Kamchatkan languages
Encyclopedia
Kamchatkan is a former dialect cluster spoken on the Kamchatka Peninsula
. It now consists of a single language:
There are incomplete records attesting of at least two other divergent varieties, which though traditionally considered dialects, were apparently distinct enough to be classified as separate languages (Comrie 1981). The three varieties were spoken in western, eastern, and southern Kamchatka. The degree of difference can be illustrated with the pronoun 'we', which is Western muza, muza'n, Southern muš, burin, Eastern buze.
. Although distant enough for doubts about its relationship to have been raised (as in Volodin 1976), cognate morphology
clearly demonstrates that it forms a family with Chukotkan (Comrie 1981), though it also has some striking contrasts, especially in the area of phonology
. The Chukotko-Kamchatkan proto-language has been partially reconstructed (Fortescue 2005).
Michael Fortescue
believes that Kamchatkan may have a substratum of a language formerly spoken by a remnant Beringian population (Fortescue 1998:210).
Kamchatka Peninsula
The Kamchatka Peninsula is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of . It lies between the Pacific Ocean to the east and the Sea of Okhotsk to the west...
. It now consists of a single language:
- (Western) ItelmenItelmen languageItelmen, also known as Western Itelmen and formerly known as Kamchadal, is a language belonging to the Chukotko-Kamchatkan family traditionally spoken in the Kamchatka Peninsula. Fewer than a hundred native speakers, mostly elderly, in a few settlements in the southwest of Koryak Autonomous Okrug,...
, also called Kamchadal. It had 100 or fewer speakers in 1991, mostly of the older generation.
There are incomplete records attesting of at least two other divergent varieties, which though traditionally considered dialects, were apparently distinct enough to be classified as separate languages (Comrie 1981). The three varieties were spoken in western, eastern, and southern Kamchatka. The degree of difference can be illustrated with the pronoun 'we', which is Western muza, muza'n, Southern muš, burin, Eastern buze.
Classification
Kamchatkan (Itelmen) is not closely related to the Chukotkan languagesChukotkan languages
Chukotkan is a dialect cluster that forms one branch of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan language family. It is spoken in two autonomous regions which lie at the extreme northeast of Russia, bounded on the east by the Pacific and on the north by the Arctic.Traditionally, Chukotkan was considered two...
. Although distant enough for doubts about its relationship to have been raised (as in Volodin 1976), cognate morphology
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
clearly demonstrates that it forms a family with Chukotkan (Comrie 1981), though it also has some striking contrasts, especially in the area of phonology
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
. The Chukotko-Kamchatkan proto-language has been partially reconstructed (Fortescue 2005).
Michael Fortescue
Michael Fortescue
Michael David Fortescue is a British-born linguist specializing in Arctic and native North American languages, including Kalaallisut, Inuktun, Chukchi and Nitinaht. He is professor of General Linguistics at the University of Copenhagen and chairman of the Linguistic Circle of Copenhagen...
believes that Kamchatkan may have a substratum of a language formerly spoken by a remnant Beringian population (Fortescue 1998:210).