Brief Information
Native speakers of the Medny Aleut language live in the Nikolskoye village on the Bering island, which is part of the Commander Archipelago. According to the 2010 census, the total number of Aleuts in the Russian Federation is 482 people (155 of them in urban areas and 327 in rural areas), but there are only two speakers of Medny Aleut (both are fluent speakers).
Medny Aleuts call their language унан’ам умсуу. The Medny Aleut language got its name from the Medny island, which is part of the Commander Islands.
The Aleuts do not lead a traditional way of life, they are orthodox. The main language contacts occur with Russian.
Genealogy
The Medny Aleut language belongs to a small class of so-called mixed languages. Probably by the end of the XIX century it was formed as a result of the interaction of Aleut (now extinct dialect of the island Attu, the westernmost in the Aleut Islands range) and Russian. The origin of the Medny Aleut language makes its genealogical classification difficult. Some researchers tend to attribute it to the Aleut branch of the Eskimo-Aleut family, which also includes the Aleut language. This view is based mainly on the fact that most of the vocabulary in the Medny language is Aleut in its origin.
Distribution
Language contacts and multilingualism
The Medny Aleut language is most actively in contact with the Russian language. There is a general trend of switching to Russian.
Language functioning
- Legal status
- Writing system
- Language standardization
- Domains of language usage
The Medny Aleut language is legally considered as the language of northern indigenous minorities, since in the socio-political discourse Medny is not separated from Aleut.
The Medny Aleut language has no officially accepted writing system. The original system of writing for the Medny Aleut language (based on the modern Russian alphabet) was invented by one of its native speakers, a resident of the village Nikolskoye, G. M. Yakovlev, but it was not widely used.
There is no established literary norm.
Family / everyday communication
Family / everyday communication
In this domain, Medny Aleut is completely replaced by Russian.
Education
Education
School education is conducted in Russian. There is no practice of teaching in Medny Aleut, as well as there are no lessons of Medny Aleut.
Mass media
Mass media
In this domain, the Russian language is used.
Culture
Culture
In this domain, the Russian language is used.
Science
Science
In this domain, the Russian language is used.
Folklore
Folklore
There are no collections of folklore in Medny Aleut.
Literature
Literature
No literature is created in Medny Aleut.
Religion
Religion
In this domain, the Russian language is used.
Legislation
Legislation
In this domain, the Russian language is used.
Administrative activities
Administrative activities
In this domain, the Russian language is used.
Legal proceedings
Legal proceedings
In this domain, the Russian language is used.
Industry
Industry
In this domain, the Russian language is used.
Agriculture
Agriculture
In this domain, the Russian language is used.
Trade and service
Trade and service
In this domain, the Russian language is used.
Transport
Transport
In this domain, the Russian language is used.
Internet
Internet
In this domain, the Russian language is used.
Dynamics of language usage
Despite the recent interest in the language, the extinction of the language in the near future is unquestionable. Both native speakers are in the age of 70-90, the intergenerational transmission is not preserved.
Language structure
Phonetics
The Medny Aleut language has 10 vowels and 28 consonants.
Phonetics
The phonological system of Medny Aleut is a compromise between the Russian and Aleut phonological systems, although with a greater proportion of Aleut features. A significant part of the phonemic inventory consists of phonemes that are similar in Russian and Aleut.
Vocalism: all vowel phonemes of the middle elevation came from the Russian language. However, for all vowel phonemes, the longitude opposition is relevant, which is typical for the Aleut language.
Consonantism: deaf sonants and uvulars are specific to the Aleut language. Under the influence of Russian, labial p, b and fricative f, v appeared.
Morphology
Morphological type of language: agglutinative.
Morphology
The predominance of Aleut traits is most noticeable in the morphological system. The following parts of speech are distinguished: noun, pronoun, numeral, verb, adverb, postposition, conjunction, particle, interjection. There is no category of adjectives.
Medny Aleut inherited all the nominal grammatical categories from the Attu dialect of the Aleut language: singular, dual and plural; 2 cases (absolute and relative); category of possessivity.
Subject and object pronouns are of Russian origin.
Aleut reflexive markers for 3 person are preserved, as well as the object pronouns, which can be used as reflexive ones. Most of the interrogative pronouns are also from the Aleut language.
Both Aleut and Russian markers of spatial orientation are identified. However, preference is given to Aleut demonstrative pronouns, which form a branched system according to different parameters of spatial orientation.
Russian and Aleut ordinal numerals from 1 to 9 are used alongside, while all other numerals (including other ordinal ones) are of Russian origin.
The most noticeable phenomenon in morphology is the verb inflection paradigm, which is completely borrowed from the Russian language (in the present, past and future tenses).
Postpositions are Aleut in origin, while adverbs, conjunctions, particles, and interjections are of Russian origin.
Syntax
Medny Aleut has free word order. Nominative actant coding strategy.
Syntax
Unlike Aleut, Medny Aleut has free word order. However, if the direct object is a pronoun, the word order is SOV, as in the Aleut language.
The syntax is of mixed origin. Many basic constructions of simple sentences are the same as in the Aleut dialects (while the Aleut verb argument structure was mainly preserved), while in the complex sentence there are more features of the Russian language (subordinate clauses that are generally absent in the Aleut language, are calques of the Russian subordinate clauses, and the conjunctions are borrowed from Russian).
Vocabulary
The main source of borrowings is the Russian language.
Vocabulary
Most of the vocabulary is Aleut in origin. All nominal and verbal word-forming means are also of Aleut origin. The vocabulary of Russian and Aleut origin is unevenly distributed among the parts of speech. The absolute majority of the verbal vocabulary is inherited from the Aleut language. There are significantly more nouns inherited from Russian, although less than half. All other parts of speech are represented by words of Russian origin in more than 50% of cases.
Language experts
Evgeny Vasilyevich Golovko
(Saint Petersburg, Russia)Expert in Aleut, sociolinguistics and language contacts. Author of numerous works on Aleut and Medny Aleut.
Field research:
1982 (June-July), 1985 (July–September), 1988 (May-July) - Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Nikolskoye village (Bering Island — Commander Islands): study of the sociolinguistic situation and grammatical structure of the Aleut language, as well as the language of Medny Aleuts.
Grants:
1994: grant from the INTAS Foundation for work on Medny Aleut materials.
2003: grant from the American Council of Learned Societies to work on a book about the Medny Aleut language.
An ongoing project supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation (project manager/project director) E. V. Golovko). The results will be published in 2020.
Nikolai Borisovich Vakhtin
(Saint Petersburg, Russia)Expert in Eskimo-Aleut languages. Author of works on Eskimo syntax, morphology and vocabulary.
The research is based on field data collected during field trips to the regions of the Far North (Chukotka, Kamchatka, the Commander Islands, the Magadan Oblast, Yakutia).
Research centres
Department of the languages of the peoples of Russia ILS RAS
Currently, the department has experts in the languages of the following groups and families: Mongolian, Baltic-Finnish, Samoyedic, Tungus-Manchu, Turkic, Chukotko-Kamchatkan, Eskimo-Aleut (see the personal page of E. V. Golovko).
Current RFBR project:
"Typology of mechanisms of interaction of the Russian language with the languages of the small peoples of Russia" (2018-2020, 17-29-09097), project manager E. V. Golovko.
Core references
Grammatical descriptions: grammars, sketches
Golovko E. V. Mednovskikh aleutov yazyk / / Yazyki mira: Paleoasiatiskiye yazyki. [Language of Medny Aleuts // Languages of the world: Paleo-Siberian languages.] Moscow: Indrik, 1997.
Dictionaries
Golovko E. V. Aleutsko-russkiy i Russko-aleutskiy slovar [Aleut-Russian and Russian-Aleut dictionary]. St. Petersburg: Prosveshchenie, 1994.
Selected papers on grammatical issues
Vakhtin N. B. Nekotorye osobennosti russko-aleutskogo dvuyazychiya na Komandorskikh ostrovakh // Voprosy yazykoznaniya [Some features of Russian-Aleutian bilingualism on the Commander Islands // Questions of Linguistics], 1985. No. 5. P. 35-45.
Golovko E. Mednij Aleut or Copper Island Aleut: An Aleut-Russian Mixed Language // Mixed Languages: 15 Case Studies in Language Intertwining / Ed. by P. Bakker and M. Mous. Amsterdam: IFOTT, 1994. P. 113–121.
Golovko E. A Case of Nongenetic Development in the Arctic Area // Language Contact in the Arctic: Northern Pidgins and Contact Languages / Ed. by E. H. Jahr and I. Broch. Berlin; New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 1996. P. 63–78.
Работы по социолингвистике
Golovko E. V. Aleutskiy yazyk // Yazyk i obshestvo. Entsiklopediya [Aleut language // Language and society. Encyclopedia] / Ed. by V. Yu. Mikhalchenko. Moscow: Publishing Center "Azbukovnik", 2016. P. 54-58.
Golovko E. V. Aleutskiy yazyk // Yazyki narodov mira: Krasnaya kniga. Entsiklopedicheskiy slovar'-spravochnik [Ispravlennoe i dopolnennoe izdanie] [Aleut language // Languages of the peoples of Russia: The Red Book. Encyclopedic dictionary-reference [Revised and expanded edition] / Ed. by V. P. Neroznak, Moscow: Academia, 2002. P. 23-28.
Golovko E. V., Vakhtin N. B. Ob odnom neordinarnom sledstvii yazykovykh kontaktov: yazyk aleutov o. Medny // Vozniknovenie i funktsionirovanie kontaktnykh yazykov: Materialy rabochego soveshchaniya. [On an extraordinary consequence of language contact: the language of the Aleuts of Medny Island // The emergence and functioning of contact languages: Materials of the workshop] / Ed. by V. I. Belikov i I. F. Vardul'. M.: IV AN SSSR, 1987. P. 27–30.
Golovko E. V., Vakhtin N. B. K istorii formirovaniya yazyka o. Medny // Vozniknovenie i funktsionirovanie kontaktnykh yazykov: Materialy rabochego soveshchaniya [On the history of formation of the language of Medny Island // The emergence and functioning of contact languages: Materials of the workshop]. Ed. by V. I. Belikov i I. F. Vardul'. M.: IOS AS USSR, 1987. P. 30–33.
Golovko E. V. Aleutsko-russkie yazykovye svyazi // Kontaktologicheskiy entsiklopedicheskiy slovar'-spravochnik. Vyp. 1: Severnyy region. Yazyki narodov severa, Sibiri i Dal'nego Vostoka v kontaktakh s russkim yazykom [Aleut-Russian language relations // Contactological encyclopedic dictionary-reference. Ed. 1: Northern Region. Languages of the peoples of the North, Siberia and the Far East in contact with the Russian language]. / Ed. vy V. M. Pan'kin. M.: Az, 1994. P. 51–57.
Golovko E., Vakhtin N. Aleut in Contact: The CIA Enigma // Acta Linguistica Hafniensia: International Journal of Linguistics. Vol. 22. Copenhagen, 1990. P. 97–126.
Работы по этнологии
Golovko E. V., Vakhtin N. B., Asinovskiy A. S. Etnolingvisticheskoe opisanie komandorskikh aleutov // Voprosy yazykoznaniya [Ethnolinguistic description of the Commander Aleuts // Questions of Linguistics]. № 6. 1983. P. 108–116.
Golovko E. V., Vakhtin N. B., Asinovskiy A. S. Etnolingvisticheskaya situatsiya na o. Beringa // Ratsional'noe prirodopol'zovanie na Komandorskikh ostrovakh [Ethnolinguistic situation on the island of Bering // Rational nature management on the Commander Islands] / Ed. by V. E. Sokolov. M.: MGU, 1987. P. 166–173.
Resources
Corpora and text collections
На данный момент общедоступного электронного корпуса медновского алеутского языка не существует.
Имеется некоторое количество текстов на медновском алеутском языке в личной коллекции Е. В. Головко.
There are no other electronic resources.
Data for this page kindly provided by
Evgeny Golovko (Institute of Linguistic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), Saint Petersburg).
Sources
Golovko E. V. Aleutskiy yazyk // Yazyk i obshchestvo. Entsiklopediya [Aleut language // Language and society. Encyclopedia]. / Ed. by V. Yu. Mikhal'chenko. M.: Izdatel'skiy tsentr «Azbukovnik». 2016. P. 54-58.
Golovko E. V. Mednovskikh aleutov yazyk // Yazyki mira: Paleoasiatiskiye yazyki. [The language of Medny Aleuts // Languages of the world: Paleo-Siberian languages]. Moscow: Indrik, 1997.
Golovko E. V., Vakhtin N. B., Asinovsky A. S. Yazyk komandorskikh aleutov: Dialekt ostrova Beringa [The language of the Commander Aleuts: The dialect of the Bering Island]. St. Petersburg: Nauka, 2009.