| Also Known As: Unanghan,Unangan,Unangany,Aleut
Description:
Aleut (Unangam Tunuu) is a language of the Eskimo-Aleut language family. It is the heritage language of the Aleut (Unangax̂) people living in the Aleutian Islands, Pribilof Islands, and Commander Islands. As of 2007 there were about 150 speakers of Aleut (Krauss 2007, p. 408).
Aleut is alone with the Eskimo languages (Yupik and Inuit languages) in the Eskimo-Aleut group. The main dialect groupings are Eastern Aleut, Atkan, and Attuan.
Within the Eastern group are the dialects of Unalaska, Belkofski, Akutan, the Pribilof Islands, Kashega and Nikolski. The Pribilof dialect has more living speakers than any other dialect of Aleut.
The Atkan grouping comprises the dialects of Atka and Bering Island.
Attuan, now extinct, was a distinct dialect showing influence from both Atkan and Eastern Aleut. Copper Island Aleut (also called Mednyj Aleut) is a Russian-Attuan creole (Copper Island (Russian: Медный, Medny, Mednyj) having been settled by Attuans). Ironically, today Copper Island Aleut is spoken only on Bering Island, as Copper Islanders were evacuated there in 1969.
All dialects show lexical influence from Russian; Copper Island Aleut has also adopted many Russian inflectional endings...... full article at Wikipedia |
