 1940s, the majority of the population switched to using Russian instead of Mednyj Aleut. In 1970, the entire population of Medny Island was moved to Bering Island. It was spoken by two elderly speakers in Nikolskoe (Bering Island) until 2022.[5]
Phonology
Consonants
Mednyj Aleut's consonant inventory mostly consists of phonemes shared between Aleut and Russian. The
Labial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Plosives
|
p b | d
|
c | k | q | |
Fricatives
|
f v | s z ʃ ʒ |
x ɣ | χ ʁ | ||
Nasals
|
m mʰ | n nʰ
|
ŋ | |||
Liquids | w | r
|
j jʰ | h | ||
Laterals | l lʰ
|
Vowels
The vowel inventory of Mednyj Aleut contains three pairs of vowels from Aleut (/i/, /u/, /a/) and two pairs, /o/ and /e/, from Russian. Vowel length is preserved in Aleut loanwords, and vowels are also lengthened in the verbal inflectional endings borrowed from Russian.[4]
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i i: | u u: | |
Mid | e e: | o o: | |
Open | a a: |
Syntax
Mednyj Aleut has a heavily Russian-influenced syntax. In particular, it has a relatively free word order in comparison to Aleut, which is strictly
on
he
hixtaa-l
say-PAST-3SG
ni-but
no-will-3SG
timas
us
agítal
with
ayx̂acaa-t'
go-INF
'He said that he would not go with us.'
Russian
agitaayani-ƞ
friends-my
u
at
min'a
me
katorəye
which
agítaki
with
abaa-l
worked
pucti
almost
huzúƞi
all
ax̂salaa-l-i
die-PAST-3PL
'Of my friends with whom I worked, almost all are dead.'
Additionally, negation is similar to Russian: the Russian prefix ni- is used as the negative suffix and the phrase netu/nitu(ka) ('there is no') is used as a special negative existential construction.
ani
they
ni-saxtazaa-yut
not-lazy-PRES-3PL
'They are not lazy.'
ya
I
ni-bud-u
not-will-1SG
iĝataa-t'
hurry
'I will not hurry.'
saalugula-x̂
rain
ilasa-kali-l-i,
wait-start-PAST-PL
saalugula-x̂-ta
rain-EMPH
niitu
there
is
no
'We started to wait for rain, but there is no rain.'
Like Russian, Mednyj Aleut does not use copulas in the present tense. The verb 'to be' is the Aleut word 'u-', but Russian verbal inflections are used for it. For example, 'uu-it' means 'is' and 'uu-l-i' means 'were'. The copula is only used in past tense when the predicate is nominal. When the predicate is adjectival, the predicate is inflected for the past tense like a verb is.[4]
tátka-ƞ
father-my
u
at
min'a
me
aleuuta-x̂
Aleut
uu-l
was-PAST-3SG
'My father was Aleut.'
ya
I
cuquyaa-l-a
small-PAST-Fem
'I was small.'
i
and
vúsim
eight
sútuk
days
saalugula-x̂
rain
ni-bil-a
no-was-PAST-Fem
'And for eight days there was no rain.'
Morphology
Nouns
The derivational and inflectional morphology of nouns in Mednyj Aleut comes from Aleut. Notably, Mednyj Aleut contains morphological categories that do not exist in Russian, such as duality. 61.5% of nouns in Mednyj Aleut are of Aleut origin, with the rest coming from Russian.[6]
Singular | Dual | Plural | |
---|---|---|---|
-x̂ | -x | -ƞ, -s | |
1SG | -n | -ki-ƞ | -ni-ƞ |
2SG | -n | -ki-n | -t |
1PL | -mis | -ki | -mis |
2PL | -ci | -ki | -ci |
Verbs
The finite, infinitive and the majority of the nonfinite forms of verbs is of Russian origin while the nominal inflectional morphology is of Aleut origin. For example, this table compares selected finite verb forms for the verb 'to work' between the Bering Island dialect of Aleut, Mednyj Aleut and Russian. The Russian-origin influences are added to the verb stem, which is of Aleut origin.
Bering Island Aleut | Mednyj Aleut | Russian | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Present | 1SG | awa-ku-q | aba-ju | rabota-ju |
2SG | awa-ku-x̂t | aba-iš | rabota-eš' | |
3G | awa-ku-x̂ | aba-it | rabota-et | |
1PL | awa-ku-s | aba-im | rabota-em | |
2PL | awa-ku-x̂t-xičix | aba-iti | rabota-ete | |
Past | 3SG | awa-na-x̂ | ||
MSG | aba-l | rabota-l | ||
Future | 3SG | awa-ƞan ana-x̂ | bud-it aba-t' | bud-et rabota-t' |
Imperative | 2SG | awa-ʒa | aba-j | rabota-j |
See also
Citations
- ^ "Last Native Speaker Of Aleut Language In Russia Dies". RadioFreeEurope. 2022-10-05.
- ^ a b Campbell, Lyle; Bright, William O. (14 July 2016). "North American Indian languages". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 5 April 2022.
- ISBN 9780631212515.
- ^ a b c d Sekerina, Irina A (January 1994). "Copper Island Aleut: A Mixed Language". Languages of the World (8). Retrieved 5 April 2022.
- ^ Эскимосско-алеутские языки. Languages of Russia project. Institute of Linguistics RAS
- ^ ISBN 9789027219275.
- ISBN 9783447059145.
Sources
- http://languageserver.uni-graz.at/ls/art?id=981
- Irina Sekerina (1994). "Copper Island (Mednyj) Aleut (CIA): A mixed language". Languages of the World (Lincom-Europe).
- Christopher Moseley (2008). Encyclopedia of the world's endangered languages. p. 42. (15 fluent speakers in the late 1980s.)
- http://archives.conlang.info/so/gentua/vonjhuanjhian.html