File:Chukotko-Kamchatkan_map_XVII-XX.png · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Chukotko-Kamchatkan
Sign in to saveAlso known as Chukchi–Kamchatkan, Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages
language family
Key facts
- Geographic distribution
- Russian Far East
- Linguistic classification
- One of the world's primary language families
- Proto language
- Proto-Chukotko-Kamchatkan
- Subdivisions
- Chukotkan Kamchatkan
- Glottolog
- chuk1271
via Wikipedia infobox
~8 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Chukotko-Kamchatkan or Chukchi–Kamchatkan languages are a language family of extreme northeastern Siberia. Its speakers traditionally were indigenous hunter-gatherers and reindeer-herders. Chukotko-Kamchatkan is endangered. The Kamchatkan branch is moribund, represented only by Western Itelmen, with less than a hundred speakers left. The Chukotkan branch had close to 7,000 speakers left (as of 2010, the majority being speakers of Chukchi), with a reported total ethnic population of 25,000. The language family tree of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages.
While the family is sometimes grouped typologically and geographically as Paleosiberian, no external genetic relationship has been widely accepted as proven. The most popular such proposals have been for links with Eskimo–Aleut, either alone or in the context of a wider grouping.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Chukotko-Kamchatkan” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.