Aleut language
| Aleut | |
|---|---|
|
Unangam Tunuu Унáӈам тунуý or унаӈан умсуу |
|
| Native to | Alaska (Aleutian and Pribilof Islands), Kamchatka Krai (Commander Islands) |
| Ethnicity | 2,300 Aleut people (2010) |
|
Native speakers
|
160 (2007) |
|
Eskimo–Aleut
|
|
|
Latin (Alaska) Cyrillic (Alaska, Russia) |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | aleu1260 |
Aleut (Unangam Tunuu), also known as Unangan, Unangas or Unangax̂, is a language of the Eskimo–Aleut language family. It is the heritage language of the Aleut (Unangax̂) people living in the Aleutian Islands, Pribilof Islands, and Commander Islands. Various sources estimate there are only between 100 and 300 speakers of Aleut remaining (Krauss 2007, p. 408)
Aleut is alone in its own branch of the Eskimo–Aleut language family, which also includes the Eskimo (Yupik and Inuit) languages. The main dialect groupings are Eastern Aleut, Atkan, and Attuan.
Within the Eastern group are the dialects of Unalaska, Belkofski, Akutan, the Pribilof Islands, Kashega and Nikolski. The Pribilof dialect has more living speakers than any other dialect of Aleut.
The Atkan grouping comprises the dialects of Atka and Bering Island.
Attuan, now extinct (Bergsland 1997, p. 14), was a distinct dialect showing influence from both Atkan and Eastern Aleut. Copper Island Aleut (also called Medny Aleut) is a Russian-Attuan mixed language (Copper Island (Russian: Медный, Medny, Mednyj) having been settled by Attuans). Despite the name, today Copper Island Aleut is spoken only on Bering Island, as Copper Islanders were evacuated there in 1969.
All dialects show lexical influence from Russian; Copper Island Aleut has also adopted many Russian inflectional endings.
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Wikipedia