Central Siberian Yupik language

Unlike the Central Alaskan Yupik languages, Siberian Yupik has a series of retroflex fricatives, more similar to the Alaskan Inuit dialects.

The base forms the lexical core of the word and belongs to one of three main classes: noun bases, verb bases and particle bases.[19]

• Noun bases (N)
  • Ordinary noun bases (intransitive, transitive)
  • Independent pronoun bases (intransitive)
  • Demonstrative bases (D) (intransitive)
  • Adjectival noun bases
    • Inflecting as ordinary noun bases (intransitive, transitive)
    • Independent relative bases
    • Quantificational bases (Q)
      • Numeral (NM) bases: cardinal (intransitive); ordinal (transitive)
      • Specifier (SP) bases: cardinal (intransitive); partitive (transitive)
  • Locational bases
    • Demonstrative adverb (DA) bases (intransitive)
    • Positional (PS) bases (transitive)
  • Temporal bases
    • Temporal noun bases (intransitive, transitive)
    • Temporal particle bases
• Verb bases (V)
  • Exclusively intransitive (Vi)
  • Exclusively transitive (Vt)
  • Ambivalent
• Particles
  • Independent particles
  • Sentence particles
  • Phrasal participles
  • Enclitics

Noun endings indicate number (singular, dual, or plural), case, and whether or not the noun is possessed. If the noun is possessed, the ending indicates the number and person of the possessor. Siberian Yupik has seven noun cases:

1. absolutive
2. relative (ergative-genitive)
3. ablative-modalis
4. localis
5. terminalis
6. vialis
7. aequalis

As in other ergative-absolutive languages, absolutive case is used to mark nouns that are generally the subjects of intransitive verbs or the objects of transitive verbs.

Ergative case identifies nouns as a subject of a transitive verb and acts as the genitive form in ergative-absolutive languages.

The ablative case is used to indicate the agent in passive sentences, or the instrument, manner, or place of the action described by the verb.

The endings of the locative and terminative cases are the same as those of the ablative case except that the locative case has -mi and -ni and the terminative case has -mun and -nun in place of the -meng and -neng at the end of the ablative case endings.

In grammar, the prolative case, also called the vialis case, is a grammatical case of a noun or pronoun that expresses motion by the referent of the noun it marks.

Equative is a case that expresses the standard of comparison of equal values.

Derivation is accomplished in CSY by attaching suffixes called postbases. Productivity in the context of CSY is defined as the free addition of a postbase to any base without an unpredictable semantic result; non-productivity implies that said postbases cannot combine freely but are limited to attaching to only a particular set of bases.[17] Postbases are either nominal or verbal and select nominal or verbal bases or expanded bases to attach to (an expanded base is a base followed by one or more postbases). There are four kinds of postbases:[19]

1. VN: postbases deriving nouns from verbs
2. NV: postbases deriving verbs from nouns
3. NN: postbases constructing complex nouns
4. VV: postbases constructing complex verbs

These postbases can indicate a wide variety of meaning, including:[19]

For nouns:

• quantification,
• adjectival modification,
• being and becoming,
• a type of verbal noun-incorporation

For verbs:

• changes in transitivity,
• adverbial modification,
• evidentially,
• negation,
• tense,
• agent noun formation,
• relative clause formation,
• various types of verbal complementation

It is estimated that CSY has approximately 547 postbases: 75 NN, 55 NV, 30 VN, and 387 VV. It appears that in CSY the large majority of NN, NV, and VN postbases are productive; for the VV postbases, there are approximately 190 non-productive ones and 197 productive ones.[17]

There are no clear morphological position classes in CSY.[20] A position class is the organization of morphemes or a morpheme class into a linear ordering with no apparent connection to syntactic, semantic, or phonological representation.[21] In the example below, it is semantic restrictions that dictate the order.[20]

Some postbases can be used recursively, as in the example below.[20]

Recursion can also be used for emphasis.[22]

There is variability in postbase ordering with no change in semantic outcome.[20]

Abbreviations: V, verb; PST, past tense; FRUSTR, frustrative (‘but . . ., in vain’); INFER, inferential evidential (often translatable as ‘it turns out’); INDIC, indicative; 3S3S, third-person subject acting on third-person object): (de Reuse 2006) Note: postbases noted in bold.

Note: there is a general rule in CSY of semantic scope in which the rightmost postbase will have scope over the left. However, there are many exceptions, as in the example above.[20]

Following are a brief list and description of enclitics in CSY. The table is recreated from de Reuse (1988).[23]

1. -lli: modal function, interrogative
2. -tuq: modal function, optative
3. -qa, -sa, -wha: modal function, exhortative or exclamative
4. -nguq: evidential function
5. -llu: focus marking or conjunction
6. -iii: can be interrogative; sometimes marks a perlocutionary act
7. -ta, -Vy: mark illocutionary acts
8. -ngam, -qun: mark the “presupposition that the hearer is unaware that the speaker lacks crucial information”
9. -mi: shifts the attention of the hearer

Note: the ‘position’ references above refer to the position of the postbase following the main base.

Naukan, or Nuvuqaghmiistun, the second largest Yupik language spoken in Chukotka, is spoken in settlements including Uelen, Lorino, Lavrentiya, and Provideniya.[13]

Additionally, the Sireniki Eskimo language, locally called Uqeghllistun, was an Eskimo language once spoken in Chukotka. It had many peculiarities. Sometimes it is classified as not belonging to the Yupik branch at all, thus forming (by itself) a stand-alone third branch of the Eskimo languages (alongside Inuit and Yupik).[12][24] Its peculiarities may be the result of a supposed long isolation from other Eskimo groups in the past.[25]

Sireniki became extinct in early January 1997.[12][24][26]

• Menovščikov, G. A. (= Г. А. Меновщиков) (1968). "Popular Conceptions, Religious Beliefs and Rites of the Asiatic Eskimoes". In Diószegi, Vilmos (ed.). Popular beliefs and folklore tradition in Siberia. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.
• de Reuse, Willem J. (1994). Siberian Yupik Eskimo: The language and its contacts with Chukchi. Studies in indigenous languages of the Americas. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press. ISBN 0-87480-397-7.
• Jacobson, Steven A. (1990). A Practical Grammar of the St.~Lawrence Island/Siberian Yupik Eskimo Language. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska.
• Jacobson, Steven A. (1979). A Grammatical Sketch of Siberian Yupik Eskimo as spoken on St.~Lawrence Island, Alaska. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center, University of Alaska.

• Меновщиков, Г. А. (1962). Грамматиκа языка азиатских эскимосов. Часть первая. Москва • Ленинград: Академия Наук СССР. Институт языкознания. The transliteration of author's name, and the rendering of title in English: Menovshchikov, G. A. (1962). Grammar of the language of Asian Eskimos. Vol. I. Moscow • Leningrad: Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
• Меновщиков, Г. А. (1996). "Азиатских эскимосов язык". Языки мира. Палеоазиатские языки. Москва: Российская академия наук. Институт языкознания. The transliteration of author's name, and the rendering of title in English: Menovshchikov, G. A. (1996). "The language of Asian Eskimos". Languages of the world. Paleoasiatic languages. Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences.
• Рубцова, Е. С. (1954). Материалы по языку и фольклору эскимосов (чаплинский диалект). Москва • Ленинград: Академия Наук СССР. The transliteration of author's name, and the rendering of title in English: Rubcova, E. S. (1954). Materials on the Language and Folklore of the Eskimoes, Vol. I, Chaplino Dialect. Moscow • Leningrad: Academy of Sciences of the USSR.
• Библиография работ по языку азиатских эскимосов