Information about the Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages

Where are the Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages spoken?

These languages are spoken in Russia in northeastern Siberia and the Kamchatka peninsula.

Total number of speakers (estimated):

Approximately 10 000 according to Fortescue (2005)

Classification

The Chukotko-Kamchatkan family of languages has 4 or 5 active languages.

Northern Branch

Alutor (alternate names: Alyutor; Alioutor): 150-200 according to Ehtnologue.com

Chuckhi (alternative name: Chukot; Chukchi): 7 742 speakers according to the census of the Russian Federation (2002)

Kerek : 2 speakers according to (ethnologue.com) and extinct according to Fortescue (2005)

Koryak : 3 019 speakers according to the census of the Russian Federation (2002)

Southern Branch

Itelmen : less than 100 speakers according to the SIL

Comments on the classification of Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages :

These languages are sometimes classified with isolate neighbors Nivkh and Yukaghir in a hypothetical family of languages called “paleosiberian”. But this hypothetical grouping may actually be more geographical in nature and still remains to be linguistically demonstrated.

There is a distinction between the Chukchi ‘reindeer herders’ of the interior and the “maritime” Chukchi of the coast. Each group has its own form of speech and it is not clear if they are mutually comprehensible. They could, nevertheless, be dialect variants of the same language.

Are Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages in danger?

Yes. All these languages are classified as endangered by Unesco. It is quite possible that Itelmen and Alyutor are in the process of becoming extinct, and it is highly likely that Kerek is already an extinct language today.

Chukchi and Koryak are also endangered languages.

Ethnographic Overview:

This section will be developed later

Sources:

Fortescue, Michael. Comparative Chukotko-Kamchatkan Dictionary. Trends in Linguistics 23. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 2005.

Endangered Languages of Indigenous People of Siberia (UNESCO/IEA-RAS)