Proto-Eskaleut, Proto-Eskimo–Aleut or Proto-Inuit-Yupik-Unangan is the reconstructed common ancestor of the
Eskaleut languages, family containing
Eskimo
Eskimo () is an exonym used to refer to two closely related Indigenous peoples: the Inuit (including the Alaska Native Iñupiat, the Greenlandic Inuit, and the Canadian Inuit) and the Yupik peoples, Yupik (or Siberian Yupik, Yuit) of eastern Si ...
and
Aleut. Its existence is known through similarities in Eskimo and Aleut. The existence of Proto-Eskaleut is generally accepted among linguists. It was for a long time true that no
linguistic reconstruction of Proto-Eskaleut had yet been produced, as stated by
Bomhard (2008:209). Such a reconstruction was offered by
Knut Bergsland in 1986.
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 ...
(1998:124–125) has offered another version of this system, largely based on the reconstruction of
Proto-Eskimo in the ''Comparative Eskimo Dictionary'' he co-authored with Steven Jacobson and Lawrence Kaplan (1994:xi).
Phonology
Fortescue reconstructs the phoneme inventory of Proto-Eskaleut as follows:
Notes:
Possible relation to other language families
There are no generally accepted relations between Proto-Eskaleut and other language families. A substantial case for a
genetic relationship between Proto-Eskaleut, Yukaghir and Uralic was published 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 1998 in ''Language Relations across Bering Strait'' (see
Uralo-Siberian languages).
References
Bibliography
*
Bergsland, Knut. 1986. "Comparative Eskimo–Aleut phonology and lexicon". ''Journal de la Société finno-ougrienne'' 80:63–137.
* Bomhard, Allan R. 2008. ''Reconstructing Proto-Nostratic: Comparative Phonology, Morphology, and Vocabulary'', 2 volumes. Leiden: Brill.
* Fortescue, Michael, Steven Jacobson, and Lawrence Kaplan. 1994. ''Comparative Eskimo Dictionary with Aleut Cognates''. Alaska Native Language Center.
* Fortescue, Michael. 1998. ''Language Relations across Bering Strait: Reappraising the Archaeological and Linguistic Evidence''. London and New York: Cassell.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Proto-Eskaleut language
Eskaleut
The Eskaleut (), Eskimo–Aleut or Inuit–Yupik–Unangan languages are a language family native to the northern portions of the North American continent and a small part of northeastern Asia. Languages in the family are indigenous to parts of w ...
Eskaleut languages