Yupik language
Encyclopedia
The Yupik languages are the several distinct languages of the several Yupik
(юпик) peoples of western and southcentral Alaska
and northeastern Siberia
. The Yupik languages differ enough from one another that speakers of different ones cannot understand each other, although they may understand the general idea of a conversation of speakers of another of the languages. One of them, Sirenik, has been a dead language since 1997.
The Yupik languages are in the family of Eskimo–Aleut languages. The Aleut
and Eskimo
languages diverged about 2000 BC; within the Eskimo classification, the Yupik languages diverged from each other and from the Inuit language
about 1000 AD.
c ts~tʃ, g ɣ, gg x, k, l ɮ, ll ɬ, m, (voiceless m), n (alveolar), ń (voiceless n), ng ŋ, ńg (voiceless ŋ), p, q q, r ʁ, rr χ, s z, ss s, t (alveolar), û w, v v~w, vv f, w χʷ, y j, ’ (gemination
of preceding consonant)
s: 'a', 'i', 'u' and schwa
. They have from 13 to 27 consonant
s.
Central Yup’ik Vowels:
a, aa, e (ə) (schwa), i, ii, u, uu
(In proximity to the uvular consonant
s 'q', 'r' or 'rr', the vowel /i/ is pronounced [e], and /u/ is pronounced [o].)
pattern of Central Siberian and Central Alaskan is generally iambic where stress occurs on the second syllable of each two-syllable metrical foot. This can be seen in words consisting of light (L) syllables. Here the parsing of syllables into feet is represented with parentheses:
As can be seen above, the footing of a Yupik word starts from the left edge of the word. (Therefore, a foot parsing of L(L'L)(L'L) is not permitted.) And syllables that cannot be parsed into feet in words with an odd number of syllables are not stressed. (Thus, a parsing of (L'L)('L) is impossible.)
Additionally, heavy (H) syllables (consisting of two moras
) are obligatorily stressed:
However, there is a restriction against stress falling on the final syllable of a phrase.
Stressed syllables undergo phonetic lengthening in Yupik although the details differ from dialect to dialect. Generally, a foot consisting of light CV syllables will have the stressed vowel at a greater length than the unstressed vowel. This can be analyzed as light syllables changing to heavy under stress:
Both Central Siberian and Central Alaskan Yupik show this iambic lengthening of light syllables.
When the stressed syllable is underlyingly heavy (e.g. LHL)), there is dialectal variation. The Chaplinski variety of Central Siberian Yupik shows no extra lengthening of the already long vowel – in other words, the heavy syllables remain heavy (no change). The St. Lawrence variety of Central Siberian Yupik has further iambic overlengthening resulting in a change from underlying heavy to a phonetically superheavy syllable (S). In these cases, Central Alaskan Yupik changes the first light syllable in what would be a (LH) foot to a heavy syllable which then receives stress. The light to heavy shift is realized as consonant gemination (of the onset) in CV syllables and as consonantal lengthening of the coda in CVC syllables:
Note that in the Chaplinski variety because of iambic lengthening there is a neutralization of vowel length contrast in nonfinal stressed syllables.
called an affixally polysynthetic language
.
Yupik languages "synthesize" a single root
at the beginning of every word with various grammatical suffix
es to create long words with sentence-like meanings. Within the vocabulary of Yupik there are no more than two thousand roots and around four hundred lexical suffixes, but these can be combined to create meanings that in most languages are met by multiple free morpheme
s.
Although every Yupik word contains one and only one root that is rigidly constrained to word-initial position, the ordering of the suffixes that follow can be varied to communicate different meanings, this being essentially done via recursion
. The only exception lies with case
suffixes on nouns and person
suffixes on verbs, which are restricted to the end of the words on which they occur.
Yupik is an ergative language both in nominal and verbal morphology. It has obligatory polyagreement on all verbs with subject and object, though not with the theme of a ditransitive verb
.
had the limited goals of transmitting religious beliefs in written form.
In addition to the Alaskan Inupiat, the Alaskan and Siberian Yupik adopted the writing system based on Roman orthography that was originally developed by Moravian missionaries in Greenland
beginning in the 1760s, which the missionaries later transported to Labrador
. The Alaskans were the only Northern indigenous peoples to develop hieroglyphics.
After the United States purchased
Alaska, Yupik children were taught to write English with Latin letters in the public schools. Some were also taught the Yupik script developed by Rev. Hinz, which used Latin letters and which had become the most widespread method for writing Yupik. In Russia, most Yupik were taught to read and write only Russian, but a few scholars wrote Yupik using Cyrillic letters.
In the 1960s, the University of Alaska assembled a group of scholars and native Yupik speakers who developed a script to replace the Hinz writing system. One of the goals of this script was that it could be input from an English keyboard, without diacriticals or extra letters. Another requirement was that it accurately represent each phoneme
in the language with a distinct letter. A few features of the script are that it uses 'q' for the back version of 'k', 'r' for the Yupik sound that resembles the French 'r', and consonant + ’ for a geminated (lengthened) consonant. The rhythmic doubling of vowels (except schwa) in every second consecutive open syllable is not indicated in the orthography unless it comes at the end of a word.
Yupik
The Yupik , are a group of indigenous or aboriginal peoples of western, southwestern, and southcentral Alaska and the Russian Far East...
(юпик) peoples of western and southcentral Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
and northeastern Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
. The Yupik languages differ enough from one another that speakers of different ones cannot understand each other, although they may understand the general idea of a conversation of speakers of another of the languages. One of them, Sirenik, has been a dead language since 1997.
The Yupik languages are in the family of Eskimo–Aleut languages. The Aleut
Aleut language
Aleut is a language of the Eskimo–Aleut language family. It is the heritage language of the Aleut people living in the Aleutian Islands, Pribilof Islands, and Commander Islands. As of 2007 there were about 150 speakers of Aleut .- Dialects :Aleut is alone with the Eskimo languages in the...
and Eskimo
Eskimo
Eskimos or Inuit–Yupik peoples are indigenous peoples who have traditionally inhabited the circumpolar region from eastern Siberia , across Alaska , Canada, and Greenland....
languages diverged about 2000 BC; within the Eskimo classification, the Yupik languages diverged from each other and from the Inuit language
Inuit language
The Inuit language is traditionally spoken across the North American Arctic and to some extent in the subarctic in Labrador. The related Yupik languages are spoken in western and southern Alaska and Russian Far East, particularly the Diomede Islands, but is severely endangered in Russia today and...
about 1000 AD.
Geographic distribution of Yupik languages
The Yupik languages are:- Naukan Yupik (also Naukanski): spoken by perhaps 100 people in and around LavrentiyaLavrentiyaLavrentiya is a rural locality and the administrative centre of Chukotsky District of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia, situated on Lavrentiya Bay, close to the Bering Strait. Population: 1,333 ; Municipally, Lavrentiya is subordinated to Chukotsky Municipal District and incorporated as...
, Lorino, and UelenUelenUelen is a rural locality in the Chukotsky District, just south of the Arctic Circle in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in the Russian Far East. Population: 776 in 2003, with 595 Chukchi and 72 Yupik. Located near Cape Dezhnev where the Bering Sea meets the Chukchi Sea, it is the easternmost settlement...
on the Chukotka Peninsula of Eastern Siberia. - Central Siberian Yupik (also Yupigestun, Akuzipik, Siberian Yupik, Siberian Yupik Eskimo, Central Siberian Yupik Eskimo, St. Lawrence Island Yupik, Yuit, Asiatic Eskimo, Jupigyt, Yupihyt, Bering Strait Yupik): spoken by the majority of Yupik in the Russian Far EastRussian Far EastRussian Far East is a term that refers to the Russian part of the Far East, i.e., extreme east parts of Russia, between Lake Baikal in Eastern Siberia and the Pacific Ocean...
and by the people on St. Lawrence IslandSt. Lawrence IslandSt. Lawrence Island is located west of mainland Alaska in the Bering Sea, just south of the Bering Strait, at about 63°30' North 173°20' West. The village of Gambell is located on the northwest cape, from the Chukchi Peninsula in the Russian Far East. The island is part of Alaska, but closer to...
, Alaska. Most of the 1,000 Yupiks on St. Lawrence Island still speak the St. Lawrence dialect of this language. About 300 of the 1,000 Siberian Yupiks in Russia still speak the Chaplino dialect of this language. - Central Alaskan Yup'ikCentral Alaskan Yup'ik languageCentral Alaskan Yup'ik or just Yup'ik is a Yupik language of the Eskimo language family, in turn a member of the Eskimo–Aleut language group, spoken in western and southwestern Alaska. Both in ethnic population and in number of speakers, Central Alaskan Yup'ik is the largest of the languages...
(also Central Yup’ik, Yup’ik, West Alaska Eskimo): spoken on the Alaska mainland from Norton SoundNorton SoundNorton Sound is an inlet of the Bering Sea on the western coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, south of the Seward Peninsula. It is about 240 km long and 200 km wide. The Yukon River delta forms a portion of the south shore and water from the Yukon influences this body of water...
down to the Alaska PeninsulaAlaska PeninsulaThe Alaska Peninsula is a peninsula extending about to the southwest from the mainland of Alaska and ending in the Aleutian Islands. The peninsula separates the Pacific Ocean from Bristol Bay, an arm of the Bering Sea....
and on some islands such as NunivakNunivak IslandNunivak Island , the second largest island in the Bering Sea, is a permafrost-covered volcanic island lying about 30 miles offshore from the delta of the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers in the state of Alaska, at about 60° North latitude...
. The name of this language is sometimes spelled Yup’ik because the speakers say the name of the language with an elongated 'p'; all the other languages call their language Yupik. Of the about 21,000 Central Alaskan Yupiks, some 13,000 still speak this language. There are several dialects of Central Alaskan Yupik. The largest dialect, General Central Yupik or Yugtun, is spoken in the Yukon RiverYukon RiverThe Yukon River is a major watercourse of northwestern North America. The source of the river is located in British Columbia, Canada. The next portion lies in, and gives its name to Yukon Territory. The lower half of the river lies in the U.S. state of Alaska. The river is long and empties into...
, Nelson IslandNelson Island (Alaska)Nelson Island is an island in the Bethel Census Area of southwestern Alaska. It is 42 miles long and 20–35 miles wide. With an area of 843 square miles , it is the 15th largest island in the United States...
, Kuskokwim RiverKuskokwim RiverThe Kuskokwim River or Kusko River is a river, long, in Southwest Alaska in the United States. It is the ninth largest river in the United States by average discharge volume at its mouth and seventeenth largest by basin drainage area.The river provides the principal drainage for an area of the...
, and Bristol BayBristol BayBristol Bay is the eastern-most arm of the Bering Sea, at 57° to 59° North 157° to 162° West in Southwest Alaska. Bristol Bay is 400 km long and 290 km, wide at its mouth...
areas. There are three other Central Alaskan Yupik dialects: Norton SoundNorton SoundNorton Sound is an inlet of the Bering Sea on the western coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, south of the Seward Peninsula. It is about 240 km long and 200 km wide. The Yukon River delta forms a portion of the south shore and water from the Yukon influences this body of water...
, Hooper Bay/ChevakChevak, AlaskaChevak is a city in Wade Hampton Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 765....
, and Nunivak IslandNunivak IslandNunivak Island , the second largest island in the Bering Sea, is a permafrost-covered volcanic island lying about 30 miles offshore from the delta of the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers in the state of Alaska, at about 60° North latitude...
(called Cup’ik or Cup’ig). The dialects differ in pronunciation and in vocabulary. Within the General Central Yupik dialect there are geographic subdialects which differ mostly in word choices. - AlutiiqAlutiiq languageThe Alutiiq language is a close relative to the Central Alaskan Yup'ik language spoken in the western and southwestern Alaska, but is considered a distinct language...
(also Pacific Gulf Yupik, Pacific Yupik, Chugach, or Sugpiaq): is spoken from the Alaska PeninsulaAlaska PeninsulaThe Alaska Peninsula is a peninsula extending about to the southwest from the mainland of Alaska and ending in the Aleutian Islands. The peninsula separates the Pacific Ocean from Bristol Bay, an arm of the Bering Sea....
eastward to Prince William SoundPrince William SoundPrince William Sound is a sound off the Gulf of Alaska on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located on the east side of the Kenai Peninsula. Its largest port is Valdez, at the southern terminus of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System...
. There are about 3,000 AlutiiqAlutiiqThe Alutiiq , also called Pacific Yupik or Sugpiaq, are a southern coastal people of the Native peoples of Alaska. Their language is called Sugstun, and it is one of Eskimo languages, belonging to the Yup’ik branch of these languages. They are not to be confused with the Aleuts, who live further...
s, but only 500 – 1,000 people still speak this language. The Koniag dialect is spoken on the south side of the Alaska PeninsulaAlaska PeninsulaThe Alaska Peninsula is a peninsula extending about to the southwest from the mainland of Alaska and ending in the Aleutian Islands. The peninsula separates the Pacific Ocean from Bristol Bay, an arm of the Bering Sea....
and on Kodiak IslandKodiak IslandKodiak Island is a large island on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, separated from the Alaska mainland by the Shelikof Strait. The largest island in the Kodiak Archipelago, Kodiak Island is the second largest island in the United States and the 80th largest island in the world, with an...
. The Chugach dialect is spoken on the Kenai PeninsulaKenai PeninsulaThe Kenai Peninsula is a large peninsula jutting from the southern coast of Alaska in the United States. The name Kenai is probably derived from Kenayskaya, the Russian name for Cook Inlet, which borders the peninsula to the west.-Geography:...
and in Prince William SoundPrince William SoundPrince William Sound is a sound off the Gulf of Alaska on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located on the east side of the Kenai Peninsula. Its largest port is Valdez, at the southern terminus of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System...
. - Sirenik an extinct language formerly spoken on the Chukchi PeninsulaChukchi PeninsulaThe Chukchi Peninsula, Chukotka Peninsula or Chukotski Peninsula , at about 66° N 172° W, is the northeastern extremity of Asia. Its eastern end is at Cape Dezhnev near the village of Uelen. It is bordered by the Chukchi Sea to the north, the Bering Sea to the south, and the Bering Strait to the...
.
Consonants
Central Yup’ik Consonants:c ts~tʃ, g ɣ, gg x, k, l ɮ, ll ɬ, m, (voiceless m), n (alveolar), ń (voiceless n), ng ŋ, ńg (voiceless ŋ), p, q q, r ʁ, rr χ, s z, ss s, t (alveolar), û w, v v~w, vv f, w χʷ, y j, ’ (gemination
Gemination
In phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short consonant. Gemination is distinct from stress and may appear independently of it....
of preceding consonant)
| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Uvular Uvular consonant Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be plosives, fricatives, nasal stops, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and... |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central Central consonant A central or medial consonant is a consonant sound that is produced when air flows across the center of the mouth over the tongue. The class contrasts with lateral consonants, in which air flows over the sides of the tongue rather than down its center.... |
lateral Lateral consonant A lateral is an el-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth.... |
|||||
| Plosive | p | t | k | q | ||
| Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
c [ts~tʃ] | |||||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
voiceless | vv [f] | ss [s] | ll [ɬ] | gg [x] | rr [χ] |
| voiced Voice (phonetics) Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate... |
v [v, w] | s [z] | l [ɮ] | g [ɣ] | r [ʁ] | |
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
voiceless | ń [n̥] | ńg [ŋ̊] | |||
| voiced | m | n | ng [ŋ] | |||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
û [w] | y [j] | ||||
Vowels
Yupik languages have four vowelVowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s: 'a', 'i', 'u' and schwa
Schwa
In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa can mean the following:*An unstressed and toneless neutral vowel sound in some languages, often but not necessarily a mid-central vowel...
. They have from 13 to 27 consonant
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are , pronounced with the lips; , pronounced with the front of the tongue; , pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced in the throat; and ,...
s.
Central Yup’ik Vowels:
a, aa, e (ə) (schwa), i, ii, u, uu
(In proximity to the uvular consonant
Uvular consonant
Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be plosives, fricatives, nasal stops, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and...
s 'q', 'r' or 'rr', the vowel /i/ is pronounced [e], and /u/ is pronounced [o].)
Stress
The stressStress (linguistics)
In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...
pattern of Central Siberian and Central Alaskan is generally iambic where stress occurs on the second syllable of each two-syllable metrical foot. This can be seen in words consisting of light (L) syllables. Here the parsing of syllables into feet is represented with parentheses:
| (L'L)L | qayáni | (qa.yá).ni | "his own kayak" |
As can be seen above, the footing of a Yupik word starts from the left edge of the word. (Therefore, a foot parsing of L(L'L)(L'L) is not permitted.) And syllables that cannot be parsed into feet in words with an odd number of syllables are not stressed. (Thus, a parsing of (L'L)('L) is impossible.)
Additionally, heavy (H) syllables (consisting of two moras
Mora (linguistics)
Mora is a unit in phonology that determines syllable weight, which in some languages determines stress or timing. As with many technical linguistic terms, the definition of a mora varies. Perhaps the most succinct working definition was provided by the American linguist James D...
) are obligatorily stressed:
| (L'H)L | qayá:ni | (qa.yá:).ni | "in another's kayak" |
However, there is a restriction against stress falling on the final syllable of a phrase.
- (L'L)(L'L) (phrase-internal)
- (L'L)LL (phrase-final)
Stressed syllables undergo phonetic lengthening in Yupik although the details differ from dialect to dialect. Generally, a foot consisting of light CV syllables will have the stressed vowel at a greater length than the unstressed vowel. This can be analyzed as light syllables changing to heavy under stress:
| (L'L)L (qayá:)ni |
=> | (L'H)L [qayá:ni] [(qa.yá:).ni] |
"in another's kayak" |
| (L'L)('H)L saguyá:ni |
=> | (L'H)('H)L [sagú:yá:ni] [(sa.gú:).(yá:).ni] |
"in another's drum" |
Both Central Siberian and Central Alaskan Yupik show this iambic lengthening of light syllables.
When the stressed syllable is underlyingly heavy (e.g. LHL)), there is dialectal variation. The Chaplinski variety of Central Siberian Yupik shows no extra lengthening of the already long vowel – in other words, the heavy syllables remain heavy (no change). The St. Lawrence variety of Central Siberian Yupik has further iambic overlengthening resulting in a change from underlying heavy to a phonetically superheavy syllable (S). In these cases, Central Alaskan Yupik changes the first light syllable in what would be a (LH) foot to a heavy syllable which then receives stress. The light to heavy shift is realized as consonant gemination (of the onset) in CV syllables and as consonantal lengthening of the coda in CVC syllables:
| Chaplinski: | LHL /qaya:ni/ |
=> | (L'H)L [qayá:ni] [(qa.yá:).ni] |
"in another's kayak" |
(no change) |
| St. Lawrence: | LHL /qaya:ni/ |
=> | (L'S)L [qayá::ni] [(qa.yá::).ni] |
"in another's kayak" |
(overlengthening) |
| Central Alaskan: | LHL /qaya:ni/ |
=> | ('H)('H)L [qayyá:ni] [(qay.yá:).ni] |
"in another's kayak" |
(gemination) |
| LLLHL |
=> | (L'H)('H)('H)L [qayá:píx:ká:ni] [(qa.yá:).(píx:).(ká:).ni] |
"in another's future authentic kayak" |
(consonant lengthening) |
Note that in the Chaplinski variety because of iambic lengthening there is a neutralization of vowel length contrast in nonfinal stressed syllables.
Grammar
The Yupik languages, like other Eskimo–Aleut languages, represent a particular type of agglutinative languageAgglutinative language
An agglutinative language is a language that uses agglutination extensively: most words are formed by joining morphemes together. This term was introduced by Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1836 to classify languages from a morphological point of view...
called an affixally polysynthetic language
Polysynthetic language
In linguistic typology, polysynthetic languages are highly synthetic languages, i.e., languages in which words are composed of many morphemes. Whereas isolating languages have a low morpheme-to-word ratio, polysynthetic languages have extremely high morpheme-to-word ratios.Not all languages can be...
.
Yupik languages "synthesize" a single root
Root (linguistics)
The root word is the primary lexical unit of a word, and of a word family , which carries the most significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller constituents....
at the beginning of every word with various grammatical suffix
Suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
es to create long words with sentence-like meanings. Within the vocabulary of Yupik there are no more than two thousand roots and around four hundred lexical suffixes, but these can be combined to create meanings that in most languages are met by multiple free morpheme
Morpheme
In linguistics, a morpheme is the smallest semantically meaningful unit in a language. The field of study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. A morpheme is not identical to a word, and the principal difference between the two is that a morpheme may or may not stand alone, whereas a word,...
s.
Although every Yupik word contains one and only one root that is rigidly constrained to word-initial position, the ordering of the suffixes that follow can be varied to communicate different meanings, this being essentially done via recursion
Recursion
Recursion is the process of repeating items in a self-similar way. For instance, when the surfaces of two mirrors are exactly parallel with each other the nested images that occur are a form of infinite recursion. The term has a variety of meanings specific to a variety of disciplines ranging from...
. The only exception lies with case
Grammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
suffixes on nouns and person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
suffixes on verbs, which are restricted to the end of the words on which they occur.
Yupik is an ergative language both in nominal and verbal morphology. It has obligatory polyagreement on all verbs with subject and object, though not with the theme of a ditransitive verb
Ditransitive verb
In grammar, a ditransitive verb is a verb which takes a subject and two objects which refer to a recipient and a theme. According to certain linguistics considerations, these objects may be called direct and indirect, or primary and secondary...
.
Writing systems
The Yupik languages were not written until the arrival of Europeans around the beginning of the 19th century. The earliest efforts at writing Yupik were those of missionaries who, with their Yupik-speaking assistants, translated the Bible and other religious texts into Yupik. Such efforts as those of Saint Innocent of Alaska, Reverend John Hinz (see John Henry Kilbuck) and UyaqukUyaquk
Uyaquq was a Yupik Moravian missionary and linguistic genius who went from being an illiterate adult to inventing a series of writing systems for his native language and then producing translations of the Bible and other religious works in a period of five years.Uyaquk was born in into a family of...
had the limited goals of transmitting religious beliefs in written form.
In addition to the Alaskan Inupiat, the Alaskan and Siberian Yupik adopted the writing system based on Roman orthography that was originally developed by Moravian missionaries in Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
beginning in the 1760s, which the missionaries later transported to Labrador
Labrador
Labrador is the distinct, northerly region of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It comprises the mainland portion of the province, separated from the island of Newfoundland by the Strait of Belle Isle...
. The Alaskans were the only Northern indigenous peoples to develop hieroglyphics.
After the United States purchased
Alaska purchase
The Alaska Purchase was the acquisition of the Alaska territory by the United States from Russia in 1867 by a treaty ratified by the Senate. The purchase, made at the initiative of United States Secretary of State William H. Seward, gained of new United States territory...
Alaska, Yupik children were taught to write English with Latin letters in the public schools. Some were also taught the Yupik script developed by Rev. Hinz, which used Latin letters and which had become the most widespread method for writing Yupik. In Russia, most Yupik were taught to read and write only Russian, but a few scholars wrote Yupik using Cyrillic letters.
In the 1960s, the University of Alaska assembled a group of scholars and native Yupik speakers who developed a script to replace the Hinz writing system. One of the goals of this script was that it could be input from an English keyboard, without diacriticals or extra letters. Another requirement was that it accurately represent each phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
in the language with a distinct letter. A few features of the script are that it uses 'q' for the back version of 'k', 'r' for the Yupik sound that resembles the French 'r', and consonant + ’ for a geminated (lengthened) consonant. The rhythmic doubling of vowels (except schwa) in every second consecutive open syllable is not indicated in the orthography unless it comes at the end of a word.