Sirenik language
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Sirenik or Sirenikskiy (also Old Sirenik or Vuteen) is an extinct Eskimo-Aleut language. It was spoken in and around the village of Sireniki (Сиреники) in Chukotka Peninsula, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. In January 1997 the last native speaker of the language, a woman named Vyie (Russian: Выйе) died (according to the data of N.B. Vakhtin). Vyie (as the last speaker of this special branch of Eskimo languages) is also mentioned by the homepage of a Russian organization for the rights of Siberian indigenous peoples[1].
It is a remnant of a third group of Eskimo languages, in addition to Yupik and Inuit groups. [1], see online a visual representation by tree [2] and an argumentation based on comparative linguistics [3]. There may be variations in the classifications at this point: Sireniki language is sometimes regarded as a third branch of Eskimo, but sometimes as a group belonging to the Yupik branch (see online[4]).
See its grammar, with some ethnographic texts in [5]. Although the book uses a Cyrillic transcription for Sirenik language, the cited examples below are transliterated to the International Phonetic Alphabet in this article.
Contents |
[edit] Phonology
Some notes (very far from being a complete description):
- The alveolar lateral approximant /l/ has its voiceless version /l̥/, and it can be also palatalized /lʲ̥/
- glottal stop /ʔ/
[edit] Morphology
Like at other Eskimo languages, the morphology is rather complex. A description grouped by lexical categories follows.
[edit] Nominal lexical categories
Not only the grammatical cases of nouns are marked by suffixes, but also the person of possessor (use of possessive pronouns in English) can be expressed by agglutination.
| Sing 1st person | Sing 2nd person | |
|---|---|---|
| Absolutive | taŋaqa (my child) | taŋaʁɨn (thy child) |
| Ablative / Instrumental | taŋamnɨŋ (from my child) | taŋaχpɨnɨŋ (from thy child) |
| Dative / lative | taŋamnu (to my child) | taŋaχpɨnu (to thy child) |
| Locative | taŋamni (at my child) | taŋaχpɨni (at thy child) |
| Comparative | taŋamtɨn (like my child) | taŋaχpɨtɨn (like thy child) |
It is just an excerpt for illustration: not all cases are shown, Sirenik language has more grammatical cases. The table illustrates also why Sirenik language is treated as agglutinative (rather than fusional).
[edit] Verbal lexical categories
Also at verbs, the morphology is very rich. Suffixes can express grammatical moods of the verb (e.g. imperative, interrogative, optative), and also negation, tense, aspect, the person of subject and object:
- aʁaʁɨ-tɨqɨχ-tɨ-mkɨn (I lead you)
- aʁaʁɨ-ɕuk-ɨ-mɕi (let me lead you) [7]
- nɨŋɨ-sɨɣɨŋ-sɨn (Seest thou not me?) [8]
The rich set of morphems makes it possible to build huge verbs whose meaning could be expressed (in most of widely known languages) as whole sentences (consisting of more words) . Sireniki — like the other Eskimo languages — has incorporative features.
[edit] Grammatical categories
The polysynthetic and incorporative features mentioned above manifest themselves in most of the ways Sirenik language can express grammatical categories.
[edit] Polarity
Even the grammatical polarity can be expressed by adding suffix to the verb.
An example for negative polarity: the negation form of the verb aʁaʁ- (to go):
- juɣ aʁaχ-tɨqɨχ-tɨ-χ (the man walks)
- juɣ aʁaʁ-ɨ-tɨ-χ (the man does not walk) [8]
[edit] Aspect
- aftalʁa-qɨstaχ- (to work slowly) and aftalʁa-qɨstaχ-tɨqɨχ-tɨ-χ (he works slowly) [9], from aftalʁa- (to work)
[edit] Modality
Also linguistic modality can be expressed by suffixes. Modal verbs like “want to”, “wish to” etc. do not even exist [10]:
| aftalʁaχ- (to work) | aftalʁaʁ-jux- (to want to work) [10] |
| aftalʁaχ-tɨqɨχ-tɨ-ŋ (I work) [11] | aftalʁaʁ-jux-tɨqɨχ-tɨ-ŋ (I want to work) [10] |
The table illustrates also why Sirenik language is treated as agglutinative (rather than fusional).
[edit] Voice
Four grammatical voices are mentioned in [12]:
- active
- passive
- middle (medial)
- causative
- malikam aʁaχ-ɕaχ-tɨqɨχ-tɨ-ʁa kɨtuɣi qurŋi-nu (Malika makes Kitugi go to the reindeers) [12]
all of them are expressed by agglutination, thus, no separate words are required.
[edit] Building participles from verbs
A distinction between adverbial participle and adjectival participle makes sense in Sireniki (just like in Hungarian, see határozói igenév and melléknévi igenév for detailed description of these concepts).
Sireniki has many kinds of participles in both categories.
[edit] Adverbial participles
[edit] Adjectival participles
-kajux/-qajux (able to) [13]
- taŋaʁaχ pijɨkajux pijɨxtɨqɨχtɨχ l̥mɨnɨŋ (A child who is able to walk moves around spontaneously)
[edit] Building verbs from nouns
Suffix -ɕuɣɨn- meaning “to be similar to sth”:
- mɨtɨχlʲ̥ux (raven)
- mɨtɨχlʲ̥ux-ɕuɣɨn- (to be similar to a raven)
- mɨtɨχlʲ̥ux-ɕuɣɨn-tɨ-χ (he is similar to a raven) [14]
[edit] Predicative form of a noun
- juɣ (man)
- juɣɨ t͡ʃ ɨ- (to be a man)
- juɣɨ t͡ʃ ɨtɨn (thou art a man)
- juɣɨ t͡ʃ ɨχ (he is a man)
[edit] Verbs built from toponyms
[edit] Similarities between verbal and nominal paradigms
The ergative structure at verbs is similar to the posessive structure at nouns…
[edit] External links
- Г.А. Меновщиков: Сиреникских эскимосов язык is a summary article. It can be read among other articles, collected under name Языки мира — Палеоазиатские языки (Languages of the world — Paleoasian languages).
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Support for Siberian Indigenous Peoples Rights (Поддержка прав коренных народов Сибири) — see the section on Eskimos
- ^ Representing genealogical relations of (among others) Eskimo-Aleut languages by tree: Alaska Native Languages (found on the site of Alaska Native Language Center)
- ^ Lawrence Kaplan: Comparative Yupik and Inuit (found on the site of Alaska Native Language Center)
- ^ Ethnologue Report for Eskimo-Aleut
- ^ Menovshchikov, G.A.: Language of Sirenik Eskimos. Phonetics, morphology, texts and vocabulary. Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow • Leningrad, 1964. Original data: Г.А. Меновщиков: Язык сиреникских эскимосов. Фонетика, очерк морфологии, тексты и словарь. Академия Наук СССР. Институт языкознания. Москва • Ленинград, 1964
- ^ Personal possessive form: p. 44–45 of Men:JazSirEsk
- ^ Imperative: p. 86 of Men:JazSirEsk
- ^ a b Negation form of a verb: p. 89 of Men:JazSirEsk
- ^ Suffix -qɨstaχ- for slow action aspect: p. 72 of Men:JazSirEsk
- ^ a b c Modality: p. 68 of Men:JazSirEsk
- ^ Present tense: p. 61 of Men:JazSirEsk
- ^ a b Grammatical voices: p. 78–80 of Men:JazSirEsk
- ^ Adverbial participle -kajux/-qajux (able to): p. 97 of Men:JazSirEsk
- ^ Suffix -ɕuɣɨn- meaning “to be similar to sth”: p. 66 of Men:JazSirEsk
- ^ Verbs built from toponyms: p. 67 of Men:JazSirEsk
