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Linguistics Eskimo-Aleut
by
Anna Berge

Introduction

The Eskimo-Aleut language family is spoken from the Chukotka Peninsula in the Russian Far East, across subarctic and Arctic regions of Alaska and Canada, to Greenland in the east. It includes two major branches, Aleut and Eskimo. Aleut is a single language with three historically attested dialects, and it is also the source of a mixed and now obsolescent language, Copper Island Aleut. Eskimo consists of at least two subgroups, Yupik and Inuit; the recently extinct language Sirenikski may have formed a third branch, or it may have been a strongly divergent Yupik language. The Yupik languages include Central Alaskan Yup’ik, Alutiiq, Central Siberian Yupik, and Naukanski. The Inuit branch is considered a single language with multiple dialects and subdialects; major dialect groups include Alaskan Iñupiaq, Western Canadian Inuit, Eastern Canadian Inuit, and Greenlandic. The languages have been documented in varying degrees since the 17th century, and the language family was identified as early as the early 19th century by Rasmus Rask, although analyses of the actual relationships among the languages and between Eskimo-Aleut and other language families continued throughout the 20th century. Both the level and the concentration of documentation, description, and theoretical analyses differ from language to language. For example, the number of speakers, the number of researchers working on the languages, and the extended period of descriptive work have all contributed to the vast body of work on Greenlandic and Eastern Canadian Inuit as opposed to the scarcity of work on Western Canadian Inuit, Iñupiaq, and the Siberian Yupik languages. The citations in this article are organized by language or language group (in the case of Yupik) and thereunder by major dialect. Citations were chosen for their historical importance when these continue to be useful sources for the study of the language as well as for their representation of a particular field of linguistic study (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, discourse, and so forth). Unless other sources do not exist, pedagogical materials have not been included, since they are well represented in almost all languages. Where enough materials exist to warrant subgrouping the citations, descriptive works, including grammars, dictionaries, and generally atheoretical works, are presented first, followed by a section on the more theoretical aspects of the study of a language.

Reference Works

Encyclopedias of languages generally include information on at least one of the Eskimo-Aleut languages if not on the language family itself. Brown 2006 is one of the more complete sources in this respect; Nuttall 2005 contains entries on other aspects of the study of the languages, including the people and contexts important in the efforts to document the languages. Damas 1984 is a comprehensive work on the history, prehistory, ethnology, and culture of the Eskimo-Aleut peoples and includes an overview of the Eskimo-Aleut languages. Goddard 1986 includes a sketch of Central Alaskan Yupik and places the Eskimo-Aleut languages in the greater context of the languages of North America. Krauss 1995 is a map of the Eskimo-Aleut area and Sontag 2006 of the Canadian Inuit area with statistical information on language use in the communities.

  • Brown, Keith, ed. 2006. Encyclopedia of language and linguistics. 2d ed. Boston: Elsevier.

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    A broad reference work with articles on Eskimo-Aleut, Central Siberian Yupik, Iñupiaq, and West Greenlandic.

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  • Damas, David, ed. 1984. Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 5, Arctic. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.

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    Part of a seventeen-volume series, this volume includes historical, ethnographic, and linguistic information on peoples of the Arctic, including a chapter on Eskimo-Aleut languages by Anthony Woodbury.

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  • Goddard, Ives, ed. 1986. Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 17, Languages. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.

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    Part of a seventeen-volume series, this volume includes a chapter on the classification of the languages of North America, including Eskimo-Aleut, by Ives Goddard, and a grammatical sketch of Central Alaskan Yupik by Osahito Miyaoka.

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  • Krauss, Michael E. 1995. Inuit nunait/Nunangit yuget (map of the Inuit-Yupik-Aleut world). Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center.

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    Language map of the Eskimo-Aleut region with tables of community names, population, and estimated speaker population as of 1995.

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  • Nuttall, Mark, ed. 2005. Encyclopedia of the Arctic. 3 vols. New York: Routledge.

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    A broad reference work with many articles pertaining to the languages, including alphabets and writing, of North America, Greenland, and Russia; Eskimo-Aleut languages; and languages of the Arctic and various entries on people who have made important contributions to the documentation and description of these languages.

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  • Sontag, Natascha. 2006. Map of the Inuit language in Inuit communities in Canada. Fairbanks: Univ. of Alaska.

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    Map of the major Canadian Inuit dialects and subdialects; includes population and speaker statistics, community and dialect names in English and in Inuktitut in both roman and syllabic writing systems, and migration and settlement information.

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Edited Collections

Many of the edited collections of papers on Eskimo-Aleut linguistics are the result of conferences on the subject. There are relatively few such collections, and there is almost no overlap in the content or subject matter of the collections. Hamp 1976 includes mostly papers on phonological, historical, and syntactic issues, and although some papers have been superseded, many are still authoritative. Tersis and Therrien 2000 is a very good collection of papers authored by many of the leading Eskimologists at that time, the first few of which offer explanations for the diversification of the languages within the Eskimo-Aleut language family but the majority of which present analyses of various syntactic features of particular languages. Mahieu and Tersis 2009 offers articles on syntactic, discourse, information structure, and orality, revealing a wider range of diversity in the topics of linguistic study than previously seen for many of the languages. Jahr and Broch 1996 presents papers on an otherwise little-studied aspect of Eskimo-Aleut linguistics, evidence for the existence of contact languages in Arctic regions, including but not limited to the Eskimo-Aleut region. Basse and Jensen 1979 and Collis 1990 focus on the social and political contexts in which the languages are spoken and on questions of language maintenance and language shift.

  • Basse, Bjarne, and Kirsten Jensen, eds. 1979. Eskimo languages, their present-day conditions: Majority language influence on Eskimo minority languages. Papers presented at a 1978 symposium on majority language influence on Eskimo held at the University of Greenland. Århus, Denmark: Arkona.

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    Important collection includes papers on grammatical changes resulting from contact, the development of writing systems, the role of governments in protecting or adversely affecting languages, and more.

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  • Collis, Dirmid R. F., ed. 1990. Arctic languages: An awakening. Paris: UNESCO.

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    Collection of papers encompassing all major Arctic languages in Asia, Europe, Canada, and the United States; fourteen of the papers deal with the Eskimo-Aleut languages with a heavy emphasis on Greenlandic; general overview of the languages and their history, maintenance, and status in the early 21st century.

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  • Hamp, Eric P., ed. 1976. Papers on Eskimo and Aleut linguistics. Papers from the 1970 international conference on Eskimo linguistics held at the University of Chicago. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.

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    Collection includes papers on phonology, syntax, historical reconstruction, and the development of writing systems. Many of the articles are still relevant for contemporary research.

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  • Jahr, Ernst Håkon, and Ingvild Broch, eds. 1996. Language contact in the Arctic: Northern pidgins and contact languages. Papers presented at the 9th International Symposium on Language at the University of Tromsø, 4–6 June 1992. Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs 88. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

    DOI: 10.1515/9783110813302Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Includes a variety of important papers on Arctic pidgins and contact languages, some of which have left important traces in the Eskimo-Aleut languages; fascinating resources for students of language contact.

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  • Mahieu, Marc-Antoine, and Nicole Tersis, eds. 2009. Variations in polysynthesis: The Eskaleut languages. Papers presented at the linguistics session of the 15th Inuit Studies Conference in Paris, 26–28 October 2006. Typological Studies in Language 86. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

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    Includes theoretical and typological perspectives on polysynthesis in Eskimo as well as on verbal morphology, information structure, and language contact.

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  • Tersis, Nicole, and Michèle Therrien, eds. 2000. Les langues eskaléoutes: Sibérie, Alaska, Canada, Groënland. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

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    Nicely organized collection of papers representing all Eskimo-Aleut languages and regions from a variety of topics and points of view; includes a general introduction to the language family and speakers, historical reconstruction, lexical innovation, and descriptive and theoretical articles on morphological and syntactic processes.

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Bibliographies

Pilling 1887 is an invaluable source of information on the earliest printed sources of information on the languages, including Aleut. Krauss and McGary 1983, although never published and in draft form, is available online and is a list of both published and unpublished sources on Eskimo-Aleut languages with a focus on those spoken in Russian and Alaska from the earliest known works to 1983. Jones and Wood 1975 is a selective survey of literature on all aspects of the study of the Aleut people, culture, history, and more, with a small section on linguistic works. Loriot 1964, on the other hand, is a selective bibliography of linguistic works on North American languages (with a stated focus on phonological comparisons) with a small section on Eskimo-Aleut languages. Proske and Erhardt 2004 is a web-based publication specifically on descriptive and theoretical linguistic research on Eskimo-Aleut with a focus on more modern sources.

Journals

Études/Inuit/Studies is a journal devoted to the study of the Inuit and related peoples, including the Yupit and more rarely the Aleut, and that occasionally publishes on nonrelated peoples of the Arctic. There are regularly articles on the languages, and there have been issues entirely devoted to the study of the languages (e.g., Volume 5, special issue). Articles pertain to all aspects of language study, including description, theory, sociolinguistics, ethnolinguistics, language standardization, and more. The International Journal of American Linguistics publishes descriptive, typological, historical, and theoretical articles on the study of the Native languages of North and South America, including not infrequently the Eskimo-Aleut languages. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia is a publication of the Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen with a focus on European functional and cognitive linguistic studies; it regularly publishes studies of Eskimo-Aleut languages and especially Greenlandic (e.g., Volume 27). Endangered Languages of the Pacific Rim was a short-lived series of the Endangered Languages of the Pacific Rim Project, based in Japan, with several publications yearly, many of which pertained to the Yupik and Aleut languages on both sides of the Bering Sea.

Connections

The relationship between the Eskimo and Aleut languages was first recognized and made explicit by Rasmus Rask in a manuscript written in 1819; his notes were first published in Thalbitzer 1916. The systematic confirmation of this relationship was undertaken by a number of comparativists in the early 20th century, especially by Morris Swadesh. Swadesh 1951 shows that the Inuit and Yupik languages are related but distinct and establishes the degree of their divergence. Marsh and Swadesh 1951 corroborates the genetic relatedness of Eskimo and Aleut, proposes various time depths for the separation of the individual languages, and establishes the relative positions of the languages on the family tree. Knut Bergsland published widely on the history of Aleut and its relationship with the Eskimo languages starting in the 1950s, including crucially his view that the deviant and typologically unusual system of Aleut anaphora arose as a result of the loss of original Proto-Eskimo-Aleut case morphology; his two most comprehensive comparative works are Bergsland 1986 on the phonology and lexicon and Bergsland 1989 on the morphology and syntax. Fortescue, et al. 2010 is a comprehensive resource on the lexical comparison and proposed reconstruction of the Eskimo languages. Fortescue 1998 summarizes the efforts to find links between Eskimo-Aleut and languages or language families in Asia, compares the typological features of these language groups, and provides the author’s hypothesis regarding their ultimate genetic relationships.

  • Bergsland, Knut. 1986. Comparative Eskimo-Aleut phonology and lexicon. Suomalais-Ugralaisen Seuran Aikakausaskirja Journal de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 80:63–137.

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    Comparison of phonology, reconstructions of sound correspondences, and identification of cognates and borrowings, suggesting a closer relationship between Eskimo and Aleut than previously assumed.

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  • Bergsland, Knut. 1989. Comparative Eskimo-Aleut aspects of Aleut syntax. Suomalais-Ugralaisen Seuran Aikakausaskirja Journal de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 82:7–80.

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    Comparison of case marking, indefinite expression, participial constructions, and tense and mood in Aleut and Eskimo languages.

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  • Fortescue, Michael. 1998. Language relations across Bering Strait: Reappraising the archaeological and linguistic evidence. London: Cassell Academic.

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    Summary of previous hypotheses concerning the relationship of Eskimo-Aleut with language families in Asia or Europe, the typological characteristics of and possible linguistic correspondences between the languages in eastern Asia and western North America, and suggestion of most likely history of languages around Beringia.

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  • Fortescue, Michael, Steven Jacobson, and Lawrence Kaplan. 2010. Comparative Eskimo dictionary, with Aleut cognates. 2d ed. Alaska Native Language Center Research Paper 9. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center.

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    Dictionary of reconstructed Proto-Eskimo roots; entries include a list of modern forms in Yupik languages and major Inuit dialects and possible Aleut cognates. Appendixes include reconstructed postbases and inflectional morphology, demonstratives, and modern language indexes.

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  • Marsh, G., and Morris Swadesh. 1951. Eskimo-Aleut correspondences. International Journal of American Linguistics 17:209–216.

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    Article confirming the genetic relationship between Eskimo and Aleut.

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  • Swadesh, Morris. 1951. Kleinschmidt centennial III: Unaaliq and Proto Eskimo. International Journal of American Linguistics 17:60–70.

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    Article establishing the nature of the relationship between Yupik and Inuit languages and attempting to reconstruct Proto-Eskimo.

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  • Thalbitzer, William. 1916. Et Manuskript af Rasmus Rask om Aleuternes Sprog, sammenlignet med Grœnliendernes. Oversigt over det Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Forhandlinger 3:211–249.

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    First publication of Rask’s original notes on the similarities between Greenlandic and Aleut.

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Aleut (Unangam Tunuu)

Aleut (indigenous name Unangam Tunuu) is spoken from on the tip of the Alaska Peninsula, along the Aleutian Island chain, on the Pribilof Islands, and on the Commander Islands in the Russian Far East. Although it is a highly endangered language in the early 21st century, it has been relatively well documented, with extensive linguistic notes from as early as the first half of the 19th century. In historic times three dialects were recognized: Attuan (the least well described and now obsolete), Atkan, and Eastern Aleut. Copper Island Aleut, once spoken on Copper Island, one of the Commander Islands, is a mixed language based on Attuan and Russian.

Descriptive Works

The Russian Orthodox missionary Ioann Veniaminov was responsible for developing a linguistically sound orthography of Aleut based on Cyrillic, collecting detailed ethnographic and linguistic information on Aleut, including the first texts, and translating large parts of the Bible into Aleut. Veniaminov 1846 is the first serious grammatical study of Aleut and is an important source for the historical study of the language, although much of the grammatical information is clarified in Knut Bergsland’s work. Bergsland was the foremost scholar of Aleut during the 20th century, and the two most important reference sources for scholars of Aleut in the early 21st century are Bergsland 1994 and Bergsland 1997. The varieties of Aleut spoken on the Commander Islands were isolated from the Aleutian varieties both by the sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867 and more seriously by the geopolitical effects of the Cold War. Golovko 1994 is an important study of the mixed language of Copper Island, and Oshima 2003 is one of the few works documenting the dialect spoken on Bering Island.

Specific Topics

Aleut’s typologically unusual anaphoric and number agreement systems have probably generated more studies of the language than others of its features. Knut Bergsland in particular is responsible for bringing these systems to the attention of linguists via a number of articles written in the 1960s and 1970s; Bergsland 1997 (cited in Descriptive Works) presents the most complete description. It has served at the basis for further theoretical studies, including Sadock 2000 and Berge 2010b, both of which look at lesser-studied aspects of the anaphoric and number systems. Several explanations for the historical development of these features have been offered: Bergsland 1989 (cited in Connections) offers language-internal reasons, whereas Leer 1991 suggests the possibility of areal influences. While Bergsland included data from Attuan and eastern dialects of Aleut, most of his studies relied heavily on his intimate knowledge of Atkan. Recent studies of Eastern Aleut have focused more on the phonetics, phonology, and prosody than on the morphosyntax and include Oshima 1994 and Taff, et al. 2001. It is still relatively difficult to find published information on the variety of Aleut spoken in the Russian Far East; Golovko 2001 is a detailed study of imperatives based on data from Bering Island Aleut (similar to Atkan) and Copper Island Aleut. Berge 2010a and Berge 2011 provide discussions of the historical development of Aleut, its present endangered status, and a history of revitalization efforts.

  • Berge, Anna. 2010a. Origins of linguistic diversity in the Aleutian Islands. Human Biology 82.5–6: 557–582.

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    Discussion of linguistic evidence of Aleut migrations across Beringia and across the Aleutian chain and of linguistic evidence of the differentiation of the dialects along the chain and on the Commander and Pribilof islands.

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  • Berge, Anna. 2010b. Unexpected non-anaphoric marking in Aleut. In Rara and rarissima: Documenting the fringes of linguistic diversity. Edited by Jan Wohlgemuth and Michael Cysouw, 1–22. Empirical Approaches to Linguistic Typology 46. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

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    Study of the exceptions to the previously described typologically unusual anaphoric system in Aleut.

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  • Berge, Anna. 2011. Revitalisation et documentation de la langue chez les Aléoutes en Alaska. Les Documents de Recherches Yawenda. Quebec: Université Laval.

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    Discussion of the current status of the Aleut language, the factors that led to its endangerment, and the history of revitalization efforts. In French.

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  • Golovko, Evgeniy V. 2001. Imperative constructions in Aleut. In Typology of imperative constructions. Edited by Viktor S. Khrakovskij, 300–314. Munich: LINCOM Europa.

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    Study of imperative constructions in Aleut with data from Bering Island Aleut and Copper Island Aleut.

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  • Leer, Jeff. 1991. Evidence for a northern Northwest Coast language area: Promiscuous number marking and periphrastic possessive constructions in Haida, Eyak, and Aleut. International Journal of American Linguistics 57.2: 158–193.

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    Discussion of the similarities in some aspects of the grammar of the neighboring languages Haida, Eyak, and Aleut with some reference to Tlingit forms, including unusual number agreement.

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  • Oshima, Minoru. 1994. Prosody and vowel reduction in Eastern Aleut. In Languages of the North Pacific Rim. Edited by Osahito Miyaoka, 149–157. Hokkaido University Publications in Linguistics 7. Sapporo, Japan: Hokkaido Univ.

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    Brief study of vowel syncopation and prosody in Eastern Aleut.

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  • Sadock, Jerrold M. 2000. Aleut number agreement. In Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 18–21 February 2000. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Linguistics Society.

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    Discussion of unusual number agreement between subjects and verbs and between possessive phrases and verbs in Aleut from a theoretical perspective.

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  • Taff, Alice, Lorna Rozelle, Taehong Cho, Peter Ladefoged, Moses Dirks, and Jacob Wegelin. 2001. Phonetic structures of Aleut. Journal of Phonetics 29.3: 231–271.

    DOI: 10.1006/jpho.2001.0142Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Study of voice onset times of selected consonants, stress, and intonation contours in interrogative and indicative clauses in Eastern Aleut.

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Yupik

There are four or five Yupik languages, depending on the classification of Sirenikski as either the lone representative of a third branch of Eskimo or as a very divergent Yupik language. The uncontested Yupik languages include Central Alaskan Yup’ik, Alutiiq, Naukanski, and Central Siberian Yupik. All but the first are severely endangered, and Sirenikski is extinct. Comparisons of the various Yupik languages have been important in establishing their relationships to one another, their relative degrees of conservatism or innovation, and the migration history and settlement patterns of the Yupik and Inuit groups around the Seward Peninsula, the Diomedes, and other nearby islands. Michael E. Krauss has particularly focused on the phonological and prosodic systems of the languages. Krauss 1985 is a collection of articles on the respective prosodic systems of these languages and includes an article on the influence of Central Alaskan Yup’ik on Seward Peninsula Iñupiaq. Jacobson 1990 is a general comparison of Central Alaskan Yup’ik and Central Siberian Yupik, including phonological, morphological, and lexical differences. Jacobson 1994 and Jacobson 2006 focus on the syntactic and functional similarities of certain features of Central Siberian Yupik and some if not all dialects of Central Alaskan Yup’ik; the author derives evidence of the earlier closer relationship between the languages.

  • Krauss, Michael E., ed. 1985. Yupik Eskimo prosodic systems. Alaska Native Language Center Research Papers 7. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center.

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    Collection of articles on Yupik prosodic systems by various experts; includes a history of research on prosody, a discussion of the evolution of prosody, chapters on prosody in the individual languages, and a chapter on the relation of certain phonological traits in Seward Peninsula Iñupiaq to neighboring Yupik prosody.

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  • Jacobson, Steven A. 1990. Comparison of Central Alaskan Yup’ik Eskimo and Central Siberian Yupik Eskimo. International Journal of American Linguistics 56.2: 264–286.

    DOI: 10.1086/466153Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Brief comparison of Central Alaskan Yup’ik and Central Siberian Yupik lexicon, phonology, morphology, and some syntactic constructions.

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  • Jacobson, Steven A. 1994. The “observational construction” in Central (Alaskan) Yup’ik Eskimo and (Central) Siberian Yupik Eskimo. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 27.2: 261–274.

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    Discussion of syntactic differences in the expression of the observation of an event in Central Alaskan Yup’ik and Central Siberian Yupik.

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  • Jacobson, Steven A. 2006. The participial oblique: A verb mood found only in Nunivak Central Alaskan Yup’ik and in Siberian Yupik. Études/Inuit/Studies 30.1: 135–156.

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    Discussion of differences in expression of syntactic constructions involving the participial mood between Nunivak and Central Alaskan Yup’ik and possible evidence of previous existence of such constructions in the latter.

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Central Alaskan Yup’ik

Central Alaskan Yup’ik is spoken from the very southern edge of the Seward Peninsula to the northeastern end of the Alaskan Peninsula and consists of several distinct dialects, including Central Yup’ik, Norton Sound, Hooper Bay-Chevak, Nunivak, and Egegik. While documentation of the language certainly took place earlier, the first extant grammatical sketches date to the late 19th century and the first published grammars to the 20th century.

Descriptive Works

The first published grammar and lexicon of Central Alaskan Yup’ik by the Moravian John Hinz, from 1944, was an important source; however, it has been entirely superseded by the works of researchers such as Steven A. Jacobson, Osahite Miyaoka, and Irene Reed. Jacobson 1984 is the most comprehensive dictionary of the language and includes entries from all dialects. Amos and Amos 2003 is a compilation of lexical items for a specific dialect, that of Nunivak Island. Jacobson 1998 is an invaluable source of dialectal information for both historical and historical linguistic research and in fact clarified the status of the separate dialects and established the existence of the Egegik dialect. Miyaoka 1996 provides a concise sketch of Central Alaskan Yup’ik grammar, while Jacobson 1995 is a more comprehensive grammar intended specifically for college students.

  • Amos, Muriel, and Howard Amos. 2003. Cup’ig Eskimo dictionary. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center.

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    Bilingual dictionary of the distinctive Nunivak Island dialect of Central Alaskan Yup’ik.

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  • Jacobson, Steven A. 1984. Yup’ik Eskimo dictionary. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center.

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    Comprehensive dictionary of Central Alaskan Yup’ik; it includes dialectal entries, appendixes with tables of grammatical paradigms, unverified words from old sources, a list of lexical sources, tables and diagrams of certain lexical domains (e.g., kinship terms, kayak parts), a list of Russian loanwords, and an English index.

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  • Jacobson, Steven A. 1995. A practical grammar of the Central Alaskan Yup’ik Eskimo language. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center.

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    Grammar of Central Yup’ik designed and presented as a college-level textbook for language learning purposes; it is the most comprehensive grammar in print of the language and includes texts, copious examples illustrating grammatical points, and information on usage of given grammatical forms in extended discourse.

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  • Jacobson, Stephen A. 1998. Yup’ik dialect atlas and study. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center.

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    Collection of isogloss maps of some two hundred Central Alaskan Yup’ik terms, establishing relationships among the language’s dialects; this is an invaluable source of information for historical linguists and historians.

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  • Miyaoka, Osahito. 1996. Central Alaskan Yupik, an Eskimoan language. In Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 17, Languages. Edited by Ives Goddard, 325–363. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution.

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    Concise sketch of Central Alaskan Yup’ik grammar, primarily from the Central Yup’ik dialect; includes a selected vocabulary.

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Specific Topics

Of all of the Yupik languages, Central Alaskan Yup’ik has probably been the most accessible, provided the most data to nonspecialist linguistic researchers, and generated the most linguistic studies. Although Central Alaskan Yup’ik prosody has certainly been well studied (see Krauss 1985, cited in Yupik), much of the research is focused on morphological and syntactic phenomena. Jacobson 1982 is a study of complex clause structure involving different nominalization strategies; Jacobson 1984 is an important work on the demonstrative system in the language and has served as a basis of studies of the demonstratives in other Eskimo languages. Many of Steven A. Jacobson’s studies of Central Alaskan Yup’ik are from a comparative perspective (see Jacobson 1990, cited in Yupik). Osahito Miyaoka offers interesting perspectives on semantic and pragmatic features of the language. Miyaoka 1984 is an analysis of the effect of passivization or antipassivization on the expression of agency in different classes of verbs. Miyaoka 1997 is a detailed analysis of the range of functions and contexts associated with one of the most important verb moods in Central Alaskan Yup’ik. Anthony C. Woodbury’s work on Yup’ik is especially concerned with discourse and rhetorical structure, itself an underdescribed aspect of Eskimo-Aleut languages. In Woodbury 1985 he discusses the prospects for cross-linguistic comparisons of rhetorical structure based on his data from and research on Central Alaskan Yup’ik. Marianne Mithun tends to offer typological analyses of various aspects of Yup’ik grammar, as in Mithun 2000, a study of valency that leans heavily on Miyaoka 1984 but expands the study and places it in a wider typological context. Mithun 1996 is a general collection of graduate students’ papers on Yupik, many of which relate to otherwise understudied aspects of the language, such as the use of mood or evidentials in discourse.

  • Jacobson, Steven A. 1982. Types of partial nominalization in Central Yup’ik Eskimo. Études/Inuit/Studies 6.2: 51–60.

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    Discussion of a range of embedded clause types that involve nominalized participial forms.

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  • Jacobson, Steven. 1984. Semantics and morphology of demonstratives in Central Yup’ik Eskimo. Études/Inuit/Studies 8, supp.: 185–192.

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    Description and schematization of Central Yup’ik demonstratives according to their semantics and morphological makeup.

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  • Mithun, Marianne. 2000. Valency-changing derivations in Central Alaskan Yup’ik. In Changing valency. Edited by R. M. W. Dixon and Alexandra Aikhenvald, 84–114. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press.

    DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511627750Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Semantic discussion of derivational and semantic factors involved in verbal constructions that add or delete an argument and the effect of changes in valency on the discourse.

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  • Mithun, Marianne, ed. 1996. Prosody, grammar, and discourse in Central Alaskan Yup’ik. Santa Barbara Papers in Linguistics 7. Santa Barbara: Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, Department of Linguistics.

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    Graduate student papers on a variety of linguistic aspects of Central Alaskan Yup’ik, including stress and the use of demonstratives, tense, mood, evidentials, ergativity, and information flow in narratives; includes texts.

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  • Miyaoka, Osahito. 1984. On the so-called half-transitive verbs in Eskimo. Études/Inuit/Studies 8, supp.: 193–218.

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    Nontheoretical semantic discussion of verbs that inflect both transitively and intransitively in Central Alaskan Yup’ik, and the effect of passivization and antipassivization on the expression of agency in these verbs.

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  • Miyaoka, Osahito. 1997. A chapter on the Alaskan Central Yupik subordinative mood. In Languages of the North Pacific Rim. Vol. 2. Edited by Osahito Miyaoka, 61–146. Kyoto, Japan: Graduate School of Letters, Kyoto Univ.

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    Detailed look at one of the most important verb moods in Yup’ik texts in various functions and contexts with many illustrative examples.

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  • Woodbury, Anthony C. 1985. The functions of rhetorical structure: A study of Central Alaskan Yupik Eskimo discourse. Language in Society 14:153–190.

    DOI: 10.1017/S0047404500011118Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »

    Study of Central Alaskan Yup’ik discourse structure based on intonation and prosodic patterns, the use of sentential particles and enclitics, repetition, and organization of information.

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Alutiiq

Alutiiq (also known as Sugcestun or Sugpiaq) is spoken around the Gulf of Alaska from the Alaska Peninsula to Prince William Sound. It is relatively close to Central Alaskan Yup’ik, with most noted linguistic differences being phonological and lexical. Alutiiq is one of the less studied Yupik languages, and there have been relatively few academic publications on the language, with more recent emphasis on pedagogical materials. A number of scholars collected vocabularies and texts, but relatively few of those materials have been published. Jeff Leer has published the most detailed linguistic studies on Alutiiq, including Leer 1985 on Alutiiq prosody (in the context of prosody in other Yupik languages) and Leer 1994 on Kenai Peninsula Alutiiq phonology. Basic reference works for language learning include Leer, et al. 1978 and Leer 1990.

  • Leer, Jeff. 1985. Prosody in Alutiiq. In Yupik Eskimo prosodic systems. Edited by Michael E. Krauss, 77–133. Alaska Native Language Center Research Papers 7. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center.

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    Discussion of Alutiiq prosody.

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  • Leer, Jeff. 1990. Classroom grammar of Koniag Alutiiq, Kodiak Island dialect. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center.

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    Grammar of Koniag Alutiiq for primary school instruction in the language.

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  • Leer, Jeff. 1994. The phonology of the Kenai Peninsula dialect of Chugach Alutiiq. In Languages of the North Pacific Rim. Edited by Osahito Miyaoka, 37–148. Hokkaido University Publications in Linguistics 7. Sapporo, Japan: Hokkaido Univ.

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    In-depth phonological study of the Kenai Peninsula dialect of Alutiiq from the point of view of autosegmental phonology.

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  • Leer, Jeff, Carl Anahonak, Arthur Moonin, and Derenty Tabios. 1978. Nanwalegmiut paluwigmiut-llu nupugnerit = Conversational Alutiiq dictionary: Kenai Peninsula Alutiiq. Fairbanks: National Bilingual Materials Development Center, Alaska Native Language Center, and Rural Education Affairs, Univ. of Alaska.

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    Bilingual English–Kenai Peninsula Alutiiq dictionary.

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Naukanski

Naukanski is spoken on the far northeastern tip of the Chukchi Peninsula in the Russian Far East. It is one of the less studied Yupik languages, and most published works are in Russian. The first substantial published study of the language is Menovshchikov 1975. The collaborations among Elizaveta A. Dobrieva, Evgeniy V. Golovko, Steven A. Jacobson, and Michael E. Krauss (Dobrieva, et al. 2004; Golovko, et al. 2004) are important contributions to the study of the language and are based on unpublished field notes and text collections of scholars and Native speakers. Krauss 1985 provides one of the few theoretical studies of Naukan in English.

Central Siberian Yupik

Central Siberian Yupik is spoken along the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula in the Russian Far East and on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. The two main dialects correspond to these two regions. Descriptions of the speech of the St. Lawrence Islanders include Badten, et al. 1987 and Jacobson 2001. Descriptions of the variety of Central Siberian Yupik spoken on the Siberian mainland include Menovshchikov 1967, which is one of the main published sources of information on the language. There are still relatively few theoretical studies of Central Siberian Yupik, most of which are authored by Nikolai B.Vakhtin, Willem J. de Reuse, and Steven A. Jacobson and many of which involve syntax. Vakhtin works within the Russian linguistic tradition; he discusses complex sentences in Tersis and Therrien 2000 (see Edited Collections), and in Vakhtin 2001 he provides a detailed study of imperative constructions with some data from Sireniki as well. De Reuse 1994 is a morphosyntactic study of verbal morphology of Central Siberian Yupik with data from both the mainland and St. Lawrence Island; it also has a substantial discussion of Chukchi influence on Siberian Yupik (de Reuse also has a contribution in Jahr and Broch 1996, cited in Edited Collections). De Reuse 2001 is a study of historical changes in the Central Siberian Yupik mood system. Partially as a result of de Reuse’s work, Jacobson has published some important comparative articles on Central Siberian and Central Alaskan Yupik (see Jacobson 1994 and Jacobson 2006, cited in Yupik). Jacobson has also contributed to studies of the prosodic system of Central Siberian Yupik, again in comparison with Central Alaskan Yupik (see Krauss 1985, cited in Yupik). Part of the Endangered Languages of the Pacific Rim Project based in Japan, Nagai 2001 is a morphosyntactic study of diminutive and augmentative postbases.

  • Badten, Linda Womkon, Vera Oovi Kaneshiro, and Marie Oovi. 1987. A dictionary of the St. Lawrence Island/Siberian Yupik Eskimo language. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center.

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    St. Lawrence Island Central Siberian Yupik–English dictionary with English index.

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  • de Reuse, Willem J. 1994. Siberian Yupik Eskimo: The language and its contacts with Chukchi. Salt Lake City: Univ. of Utah Press.

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    Study of Central Siberian Yupik verbal morphology from an autolexical syntactic point of view; includes a sketch of Yupik grammar and a substantial section on Chukchi influence on the language.

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  • de Reuse, Willem J. 2001. The great Yupik mood swing and its implications for the directionality of semantic change. Papers from the Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society 37.2: 239–248.

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    Study of changes in the use and function of the oblique moods in Central Siberian Yupik.

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  • Jacobson, Steven A. 2001. A practical grammar of the St. Lawrence Island/Siberian Yupik Eskimo language. 2d ed. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center.

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    Grammar of St. Lawrence Island Yupik in the model of a college language learning textbook.

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  • Menovshchikov, Georgiy A. 1967. Grammatika jazyka aziatskikh éskimosov. Chast’ vtoraja. Leningrad, USSR: Izdatel’stvo Nauka.

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    Comprehensive description of Central Siberian Eskimo. In Russian.

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  • Nagai, Kayo. 2001. On argument-modifying diminutives and augmentatives in Central Siberian Yupik. In Languages of the North Pacific Rim. Vol. 7. Edited by Toshiro Tsumagari, 51–70. Endangered Languages of the Pacific Rim Project Publication A2-002. Suita, Japan: Osaka Gakuin Univ.

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    Study of syntactic structures involving diminutive and augmentative postbases that modify verbal arguments in Central Siberian Yupik. In Japanese with short abstract in English.

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  • Vakhtin, Nikolai B. 2001. Imperative sentences in Asiatic Eskimo. In Typology of imperative constructions. Edited by Viktor S. Khrakovskij, 129–144. Munich: LINCOM Europa.

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    Syntactic and semantic study of imperative and optative constructions in both dialects of Central Siberian Eskimo with some consideration of imperatives in Sirenikski as well.

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Sirenikski

Sirenikski was spoken on the Chukchi Peninsula south of the Central Siberian Yupik and Naukanski regions. It is the least described of the Eskimo-Aleut languages; the first known documentation dates from 1895, but the first significant analytical work is Menovshchikov 1964. Vakhtin 1991 summarizes the known and available data on the language, while Vakhtin 2000 presents the most comprehensive publication on the language. Krupnik 1991 proposes a sociolinguistic account of the demise of the language. Krauss 1994 emphasizes the importance of Sirenikski in understanding the history of the Eskimo languages.

Inuit

“Inuit” is the most widely accepted term for what is considered a dialect continuum from northwestern Alaska to Greenland. There are four major dialect areas—Alaskan Iñupiaq, Western Canadian Inuktun, Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, and Greenlandic (Kalaallisut)—each of which consists of several distinct subdialects. Autonyms (indigenous names) vary from group to group. Documentation of the eastern dialects is the most extensive for any Eskimo-Aleut language, whereas documentation of the western dialects is somewhat scarce. Louis-Jacques Dorais in particular has generated cross-dialect descriptions of Inuit, and Michael Fortescue has produced much of the recent comparative work. Dorais 2003 is one of the few general overviews of Inuit with relatively detailed sets of paradigms, examples, and discussions of each of the major Inuit dialects; it is aimed specifically at beginning students of the language. Dorais 2010 is an excellent introduction to the Inuit language covering a wide variety of topics for a general readership. Fortescue 1983a is an invaluable source of information on derivational affixes between the dialects. While some aspects of this are taken up again in Fortescue 1985, the latter also challenges the commonly held assumption that the dialects are as highly similar and mutually intelligible as they are often claimed to be. Creider 1981, on the other hand, presents phonological evidence of a dialect continuum. Fortescue 1983b is a comparative study of intonation contours between the dialects and is unusual in that intonation has not widely been examined within the language family and particularly not from a comparative point of view. Berge and Kaplan 2005 considers the increasing differentiation of the dialects as well as of the Yupik and Inuit languages as a result of language-specific decisions regarding the development of new lexical items reflecting modern experiences.

  • Berge, Anna, and Lawrence Kaplan. 2005. Contact-induced lexical development in Yupik and Inuit languages. Études/Inuit/Studies 29.1–2: 285–305.

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    Study of the increasing differentiation between the Inuit dialects and between Inuit and Yupik languages as a result of contact with different dominant languages and different language-internal strategies for creating new lexical items reflecting modernization.

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  • Creider, Chet. 1981. Place of articulation assimilation and the Inuktitut dialect continuum. Études/Inuit/Studies 5, supp.: 91–100.

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    Short article providing evidence from consonant cluster assimilations for an Inuit dialect continuum.

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  • Dorais, Louis-Jacques. 2003. Inuit uqausiqatigiit: Inuit languages and dialects. 2d ed. Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada: Nunavut Arctic College.

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    Manual for beginning students on features of each of the major Inuit dialects and subdialects, including phonological and lexical differences, some morphological and syntactic differences, nominal and verbal paradigms, examples of texts, and present-day status of the languages.

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  • Dorais, Louis-Jacques. 2010. The language of the Inuit: Syntax, semantics, and society in the Arctic. Montreal: McGill-Queens Univ. Press.

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    Excellent general overview of Inuit, including discussions of the language family, the major characteristics of Inuit with a special chapter on the Nunavik dialect of Inuktitut, and issues in the historical development, semantics, sociolinguistics, language contact, and current status of the language.

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  • Fortescue, Michael. 1983a. A comparative manual of affixes for the Inuit dialects of Greenland, Canada, and Alaska. Man and Society 4. Copenhagen: Meddelelser om Grønlanda.

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    Comparison of derivational affixes of all of the major Inuit dialects by semantic group with maps, sample texts, an appendix of Central Alaskan Yupik affixes, and an index; an invaluable source for comparative language study.

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  • Fortescue, Michael. 1983b. Intonation contours across the Inuit dialects. Études/Inuit/Studies 7.2: 113–124.

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    Unusual comparative study of intonation in declarative and interrogative sentences in the Inuit dialects suggesting developments in the eastern dialects that seem to confirm hypothesized Thule migration paths.

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  • Fortescue, Michael D. 1985. The degree of interrelatedness between Inuit dialects as reflected by percentages of shared affixes. International Journal of American Linguistics 51.2: 188–221.

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    Discussion of the degree to which the Inuit dialects have diverged with respect to their derivational morphology as well as a hypothesis about the development of the individual dialects with reference to the Thule migration history; excellent source for scholars of comparative Eskimo.

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Alaskan Iñupiaq

Alaskan Iñupiaq is spoken in northern and northwestern Alaska and, as a result of migration during the 19th century, in northwestern Canada. There are four main subdialects of Alaskan Iñupiaq, including Seward Peninsula Iñupiaq (spoken on King Island, the Diomede Islands, and north of Nome), Qawiaraq (spoken in Teller and south of Nome), Malimiut (spoken around Kotzebue and along the Kobuk River), and North Slope (spoken along the Arctic Ocean coast to the Mackenzie Delta in Canada). To date, while there is a significant number of published texts and some pedagogical materials, there are relatively few published linguistic studies of Alaskan Iñupiaq, and most of those pertain to studies of the phonology. Published dictionaries include one of North Slope Iñupiaq by Donald Webster and Wilfried Zibell, Iñupiat Eskimo Dictionary (Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1970), which was the source for Webster and Zibell 2000, an online interactive version of the earlier work. Seiler 2005 provides lexical information for the Malimiut dialect of Iñupiaq. Lawrence D. Kaplan’s work focuses on the lexicon, phonology, and historical reconstructions of the various dialects. Kaplan 2001 provides linguistic evidence of regional contact between Iñupiaq and Yupik speaking groups, and Kaplan 1981 and Kaplan 1994 are important sources of information for any reconstruction of Proto-Inuit and Proto-Eskimo. Tadataka Nagai’s work pertains specifically to the dialect of the upper Kobuk region. Nagai 2000 is one of the few published syntactic studies of Alaskan Iñupiaq. Likewise Nagai’s published dissertation (Nagai 2008) is one of the few semantic studies of the language.

  • Kaplan, Lawrence D. 1981. Phonological issues in North Alaskan Iñupiaq. Alaska Native Language Center Research Papers 6. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center.

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    In-depth investigation of phonological processes that have led to the increasing differentiation of Iñupiaq from Yupik and of Iñupiaq from other Inuit dialects; includes studies of consonant assimilation, assibilation and palatalization, manifestations of the fourth vowel, consonant alternation, and gemination in the North Slope Iñupiaq and Malimiut dialects.

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  • Kaplan, Lawrence D. 1994. Qawiaraq Iñupiaq: A clue to the origin of consonant palatalization in Alaskan Inuit. Acta Linguistics Hafniensia 27.2: 285–290.

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    Short study of phonological differences between Qawiaraq and neighboring varieties of Seward Peninsula Iñupiaq with special focus on the role of the Proto-Eskimo fourth vowel in the development of palatalization in Alaskan Iñupiaq.

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  • Kaplan, Lawrence D. 2001. L’Iñupiaq et les contacts linguistiques en Alaska. In Les langues eskaléoutes: Sibérie, Alaska, Canada, Groenland. Edited by Nicole Tersis and Michèle Therrien, 91–108. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

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    Linguistic evidence of regional contact between Iñupiaq- and Yupik-speaking groups in the form of unusual phonological forms in the southern varieties of Alaskan Iñupiaq. In French.

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  • Nagai, Tadataka. 2000. The oblique case in the three-place antipassive construction in Upper Kobuk Iñupiaq. In Languages of the North Pacific Rim. Vol. 5. Edited by Osahito Miyaoka, 65–123. Suita, Japan: Osaka Gakuin Univ.

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    Study of the choice of case marking in various antipassive constructions in the Malimiut dialect of Iñupiaq with a special focus on ditransitive antipassives.

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  • Nagai, Tadataka. 2008. Agentive and patientive verb bases in North Alaskan Inupiaq Eskimo. Saarbrücken, Germany: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller.

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    Semantic study of verb stems that can be used both transitively and intransitively in Iñupiaq. Publication of Nagai’s PhD dissertation, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2006.

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  • Seiler, Wolf A. 2005. Iñupiatun Eskimo dictionary. Kotzebue, Alaska: NANA Regional Corporation.

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    Dictionary of Malimiut dialect of Iñupiaq with entries in Iñupiaq with English definitions and in English with Iñupiaq glosses; includes appendixes with grammatical information in tabular form.

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  • Webster, Donald, and Wilfried Zibell. 2000. Interactive Iñupiat Dictionary. Alaskool.

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    Online lexicon based on Webster and Zibell’s Iñupiat Eskimo Dictionary (Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1970); entries are in Iñupiaq with English glosses with an independent search feature for finding Iñupiaq equivalents of English search terms.

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    Western Canadian Inuktun

    Western Canadian Inuktun is spoken in the MacKenzie River delta in northwestern Canada and has three main subdialects, Uummarmiutun, Siglitun, and Kangiryuarmiutun; some scholars also identify the variety spoken by the Natsilingmiut around Gjoa Haven and Repulse Bay in the central Canadian Arctic as a Western dialect. It is one of the least described of the Inuit dialects as well as one of the most endangered. Dorais and Lowe 1982 provides a short introduction to the status of linguistic documentation and to mostly phonological characteristics of the subdialects of this region. Lowe published a series of grammars and dictionaries on each of the Western subdialects (not including Natsilingmiutut) in the 1980s; their characteristics are nicely summarized in Lowe 1991. Lowe 2001 places the study of the dialects in a theoretical perspective. Even less linguistic information is available on Natsilingmiutut; Omura 1998 provides information on both a little-known dialect and a little-studied feature of the Inuit language.

    • Dorais, Louis-Jacques, and Ronald Lowe. 1982. Les dialectes de l’Arctique de l’ouest. Études/Inuit/Studies 6.2: 127–133.

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      A description of the state of documentation of the Western Canadian dialects of Inuit, the research undertaken by the authors, and mainly phonological characteristics of the dialects. In French.

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    • Lowe, Ronald. 1991. Les trois dialectes inuit de l’Arctique canadien de l’ouest: Analyse descriptive et comparative. Sainte-Foy, Quebec, Canada: Association Inuksiutiit Katimajiit.

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      A comparison of the Uummarmiutun, Siglitun, and Kangiryuarmiutun subdialects. In French.

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    • Lowe, Ronald. 2001. Systématique du mot inuit, Arctique occidental canadien. In Les langues eskaléoutes: Sibérie, Alaska, Canada, Groenland. Edited by Nicole Tersis and Michèle Therrien, 149–170. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

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      A theoretical analysis of Inuit morphology based on the French linguist Gustave Guillaume’s theoretical approach. In French.

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    • Omura, Keiichi. 1998. A research note on the color terminology system in the Natsilingmiutut dialect of Inuktun. Études/Inuit/Studies 22.1: 123–138.

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      The application of the Brent Berlin and Paul Kay studies of color terminology to Natsilingmiutut.

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    Eastern Canadian Inuktitut

    Eastern Canadian Inuktitut is spoken in Keewatin, Baffin Island, Nunavik, and Labrador; Dorais 2003 (cited in Inuit), identifies six subdialects—Kivalliq, Aivilik, North and South Baffin, Arctic Quebec, and Labrador—although there are significant subdialects of each of these. Eastern Canadian Inuktitut has seen a great deal of documentation, especially from the second half of the 20th century on. There is a broad variety of research as well, ranging from phonological, morphological, and syntactic studies to studies of semantics, sociolinguistics, child language acquisition, and language contact.

    Descriptive Works

    Some of the first extensive documentation of Eastern Canadian Inuit is a result of the Moravian missionary Theodor Bourquin’s work during the 19th century. Despite close contact with the missions in Greenland and with Samuel Kleinschmidt (see Early Works), his grammar (Bourquin 1891) and orthographic conventions are distinct and were a major influence on the instruction of Labrador Inuttut; the orthography is still in use. Schneider 1985 is the primary dictionary for Eastern Canadian Inuktitut, and Schneider 1973 is an essential source of grammatical information on the postbases. Schneider 1967 is good grammar of the language spoken around Ungava Bay (Arctic Quebec). Dorais 1988 is one of a large number of descriptive works on the individual subdialects of Eastern Canadian Inuktitut (especially Arctic Quebec and Baffin subdialects) following a template Louis-Jacques Dorais developed in the 1970s for the presentation of grammatical information to the respective Native communities. These grammars include nominal and verbal inflectional paradigms and usage notes with limited linguistic terminology, and he has published versions in English, French, and Inuktitut. Many of the published materials relate to the language of Arctic Quebec, although there are certainly descriptive studies of the Baffin dialects. More than with other Alaskan and Canadian Eskimo-Aleut languages, there is a strong presence online. Of the several projects to create online dictionaries and interactive language tools, the Inuktitut Linguistic Database is one of the more complete.

    Specific Topics

    There is no dearth of documentation and linguistic study of Inuktitut; the citations here illustrate the range of topics covered. In early modern linguistic studies of Inuktitut, some of the most common themes were the existence of discrete nominal and verbal categories, ergativity, and the function of transitive, intransitive, and antipassive constructions in the language (many published in early issues of Études/Inuit/Studies, cited in Journals). One of the most comprehensive discussions of these early debates is Johns 1987. They continue to receive more interest than many other aspects of Inuktitut grammar. Johns 2001, for example, reexamines the relative importance of ergative versus antipassive constructions in Labrador Inuttut. The functions of the greatly overlapping indicative and participial verb moods have also puzzled linguists; Johns 1995 discusses some alternations between these moods in Labrador Inuttut, which shows significant differences from other Inuit dialects. Denny 1982 is an important semantic study of Inuktitut spatial deictics and can be used in conjunction with Jacobson 1984 (cited in Central Alaskan Yup’ik: Specific Topics) for a broader perspective on the Eskimo deictics; it is especially noteworthy in its inclusion of a discussion of pragmatic uses of the deictics, pragmatics being a still understudied aspect of most Eskimo languages. Therrien 1987 is a highly original study of Inuit body terminology from a semantic and ethnolinguistic point of view. Martha B. Crago and Shanley E. M. Allen work especially with child language acquisition, again a subject less well studied in other Eskimo-Aleut languages. Their work is primarily with the Arctic Quebec subdialect of Inuktitut. Allen 1996 presents the results of a longitudinal study of children from two years old to three years six months and focuses on three grammatical structures in particular, passives, causatives, and structures with noun incorporation. Crago and Allen 1997 presents data on child-directed speech, a subject almost completely neglected in most of the rest of the language family. Dorais and Sammons 2003 presents the results of a long-term study of bilingualism, language attitudes, and language maintenance in Baffin Island in an effort to understand the likelihood of language retention or eventual loss.

    • Allen, Shanley E. M. 1996. Aspects of argument structure acquisition in Inuktitut. Studies in Language Acquisition and Languages Disorders 13. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

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      Child language acquisition studies in the Arctic Quebec subdialect of Inuktitut with special focus on the acquisition of passives, causatives, and noun incorporation; the analyses are placed within the principles and parameters theoretical framework.

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    • Crago, Martha B., and Shanley E. M. Allen. 1997. Linguistic and cultural aspects of simplicity and complexity in Inuktitut (Eskimo) child-directed speech. In Proceedings of the Twenty-First Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. Edited by Elizabeth Hughes, Mary Hughes, and Annabel Greenhill, 91–102. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla.

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      Study of child language acquisition of Inuktitut with focus on child-directed speech of adults.

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    • Denny, Peter. 1982. Semantics of the Inuktitut (Eskimo) spatial deictics. International Journal of American Linguistics 48:359–384.

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      Comprehensive discussion of the complexities of Inuktitut deictics with special reference to the Aivilik subdialect; includes very important pragmatic information on usage as well as a brief comparison with other dialects.

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    • Dorais, Louis-Jacques, and Susan Sammons. 2003. Language in Nunavut: Discourse and identity in the Baffin Region. Iqaluit, Nunavut, Canada: Nunavut Arctic College.

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      Long-term study of bilingualism, language maintenance and loss, and language attitude in Baffin Island Inuktitut.

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    • Johns, Alana. 1987. Transitivity and grammatical relations in Inuktitut. PhD diss., Univ. of Ottawa.

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      Comprehensive presentation of the nominalist theory in studies of Inuktitut and generativist analysis of ergativity and transitivity in the language with data mostly from Labrador Inuttut.

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    • Johns, Alana. 1995. On some mood alternations in Labrador Inuttut. In Grammatical relations: Theoretical approaches to empirical questions. Edited by Clifford S. Burgess, Katarzyna Dziwirek, and Donna Gerdts, 131–152. Stanford, CA: Center for the Study of Language and Information.

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      Discussion and analysis of the paradigmatic overlap between indicative and participial moods in Inuktitut; the use of these moods shows some significant difference from their use in other dialects.

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    • Johns, Alana. 2001. Ergative to accusative: Comparing evidence from Inuktitut. In Grammatical relations in change. Edited by Jan Terje Faarlund, 205–221. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

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      Theoretical analysis of the preferential use of the antipassive rather than the transitive construction in Labrador Inuttut.

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    • Therrien, Michèle. 1987. Le corps Inuit: Québec Arctique. Paris: Société d’Études Linguistiques et Anthropologique de France.

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      Semantic and ethnolinguistic analysis of body part terminology of Inuktitut, primarily from the Arctic Quebec subdialect, with reference to other dialects; includes discussion of shamanic terminology and customs and metaphorical extension of terms to material world, such as kayaks and igloos.

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    Greenlandic (Kalaallisut)

    Greenlandic is spoken by approximately sixty thousand people on the island of Greenland. There are three major and quite distinct subdialects of Greenlandic: one commonly referred to as Polar Eskimo, spoken in the northwest above Melville Bay; West Greenlandic, spoken on the western coast and itself with several subdialects; and East Greenlandic. West Greenlandic, by far the largest of the three, has been well documented since the early 18th century and is arguably the most referenced language of the Eskimo-Aleut language family by linguists outside of the field. Both Polar and East Greenlandic were discovered and consequently described much later.

    Early Works

    The earliest descriptive works on Greenlandic continue to have enormous relevance especially for historical linguists but also for synchronic studies of some of the more unusual features of the language. All were of West Greenlandic. The first comprehensive grammar and the most important source of information on the language in the 18th century is Egede 1750; likewise, Egede 1760 is an invaluable source of early lexical information followed by a text ostensibly relating the experiences of one of the first Native Greenlanders to visit Denmark. Samuel Kleinschmidt was a brilliant linguist in the 19th century who established a writing system for the language that lasted until the 1970s and whose 1851 grammar (Kleinschmidt 1991) is superb and still referenced by 20th-century linguists. Kleinschmidt 1871 is also an indispensible source for work on the historical studies of the language.

    • Egede, Poul Hansen. 1750. Dictionarium grönlandica-danico-latina: Complectens primitiva cum suis derivatis, quibus interjectaie sunt voces primariæ è Kirendo Augekkutorum. Copenhagen: Sumptibus and Typis Orphan, regii excudit Gottm. Frid. Kisel.

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      First dictionary of (West) Greenlandic; in Greenlandic, Danish, and Latin.

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    • Egede, Poul Hansen. 1760. Grammatica grönlandica danico-latina. Copenhagen: Sumptibus and Typis Orphan, regii excudit Gottm. Frid. Kisel.

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      First grammar of West Greenlandic and important source of information on 18th-century Greenlandic. Includes two short texts relating a conversation between a missionary and a Greenlandic shaman and between a Greenlander, Pok (Pooq), and his countrymen about his experiences in Denmark.

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    • Kleinschmidt, Samuel. 1871. Den Gronlandske Ordbog. Copenhagen: Louis Kleins Bogtrukkeri.

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      Comprehensive dictionary of West Greenlandic of the 19th century. In Greenlandic and Danish.

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    • Kleinschmidt, Samuel. 1991. Grammatik der grönländischen Sprache mit teilweisem Einschluss des Labradordialekts. Hildesheim, Germany: Olms.

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      First truly accurate grammar of West Greenlandic and still an important source of material for the study of Greenlandic grammar. In German. Originally published in 1851.

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    Descriptive Works

    There are quite a few descriptive works on Greenlandic, the vast majority of which relate to West Greenlandic. The most commonly used dictionary is Berthelsen, et al. 1990, although Schultz-Lorenzen 1927, which relies heavily on Kleinschmidt 1871 (cited in Early Works), is a good source for English speakers. There have also been numerous school grammars, especially as a result of the instruction of Greenlandic in schools and universities since at least the 1970s. Of the linguistic works, however, Fortescue 1984 is the most widely used reference grammar of West Greenlandic. Fortescue 1986 and Fortescue 1991 are among the only comprehensive grammars of dialects or special subdialects of Greenlandic. Mennecier 1995 is a comprehensive grammar of the East Greenlandic dialect. Per Langgård, Aviaq Tobiassen, and Trond Trosterud have been developing the interactive Sámi giellatekno, which allows the user to analyze Greenlandic text and convert the Samuel Kleinschmidt orthography to modern orthography and promises to be an excellent tool for those interested in doing morphological analysis.

    • Berthelsen, Christian, Birgitte Jacobsen, Inge Kleivan, Frederik Nielsen, Robert Petersen, and Jørgen Rischel. 1990. Oqaatsit Kalaallisuumiit qallunaatuumut: Grønlandsk Dansk Ordbog. Nuuk, Greenland: Atuakkiorfik.

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      Greenlandic–Danish dictionary with a large number of entries but not much explanation of usage of individual entries; has been periodically updated.

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    • Fortescue, Michael. 1984. West Greenlandic. London: Croom Helm.

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      The primary source of comprehensive, descriptive information on Greenlandic grammar. Presentation follows template of Croom Helm grammars with syntactic information first, followed by morphology and phonology.

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    • Fortescue, Michael. 1986. En introduktion til Upernavikdialekten. Instituttets Skriftserie 13. Copenhagen: Institut for Eskimologi.

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      Short treatise on the distinctive subdialect of Upernavik.

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    • Fortescue, Michael. 1991. Inuktun: An introduction to the language of Qaanaaq, Thule. Institut for Eskimologis Skriftserie 15. Copenhagen: Institut for Eskimologi.

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      Descriptive grammar of the Polar Eskimo dialect.

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    • Mennecier, Philippe. 1995. Le Tunumiisut, dialecte Inuit du Groenland oriental. Collection Linguistique, Société de Linguistique de Paris Description et Analyse 78. Paris: Klincksieck.

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      Grammar of East Greenlandic. In French.

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    • Sámi giellatekno.

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      Greenlandic Parser Project. Interactive website edited by Per Langgård, Aviaq Tobiassen, and Trond Trosterud enabling the morphological analysis of Greenlandic works, textual transliteration, and conversion between old and new Greenlandic orthographies. Based on parsers developed for the Sámi language; joint project between Grønlands Sprognævn (Oqaasileriffik) and the University of Tromsø.

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      • Schultz-Lorenzen, Christian Wilhelm. 1927. Dictionary of the West Greenlandic Eskimo language. Meddelelser om Grønland 69. Copenhagen: C. A. Reitzels Forlag.

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        Greenlandic–English dictionary with old orthography; dated but useful for students without a knowledge of Danish.

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      Specific Topics

      The sources here are meant to be representative of the wide range of linguistic studies on Greenlandic. Fortescue 1984 is a study of historical developments in the speech of geographically separated communities, suggesting an earlier migration from the east. Rischel 1974 is still the most comprehensive study of Greenlandic phonology, while Sadock 1980 is a key theoretical article on an important aspect of Greenlandic syntax. Maria Bittner has done the most work with theoretical semantics in the field of Eskimo-Aleut linguistics, most notably with Greenlandic. Bittner 1994 is a test of a new theory of case and scope with data from Greenlandic. Fortescue 1993 is a demonstration of the effect of discourse on the use of switch-reference morphology. Birgitte Jacobsen has a wide field of innovative research on Greenlandic, including the use of the languages in chat rooms (see Mahieu and Tersis 2009, cited in Edited Collections); Jacobsen 2000 is a short study of Greenlandic stress and intonation patterns.

      LAST MODIFIED: 10/28/2011

      DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780199772810-0065

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