Proto-Chukotko-Kamchatkan is the reconstructed common ancestor of the
Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages. It is purported to have broken up into the Northern (
Chukotian) and Southern (
Itelmen) branches around 2000 BCE, when western reindeer herders moved into the Chukotko-Kamchatkans' homeland and its inland people adopted the new lifestyle.
A reconstruction is presented by
Michael Fortescue
Michael David Fortescue (born 8 August 1946) is a British-born linguistics, linguist specializing in Arctic and native North American languages, including Greenlandic language, Kalaallisut, Inuktun, Chukchi language, Chukchi and Nitinaht languag ...
in his ''Comparative Dictionary of Chukotko-Kamchatkan'' (2005).
Phonology
According to Fortescue, Proto-Chukotko-Kamchatkan had the following
phonemes, expressed in
IPA symbols.
Consonants
is a true
voiceless palatal stop (not the affricate ''č''). Note that Proto-Chukotko-Kamchatkan had only
voiceless stops
In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
, no
voiced stops (such as ). However, there is a series of voiced
fricatives, . These have no voiceless counterparts (such as ).
is a voiced labiodental fricative (like ''v'' in English). is a voiced velar fricative (like the ''g'' in Dutch ''ogen'', modern Greek gamma, Persian qāf, etc.). is a voiced uvular fricative (like ''r'' in French).
The entire series is alveolar — i.e. are not dentals.
Vowels
Grammar
It is generally accepted that Proto-Chukotko-Kamchatkan had an eleven-
case
Case or CASE may refer to:
Containers
* Case (goods), a package of related merchandise
* Cartridge case or casing, a firearm cartridge component
* Bookcase, a piece of furniture used to store books
* Briefcase or attaché case, a narrow box to c ...
system for nouns, but Dibella Wdzenczny has hypothesised that these evolved from only six cases in Pre-Proto-Chukotko-Kamchatkan.
Below is the reconstructed case system of Proto-Chukotko-Kamchatkan.
1Note that the (mostly inanimate) nouns of the first declension only marked plurality in the absolutive case.
The protolanguage is thought to have been a
nominative-accusative language, with the current Chukotko-Kamchatkan
ergative aspects coming later in the (Northern) Chukotian branch, possibly through contact with nearby
Eskimo–Aleut-speaking peoples. This would explain why
Itelmen, spoken further south than any Eskimo–Aleut speakers visited, lacks ergative structures. Some linguists, however, maintain that Proto-Chukotko-Kamchatkan began as an ergative language and lost that feature over time.
[Fortescue, Michael. 2005. ''Comparative Chukotko-Kamchatkan Dictionary. Trends in Linguistics 23.'' Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.]
See also
*
Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages
*
Uralo-Siberian languages
References
{{Paleosiberian languages
*Proto
Chukotko-Kamchatkan
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 ...