View source for Yupik languages

{{short description|Languages of the Yupik natives of Alaska}}
{{Infobox language family
| name = Yupik
| ethnicity = [[Yupik peoples]]
| region = [[Alaska]], [[Chukotka Autonomous Okrug|Chukotka]]
| familycolor = Eskimo-Aleut
| fam2 = [[Eskimo languages|Eskimo]]
| child1 = [[Alutiiq language|Alutiiq]]
| child2 = [[Central Alaskan Yupʼik|Central Alaskan]]
| child3 = [[Central Siberian Yupik language|Central Siberian]]
| child4 = [[Naukan Yupik language|Naukan]]
| child5 = ?[[Sirenik language|Sirenik]] {{extinct}}
| iso2 = ypk
| glotto = yupi1267
| glottorefname = Yupik
| ancestor = 
| glottoname = 
| notes = 
| map = Yupik_map.svg
}}

The '''Yupik languages''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|juː|p|ɪ|k}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bauer |first=Laurie |title=The Linguistic Student's Handbook |date=2007 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |location=Edinburgh}}</ref>) are a [[language family|family of languages]] spoken by the [[Yupik peoples]] of western and south-central [[Alaska]] and [[Chukotka Autonomous Okrug|Chukotka]]. The Yupik languages differ enough from one another that they are not mutually intelligible, although speakers of one of the languages may understand the general idea of a conversation of speakers of another of the languages. One of them, [[Sirenik language|Sirenik]], has been [[extinct language|extinct]] since 1997.

The Yupik languages are in the family of [[Eskaleut languages]]. The [[Aleut language|Aleut]] and [[Proto-Eskimoan language|Proto-Eskimoan]] diverged around 2000&nbsp;BCE; within the Proto-Eskimoan classification, the Yupik languages diverged from each other and from the [[Inuit languages]] around 1000&nbsp;CE.

==List of languages==
#[[Naukan Yupik language|'''Naukan Yupik''']] (also '''Naukanski'''): spoken by perhaps 100 people in and around [[Lavrentiya]], [[Lorino, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug|Lorino]], and [[Uelen]] on the Chukotka Peninsula of Eastern Siberia.
#'''[[Central Siberian Yupik language|Central Siberian Yupik]]''' (also '''Yupigestun''', '''Akuzipigestun''', '''Akuzipik''', '''Siberian Yupik''', '''Siberian Yupik Eskimo''', '''Central Siberian Yupik Eskimo''', '''St. Lawrence Island Yupik''', '''Yuit''',{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}} '''Asiatic Eskimo''',{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}} '''Jupigyt''',{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}} '''Yupihyt''',{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}} '''Bering Strait Yupik'''{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}}): spoken by the majority of Yupik in the [[Russian Far East]] and by the people on [[St. Lawrence Island]], Alaska.  Most of the 1,100 Yupiks on St. Lawrence Island still speak the St. Lawrence dialect of this language. About 200 of the 1,200 Siberian Yupiks in Russia still speak the Chaplino dialect of this language.<ref name=bevakhtin>[http://www.siberian-studies.org/publications/PDF/bevakhtin.pdf Endangered Languages in Northeast Siberia: Siberian Yupik and other Languages of Chukotka] by Nikolai Vakhtin</ref> However, ''[[The Moscow Times]]'' is much more pessimistic, claiming that in 2023 only one Central Siberian Yupik active speaker remains in Russia.<ref>{{cite news |title=Languages in Russia Disappearing Faster than Data Suggests, Activists Warn |url=https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/03/13/languages-in-russia-disappearing-faster-than-data-suggests-activists-warn-a80432 |work=The Moscow Times |date=13 March 2023}}</ref>
#'''[[Central Alaskan Yup'ik language|Central Alaskan Yup'ik]]''' (also '''Yugtun''', '''Central Yup'ik''', '''Yup'ik''', '''West Alaska Eskimo'''): spoken on the Alaska mainland from [[Norton Sound]] down to the [[Alaska Peninsula]] and on some islands such as [[Nunivak Island|Nunivak]]. The name of this language is spelled ''Yup'ik'', with an apostrophe that specifies the elongated 'p' in the way ''Yupik'' is pronounced; all the other languages are spelled ''Yupik'', but all are pronounced the same.  Of the about 21,000 Central Alaskan Yup'ik, around 20,000 still spoke this language at home in 2013.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2013/demo/2009-2013-lang-tables.html|title=Detailed Languages Spoken at Home and Ability to Speak English|publisher=United States Census Bureau|website=The United States Census Bureau}}</ref> There are several dialects of Central Alaskan Yup'ik. The largest dialect, General Central Yup'ik or ''Yugtun'', is spoken in the [[Yukon River]], [[Nelson Island (Alaska)|Nelson Island]], [[Kuskokwim River]], and [[Bristol Bay]] areas. There are three other Central Alaskan Yup'ik dialects: [[Norton Sound]], [[Hooper Bay]]/[[Chevak, Alaska|Chevak]], and [[Nunivak Island]] (called ''[[Chevak Cup’ik language|Cup’ik]]'' or ''[[Cup'ig language|Cup'ig]]''). The dialects differ in pronunciation and in vocabulary. Within the General Central Yup'ik dialect there are geographic subdialects which differ mostly in word choices.
#'''[[Alutiiq language|Alutiiq]]''' (also '''Alutiit’stun''' or '''Sugt'stun''', '''Supik''',<ref name="refLanguageintheusa">{{Cite book |last=Ferguson |first=Charles A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tk85AAAAIAAJ&dq=%22sugcestun%22+%22supik%22&pg=PA587 |title=Language in the USA |last2=Heath |first2=Shirley Brice |last3=Hwang |first3=David |date=1981-08-31 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-23140-4 |language=en}}</ref> '''Sugpiaq''', '''Pacific Gulf Yupik''', '''Pacific Yupik''', or '''Chugach'''): is spoken from the [[Alaska Peninsula]] eastward to [[Prince William Sound]]. There are about 3,000 [[Alutiiq]]s, but only 500–1,000 people still speak this language. The Koniag dialect is spoken on the south side of the [[Alaska Peninsula]] and on [[Kodiak Island]]. The Chugach dialect is spoken on the [[Kenai Peninsula]] and in [[Prince William Sound]].
#'''[[Sirenik]]''' an extinct language formerly spoken on the [[Chukchi Peninsula]]. It is divergent enough for some researchers to classify it as a separate branch of the [[Eskimo language]]s.

==Phonology==
{{Further|Central Alaskan Yup'ik language#Phonology}}

===Consonants===
Central Yup'ik Consonants:

'''c''' {{IPAblink|ts}}~{{IPAblink|tʃ}}, '''g''' {{IPAblink|ɣ}}, '''gg''' {{IPAblink|x}}, '''k''', '''l''' {{IPAblink|l}}, '''ll''' {{IPAblink|ɬ}}, '''m''', '''ḿ''' (''voiceless'' m), '''n''' (''alveolar''), '''ń''' (''voiceless'' n), '''ng''' {{IPAblink|ŋ}}, '''ńg''' (''voiceless'' ŋ), '''p''', '''q''' {{IPAblink|q}}, '''r''' {{IPAblink|ʁ}}, '''rr''' {{IPAblink|χ}}, '''s''' {{IPAblink|z}}, '''ss''' {{IPAblink|s}}, '''t''' (''alveolar''), '''û''' {{IPAblink|w}}, '''v''' {{IPAblink|v}}~{{IPAblink|w}}, '''vv''' {{IPAblink|f}}, '''w''' {{IPAblink|χʷ}}, '''y''' {{IPAblink|j}}, (''[[gemination]] of preceding consonant'')

{|class="wikitable"
! colspan="2" rowspan="2"|
! rowspan="2"| [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! colspan="2"| [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]] 
! rowspan="2"| [[Postalveolar consonant|Post-<br />alveolar]]
! colspan="2"| [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! colspan="2"| [[Uvular consonant|Uvular]]
|-
! <small>[[Central consonant|central]]</small> !! <small>[[Lateral consonant|lateral]]</small>
! <small>plain</small> !! <small>[[Labialization|labialized]]</small>
! <small>plain</small> !! <small>[[Labialization|labialized]]</small>
|-
! rowspan="2" align="center" |[[Nasal stop|Nasal]]
! <small>voiceless</small>
| align="center"| {{IPA link|m̥}} || align="center"| {{IPA link|n̥}} || || || align="center"| {{IPA link|ŋ̊}} || || ||
|-
! <small>voiced</small>
| align="center"| {{IPA link|m}} || align="center"| {{IPA link|n}} || || || align="center"| {{IPA link|ŋ}} || || ||
|-
! colspan="2" align="center"| [[Plosive consonant|Plosive]]
|align="center"| {{IPA link|p}} || align="center"| {{IPA link|t}} || || || align="center"| {{IPA link|k}} || || align="center"| {{IPA link|q}} ||
|-
! colspan="2" align="center"| [[Affricate]]
|| || align="center"| {{IPAblink|ts}} || || align="center"| {{IPA link|tʃ}}|| || || || 
|-
! rowspan="2" align="center"| [[Fricative]]
! <small>voiceless</small>
| align="center"| {{IPA link|f}} || align="center"|{{IPA link|s}} || align="center"| {{IPA link|ɬ}} || || align="center"| {{IPA link|x}} || align="center"| {{IPA link|xʷ}} || align="center"| {{IPA link|χ}} || align="center"| {{IPAblink|χʷ}}
|-
! <small>voiced</small>
| align="center"| {{IPA link|v}} || align="center"|{{IPA link|z}} || align="center"|  || || align="center"| {{IPA link|ɣ}} || align="center"| {{IPA link|ɣʷ}} || align="center"| {{IPA link|ʁ}} || align="center"| {{IPA link|ʁʷ}}
|-
! colspan="2" align="center"| [[Approximant]]
|  || || align="center"| {{IPA link|l}} || align="center"| {{IPA link|j}} || || align="center"| {{IPAblink|w}}|| ||
|}

=== Vowels ===
Yupik languages have four [[vowel]]s: 'a', 'i', 'u' and [[schwa]] (ə). 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 {{IPA|/i/}} is pronounced {{IPA|[e]}}, and {{IPA|/u/}} is pronounced {{IPA|[o]}}.)

===Prosody===
==== Syllable ====
Yup'ik verbs always begin with a root morpheme like "kaig" - to be hungry, and always end with a pronoun.

Yupik is a polysynthetic language that can have analytic alternatives; speakers can express similar ideas in a series of words with a number of bound morphemes.<ref>Mithun. The Languages of Native North America. Cambridge University Press, 1999.</ref>

====Stress====
The [[stress (linguistics)|stress]] pattern of Central Siberian and Central Alaskan is generally [[Iamb (foot)|iamb]]ic where stress occurs on the second syllable of each two-syllable [[metrical foot]]. This can be seen in words consisting of [[Syllable weight#Syllable weight in linguistics|light (L)]] syllables. Here, the parsing of syllables into feet is represented with parentheses:

:{| cellspacing="6"
| (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.) 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 [[Mora (linguistics)|moras]]) are obligatorily stressed:

:{| cellspacing="6"
| (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. That can be analyzed as light syllables changing to heavy under stress:

:{| cellspacing="6" style="line-height: 1.1em;"
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
| (L''''L''')L<br />(qayá:)ni || → || (L''''H''')L<br />[qayá:ni]<br />[(qa.yá:).ni] || <br />"in another's kayak"
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
| (L''''L''')(''''H''')L<br />saguyá:ni || → || (L''''H''')(''''H''')L<br />[sagú:yá:ni]<br />[(sa.gú:).(yá:).ni] || <br />"in another's drum"
|}

Both Central Siberian and Central Alaskan Yup'ik show this iambic lengthening of light syllables.

When the stressed syllable is underlyingly heavy (such as ''LHL)''), there is dialectal variation. The Chaplinski variety of Central Siberian Yupik shows no extra lengthening of the already long vowel: 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 those cases, Central Alaskan Yup'ik 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:

{| cellpadding="6" style="line-height: 1.1em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
| Chaplinski: || LHL<br />/qaya:ni/ || → || (L''''H''')L<br />[qayá:ni]<br />[(qa.yá:).ni] || <br />"in another's kayak" || (no change)
|- style="vertical-align: top; border-top: 1px solid gray;"
| St. Lawrence: || LHL<br />/qaya:ni/ || → || (L''''S''')L<br />[qayá::ni]<br />[(qa.yá::).ni] || <br />"in another's kayak" || (overlengthening)
|- style="vertical-align: top; border-top: 1px solid gray;"
| Central Alaskan: || LHL<br />/qaya:ni/ || → || (''''H''')(''''H''')L<br />[qayyá:ni]<br />[(qay.yá:).ni] || <br />"in another's kayak" || (gemination)
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
| || LLLHL<br /> || → || (L''''H''')(''''H''')(''''H''')L<br />[qayá:píx:ká:ni]<br />[(qa.yá:).(píx:).(ká:).ni] || <br />"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.

==Morphology==
The Yupik languages, like other Eskimo–Aleut languages, represent a particular type of [[agglutinative language]] called an ''affixally [[polysynthetic language]]''.

Yupik languages "synthesize" a single [[root (linguistics)|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 lexical roots and suffixes that can be combined to create meanings that in most languages are expressed 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, principally through [[recursion]]. The only exception lies with [[grammatical case|case]] suffixes on nouns and [[grammatical person|person]] suffixes on verbs, which are restricted to the end of the words in which they occur.

Yupik is an [[ergative–absolutive language|ergative language]] both in nominal and verbal morphology. It has obligatory [[polyagreement]] on all verbs with subject and object but not with the theme of a [[ditransitive verb]].

== 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 [[Uyaquq]] had the limited goals of transmitting religious beliefs in written form.<ref>For example, [http://www.asna.ca/alaska/ Alaskan Orthodox texts] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100904042152/http://www.asna.ca/alaska/ |date=2010-09-04 }} in [[Alutiiq language|Alutiiq]] and [[Central Alaskan Yup'ik language|Yup'ik]] (cf. [https://www.archdiocese.ca/articles/alaskan-orthodox-texts-project-celebrates-its-10th-anniversary The Alaskan Orthodox Texts Project celebrates its 10th anniversary], May 2015)</ref>

In addition to the Alaskan [[Iñupiat people|Iñupiat]], the Alaskan and Siberian Yupik adopted a Latin alphabet originally developed by [[Moravian Church|Moravian]] missionaries in [[Greenland]] beginning in the 1760s, which the missionaries later transported to [[Labrador]]. 

After the United States [[Alaska Purchase|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, 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 diacritics or extra letters. Another requirement was that it accurately represent each [[phoneme]] in the language with a distinct letter.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}} 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.

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
{{refbegin}}
* Campbell, Lyle. (1997). ''American Indian languages: The historical linguistics of Native America''. New York: Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-509427-1}}.
* S.A. Jacobson (1984). ''Yup'ik Eskimo Dictionary'' Alaska Native Language Center. {{ISBN|0-933769-21-0}}
*S.A. Jacobson (2000). ''A Practical Grammar of the Central Yup'ik Eskimo Language''. Fairbanks: Alaska Native Language Center and Program. {{ISBN|1-55500-050-9}}[includes a CD with readings by Anna W. Jacobson].
* Mithun, Marianne. (1999). ''The Languages of Native North America''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|0-521-23228-7}} (hbk); {{ISBN|0-521-29875-X}}.
* Miyaoka, Osahito. (2012). ''A Grammar of Central Alaskan Yupik (Cay)''. Berlin: de Gruyter.
* 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}}.
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061028155138/http://www.collectionscanada.ca/inuit/054303-e.html "The Inuktitut Language" in ''Project Naming''], the identification of Inuit portrayed in photographic collections at Library and Archives Canada
{{refend}}

== External links ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20210424092424/http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/asiatic_eskimos.shtml The Asiatic (Siberian) Eskimos]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20191024081253/http://www.asna.ca/alaska/ Alaskan Orthodox texts (Yup'ik)]
* [http://www.yupik.org/ Ayaprun Elitnaurvik – Yupik Immersion School]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120805092338/http://www.nunivakisland.org/dictionary/index.html Nunivak Island Cup'ig Language Preliminary Dictionary]

{{Yupik}}
{{Eskaleut languages}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Yupik Languages}}
[[Category:Yupik languages| ]]
[[Category:Indigenous languages of the North American Arctic]]
[[Category:Languages of Russia]]
[[Category:Indigenous languages of Alaska]]
[[Category:Eskaleut languages]]

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