User:Dcharte1/Language selection

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I'd like to work with Gregory.

Languages

I'm most interested in working with Chukchi, Aleut, and Nivkh.

Chukchi

Typology

Chukchi is considered a polysynthetic language.[1] It utilizes noun incorporation, agglutination, and case marking, as in the example found here: [1]. According to Spencer, the incorporation interacts with other processes in the language.

About

[ckt] There are around 5,000 Chukchi speakers, almost exclusively in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in far eastern Russia. As of 2010, this represents about a third of the ethnic population. There are very few monolingual speakers; nearly all Chukchi speakers speak Russian, too. Within Chukotka the language is used to some extent in TV and radio as well as in business. The literary canon is quite minimal. Fewer and fewer Chukchi children are learning their language; although it is used as the primary language of instruction in elementary schools throughout the region, Russian is used thereafter. Ethnologue considers Chukchi to be "threatened" (6b), which means that "the language is used for face-to-face communication within all generations, but it is losing users."[2] Chukchi has a standardized orthography: a modified Cyrillic alphabet. Between 1931 and 1937 a Latin-based alphabet was used officially.[2]

Data

Parts of the Bible have been translated into Chukchi here: [3]. I have also found a Chukchi grammar here: [4].

Aleut

Typology

Aleut, like other Eskimo-Aleut languages, is highly agglutinative, generally considered to be polysynthetic. An example follows (a gloss can be found at [5]:

  • Ting adaluusanaaĝiiĝutamasux̂takux̂. [6]

Despite this, "Aleut inflectional morphology is greatly reduced" from the protolanguage's system, and Aleut relies more on word order than the Eskimo languages do.[7] Also, nouns are more fusional than verbs, which are highly agglutinative.

About

[ale] There are fewer than 150 Aleut speakers remaining, living from the Alaskan Peninsula, Aleutian Islands, and Pribilof Islands of the United States to the Commander Islands of Russia. Most schools in historically Aleut-speaking areas no longer provide any education in Aleut, and those that do do so unsatisfactorily, frequently yielding non-fluent speakers. Ethnologue considers Aleut to be "shifting" (7) from threatened to dying, as "the child-bearing generation can use the language among themselves, but it is not being transmitted to children." [8] Most Aleut speak English, either alone or in addition to Aleut. The United States government does literally nothing to support revitalization of Aleut (nor of virtually every other indigenous language spoken within its borders).[9][10] Aleut's modern orthography uses the Latin script and was developed in 1972. As early as 1840 Aleut was written using a modified Cyrillic alphabet.[3]

Data

Our library has a book that includes a brief grammar and dictionary of Aleut [11] (pp. 83–88 may be useful for gathering sentences/text). There are two short texts here: [12]. There are Bible excerpts written in the old Cyrillic script here: [13].

Nivkh

Typology

Nivkh is largely agglutinating; it may be polysynthetic,[14] but it is also important to note that polysynthesis is not explicitly defined. It has a "developed case system"[15]. Like Chukchi, Nivkh has a high degree of incorporation.

About

[niv] Nivkh has between 100–200 speakers left out of a population of about 6,000.[16]. Ethnologue classifies Nivkh as "moribund" (8b), meaning that "the only remaining active users of the language are members of the grandparent generation and older."[17] Nivkh was formerly spoken across a wide swath of Manchuria and in the north of Sakhalin. Nowadays speakers are limited to a few villages along the Amgun and Amur rivers and the northern half of Sakhalin. Most Nivkhi speak Russian, including most of those who speak Nivkh. The standard orthography is Cyrillic-based.

Data

Omniglot has a short, untranslated text in Nivkh: [18]. At least one grammar of Nivkh exists: [19]. This paper has a few sentences in (various dialects of) Nivkh: [20]. Michael Fortescue made a Comparative Nivkh Dictionary. Johanna Mattissen's "Dependent-Head Synthesis in Nivkh. A contribution to a typology of polysynthesis" may also be of use.,,,

References

  1. Template:Cite journal
  2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chukchi_language
  3. Template:Cite book