Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages

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The Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages are a language family of northeastern Siberia.

They are also known as Chukchi-Kamchatkan, Chukotian, and the Luorawetlan or Luoravetlan languages.

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Languages of the family

The family consists of five languages. It is divided into a northern and a southern branch.

The northern branch is spoken in Chukotka, which lies at the extreme northeast of the Russian Federation. Chukotka is bounded on the east by the Pacific and on the north by the Arctic.

The northern branch includes four languages:

  • Koryak, which includes the Chavchuven and Palana dialects.
  • Alutor or Aliutor, which was considered a dialect of Koryak until recently but is now recognized as a separate language.
  • Kerek, which was formerly considered a dialect of Chukchi but is now recognized as a separate language. In 1997 only two elderly speakers remained, so the language may now be extinct, with the rest of the ethnic group now assimilated into the Chukchi.

The southern branch is spoken on the Kamchatka Peninsula. It consists of a single language:

  • Itelmen, also called Kamchadal. It includes the Ukä and Sedanka dialects. Itelmen had 100 or fewer speakers in 1991, mostly of the older generation.

All the Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages are under pressure from Russian, which is tending to displace them.

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Relation to other language families

The Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages are usually held to have no proven relation to any other language family. They are sometimes classed among the Paleosiberian languages, a catch-all term for language groups with no known kinship with one another that are believed to have been present in Siberia prior to the advances of Turkic and Tungusic.

A contrasting hypothesis is that of the late Joseph Greenberg, who identified Chukotian (a different name for Chukotko-Kamchatkan) as an important branch of a super-family of languages that he calls Eurasiatic. Greenberg also assigns the “Paleosiberian” languages Gilyak (Nivkh) and Yukaghir to this super-family. This hypothesis remains controversial.de:Tschuktscho-kamtschadalische Sprachen et:Tšuktši-kamtšadali keeled es:Lenguas chucoto-camchatcas lt:Čiukčių-Kamčiadalų kalbos nl:Tsjoektsjo-Kamtsjadaalse talen fi:Tšuktšilais-kamtšatkalaiset kielet zh:楚科奇-堪察加语系

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