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Alyutor or Alutor is a language of Russia that belongs to the Chukotkan branch of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages.

Sociolinguistic situation

The Alutor are the indigenous inhabitants of the northern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The language is unwritten and moribund; in the 1970s residents of the chief Alutor village of Vyvenka under the age of 25 did not know the language. In recent years the Vyvenka village school has started teaching the language. Until 1958 the language was considered the "village" (settled) dialect of the Koryak language, but it is not intelligible with traditionally nomadic varieties of Koryak. The autonym means "villager".

Orthography

Typology

Alutor is a polysynthetic language.

The morphology is agglutinative, with extensive prefixes and suffixes.

The argument structure is ergative.

The word order is variable, and it is difficult to say which typology is basic. The verb-absolutive orders AVO and VAO are perhaps most common.

Phonology

Vowels

Alyutor has six vowels, five of which may be long or short. The /ə/ is a schwa, and cannot be stressed.

Consonants

There are 18 consonants in Alyutor.

Stress

Stress is generally on the second syllable of the word. However, it cannot fall on a schwa or the last syllable, so in two-syllable words stress is transferred to the first syllable, as long as that vowel is not a schwa. In cases where it is a schwa, a third syllable is added to the word, and the second syllable is stressed.

Examples: /ˈmi.məl/ 'water', /qə.ˈla.vul/ 'husband', /pə.ˈla.kəl.ŋən/ 'a mukluk (boot)', /ˈta.wə.ja.tək/ 'to feed'.

Syllable structure

All Alyutor syllables begin with a single consonant. If the vowel is short, including a schwa, they may also close with a single consonant.

Examples are /vi.ˈta.tək/ 'to work', /ˈtil.mə.til/ 'eagle', /ˈʔit.ʔən/ 'parka'.

Alyutor word boundaries always coincide with syllable boundaries.

Morphology

Alyutor has the following parts of speech: nouns, adjectives, numerals, pronouns, verbs, participles, adverbs, postpositions, conjunctions, and "particles".

Nouns

Nouns are inflected for number, case, definiteness, and grammatical person.

There are three grammatical numbers: singular, dual and plural.

There are eleven cases: absolutive, ergative, locative, dative lative, prolative, contactive, causative, equative, comitative, and associative.

Number and case are expressed using a single affix. A suffix is used for all cases except the comitative and associative, which are expressed using circumfixes. There are two declensions, taught as three noun classes. The first class are nonhuman nouns of the first declension. Number is only distinguished in the absolutive case, though verbal agreement may distinguish number when these nouns are in the ergative. The second class are proper names and kin terms for elders. They are second declension, and distinguish number in the ergative, locative, and lative cases, as well as the absolutive. The third class are the other human nouns; they may be either first or second declension.

Case roles

• The absolutive case is the citation form of a noun. It is used for the argument ("subject") of an intransitive clause and the object of a transitive clause, for "syntactic possessives", and for the vocative.
• The ergative is used for the agent ("subject") of a transitive verb, as an instrumental case, and as the argument of an antipassive clause.
• The locative is used for position and direction (essive and lative cases), as well as arguments which are "driven away"
• The dative is used for recipients, benefactors, directional objects (allative case), and subjects of experiential verbs
• Lative is used for motion toward a goal
• Prolative is used for movement along and movement from (perlative and elative cases)
• Equative is used with the meanings 'like X', 'as X', usually with verbs like 'to become', 'to turn into', 'to work as,' etc.
• Contactive is used for objects that make contact
• Causative is used for noun phrases that cause or motivate an action
• Comitative is used for ...
• Associative is used for .... It is only attested in the declension of nouns of the first declension, usually inanimate.

Grammatical person

Grammatical first and second person suffixes on nouns are used to equate a noun with participants in the discourse. They only appear in the absolutive, with an intervening j on nouns ending in a vowel and an i on nouns ending in a consonant.

• …ʡopta am-ʡujamtawilʔ-ə-muru "yes we the people"
• japlə=q ʡujamtawilʔ-iɣəm "and I'm a man"

Numerals

Alyutor has simple numerals for the numbers one to five, ten, and twenty. All other numbers are compounds based on these numerals.

Verbs

There are finite (conjugated) and non-finite verbs. There are several conjugations.

Polypersonal conjugation

Finite verbs agree in person and number with their nuclear arguments; agreement is through both prefixes and suffixes. Transitive verbs agree with both arguments (ergative and absolutive), whereas intransitive verbs agree with their sole (absolutive) argument.

Verbs distinguish two aspects, perfective, the bare stem, and imperfective, using the suffix -tkə / -tkən / -tkəni. There are five moods, indicative, imperative, optative, potential (marked by the circumfix ta…(ŋ)), and conjunctive (prefix ʔ-/a-).

Monopersonal conjugation

Monopersonal verbs include two declensions, one with the third-person singular in ɣa-...-lin, and the other in n-...-qin.

Impersonal conjugation

For impersonal forms of conjugation include verbal predicate (formed with the circumfix a…ka) and imperative (formed by circumfix ɣa…a/ta). Non-finite forms Impersonal forms include the verbal predicate with the circumfix a…ka, and the imperative in ɣa…a/ta.

Non-finite forms

These include the infinitive, supine, gerunds, and participles.

References

1. Alyutor at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Nagayama, Yukari (2003). Ocherk grammatiki aljutorskogo jazyka. Osaka: Osaka Gakuin University.

Bibliography

• Kibrik, A.E., S.V. Kodzasov, I.A. Murav'eva. 2000. Jazyk i fol'klor aljutorcev. Moscow: IMLI RAN Nasledie. ISBN 5-9208-0035-6
• Nagayama, Yukari. 2003. Ocherk grammatiki aljutorskogo jazyka (ELPR Publication Series A2-038). Osaka: Osaka Gakuin University.

External links

• The Aliutors
• The Aliutor Language
• Alutor: Bibliographical guide

v t e Paleo-Siberian languages
Chukotko-Kamchatkan	Chukotkan Alyutor Chukchi Kerek Koryak Kamchatkan (Western) Itelmen Eastern Kamchadal Southern Kamchadal
Yeniseian	Northern Ket Yugh Southern Arin Assan Kott Pumpokol
Yukaghir	Chuvan Tundra Yukaghir Omok Southern Yukaghir
Nivkh	Nivkh
Others	Ainu Hokkaido Kuril Sakhalin Eskaleut Yuit Naukan Sirenik
Italics indicate extinct languages

• Agglutinative languages
• Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages
• Languages of Russia
• Subject–verb–object languages
• Endangered languages