Sirenik Yupik language
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Sirenik Yupik, Sireniki Yupik (also Old Sirenik or Vuteen), Sirenik, or Sirenikskiy is an extinct Eskimo–Aleut language. It was spoken in and around the village of Sireniki (Сиреники) in
Chukotka Peninsula The Chukchi Peninsula (also Chukotka Peninsula or Chukotski Peninsula; russian: Чуко́тский полуо́стров, ''Chukotskiy poluostrov'', short form russian: Чуко́тка, ''Chukotka''), at about 66° N 172° W, is the eastern ...
, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug,
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
. The
language shift Language shift, also known as language transfer or language replacement or language assimilation, is the process whereby a speech community shifts to a different language, usually over an extended period of time. Often, languages that are percei ...
has been a long process, ending in total
language death In linguistics, language death occurs when a language loses its last native speaker. By extension, language extinction is when the language is no longer known, including by second-language speakers. Other similar terms include linguicide, the de ...
. In January 1997, the
last native speaker Within the linguistic study of endangered language, endangered languages, sociolinguists distinguish between different speaker types based on the type of Linguistic competence, competence they have acquired of the endangered language. Often when a ...
of the language, a woman named Vyjye (Valentina Wye) (russian: Выйе), died.Vakhtin 1998
162
Linguist List's description abou
Nikolai Vakhtin
s book
''The Old Sirinek Language: Texts, Lexicon, Grammatical Notes''
The author's untransliterated (original) name is

”.
Support for Siberian Indigenous Peoples Rights (Поддержка прав коренных народов Сибири)
– see th
section on Eskimos
Ever since that point, the language has been extinct; nowadays, all Sirenik Eskimos speak Siberian Yupik or
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
. Сиӷы́ных is the endonym for the eponymous settlement of Sireniki. The endonym for the people itself is сиӷы́ныгмы̄́ӷий "Sirenikites"; the singular form is сиӷы́ныгмы̄́ӷа ). This article is based on Menovschikov (1964), with cited examples transliterated from Cyrillic transcription to the
International Phonetic Alphabet The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is an alphabetic system of phonetic notation based primarily on the Latin script. It was devised by the International Phonetic Association in the late 19th century as a standardized representation ...
.


Classification


Genealogical


External

Some argue that the Sirenik language is a remnant of a third group of Eskimo languages, in addition to
Yupik Yupik may refer to: * Yupik peoples, a group of indigenous peoples of Alaska and the Russian Far East * Yupik languages, a group of Eskimo-Aleut languages Yupꞌik (with the apostrophe) may refer to: * Yup'ik people The Yup'ik or Yupiaq (sg ...
and
Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...
groupsVakhtin 1998
161

/ref> (see a visual representation by tree and an argumentation based on comparative linguisticsRepresenting genealogical relations of (among others) Eskimo–Aleut languages by tree
Alaska Native Languages
(found on the site o
Alaska Native Language Center
Lawrence Kaplan: Comparative Yupik and Inuit
(found on the site o
Alaska Native Language Center
). In fact, the exact genealogical classification of Sireniki language is not settled yet, and some others regard it belonging to the Yupik branch.Ethnologue Report for Eskimo–Aleut
/ref>Kaplan 1990
136
Many words are formed from entirely different
root In vascular plants, the roots are the organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often below the su ...
s to those in Siberian Yupik. Also, the grammar has several peculiarities compared to other Eskimo languages, and even compared to
Aleut The Aleuts ( ; russian: Алеуты, Aleuty) are the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, which are located between the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Both the Aleut people and the islands are politically divided between the ...
. For example,
dual number In algebra, the dual numbers are a hypercomplex number system first introduced in the 19th century. They are expressions of the form , where and are real numbers, and is a symbol taken to satisfy \varepsilon^2 = 0 with \varepsilon\neq 0. Du ...
is not known in Sireniki Eskimo, while most Eskimo–Aleut languages have dual, including even its neighboring Siberian Yupik relatives. The peculiarities amounted to mutual unintelligibility with even its nearest language relatives. This forced Sirenik Eskimos to use Chukchi as a lingua franca when speaking with neighboring Eskimo peoples.Menovshchikov 1990
70
Thus, any external contacts required using a different language for Sireniki Eskimos: they either resorted to use of lingua franca, or used
Siberian Yupik language Central Siberian Yupik, (also known as Siberian Yupik, Bering Strait Yupik, Yuit, Yoit, "St. Lawrence Island Yupik", and in Russia "Chaplinski Yupik" or Yuk) is an endangered Yupik language spoken by the indigenous Siberian Yupik people along the ...
s (being definitely a mutually unintelligible, different language for them, not just a dialect of their own). This difference from all their language relatives may be the result of a supposed long isolation from other Eskimo groups: Sireniki Eskimos may have been in contact only with speakers of unrelated languages for many centuries in the past, influenced especially by non-relative Chukchi.


Internal

Although the number of its speakers was very few even at the end of the nineteenth century, the language had at least two
dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...
s in the past.


Typological

As for its morphological typology, it has
polysynthetic In linguistic typology, polysynthetic languages, formerly holophrastic languages, are highly synthetic languages, i.e. languages in which words are composed of many morphemes (word parts that have independent meaning but may or may not be able t ...
and incorporative features (just like the other Eskimo languages).


Phonology


Consonants

* Some consonants can be palatalized, e.g.: .


Vowels


Morphology

Like all other Eskimo languages, the
morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines * Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts * Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...
is rather complex. A description grouped by lexical categories follows.


Nominal and verbal

Although morphology will be treated grouped into a nominal and a verbal part, many Eskimo languages show features which “
crosscut Crosscut may refer to: * Crosscut.com, an online newspaper in Seattle * Crosscut Peak, a mountain peak in Antarctica * Crosscut Point, a rocky point in the South Sandwich Islands * CrossCut Records, a German record company * A type of saw cut, m ...
” any such groupings in several aspects: * the ergative structure at verbs is similar to the possessive structure at nouns (see section #Ergative–absolutive); * a physical similarity exists between nominal and verbal personal suffix paradigms, i.e., in most cases, the respective person-number is expressed with the same sequence of phonemes at: **
possessive suffix In linguistics, a possessive affix (from la, affixum possessivum) is an affix (usually suffix or prefix) attached to a noun to indicate its possessor, much in the manner of possessive adjectives. Possessive affixes are found in many languages o ...
es (at nouns) ** verbal suffixes; * nomenverbum-like roots, becoming nominal or verbal only via the suffix they get; * Eskimo texts abound in various kinds of participles (see section #Participles);


Common grammatical categories

Some grammatical categories (e.g.
person A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...
and
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...
) are applicable to both verbal and nominal lexical categories. Although person and number are expressed in a single suffix, sometimes it can be traced back to consist of a distinct person and a distinct number suffix.Person and number in a single suffix, or in two distinct ones: p. 61 of


= Person

= Paradigms can make a distinction in 3rd person for “self”, thus the mere personal suffix (of the verb or noun) can distinguish e.g. ;a nominal example :“He/she takes his/her own dog” versus “He/she takes the dog of another person”. ;a verbal example :“He/she sees himself/herself” versus “He/she sees him/her (another person)” Thus, it can be translated into English (and some other languages) using a
reflexive pronoun A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that refers to another noun or pronoun (its antecedent) within the same sentence. In the English language specifically, a reflexive pronoun will end in ''-self'' or ''-selves'', and refer to a previously n ...
. This notion concerns also other concepts in building larger parts of the sentence and the text, see section #Usage of third person suffixes.


= Number

= Although other Eskimo languages know more than the familiar two
grammatical number In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and verb agreement (linguistics), agreement that expresses count distinctions (such as "one", "two" or "three or more"). English and other languages pres ...
s (by having also dual), Sireniki uses only singular and
plural The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...
, thus it lacks dual. As mentioned, Sireniki is peculiar in this aspect not only among Eskimo languages, but even in the entire Eskimo–Aleut language family, even its neighboring Siberian Yupik relatives have dual.


Building verbs from nouns

Suffix -- meaning “to be similar to sth”:


= Predicative form of a noun

= Predicative form of a noun can be built using suffix --:Predicative form of a noun (suffix --): p. 66–67 of


= Verbs built from

toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
s

= * (a
toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
: Imtuk) * (I travel to Imtuk.)Verbs built from
toponym Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...
s: p. 67 of


Nominal lexical categories


Grammatical categories

Not only the
grammatical case A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers ( determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nomin ...
s of nouns are marked by suffixes, but also the person of possessor (use of possessive pronouns in English) can be expressed by
agglutination In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative lang ...
. It is just an excerpt for illustration: not all cases are shown, Sirenik language has more grammatical cases. The table illustrates also why Sirenik language is treated as
agglutinative In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative lang ...
(rather than
fusional Fusional languages or inflected languages are a type of synthetic language, distinguished from agglutinative languages by their tendency to use a single inflectional morpheme to denote multiple grammatical, syntactic, or semantic features. For e ...
). There is no
grammatical gender In linguistics, grammatical gender system is a specific form of noun class system, where nouns are assigned with gender categories that are often not related to their real-world qualities. In languages with grammatical gender, most or all noun ...
(or gender-like
noun class In linguistics, a noun class is a particular category of nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of the characteristic features of its referent, such as gender, animacy, shape, but such designations are often clearly conventional. Some a ...
system).


= Case

= Sireniki is an absolutive–ergative language. Cases (listed using Menovščikov's numbering): #
Absolutive In grammar, the absolutive case (abbreviated ) is the case of nouns in ergative–absolutive languages that would generally be the subjects of intransitive verbs or the objects of transitive verbs in the translational equivalents of nominative ...
# Relative case, playing the role of both genitive case and
ergative case In grammar, the ergative case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that identifies the noun as the agent of a transitive verb in ergative–absolutive languages. Characteristics In such languages, the ergative case is typically marked (most ...
. #
Ablative In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; sometimes abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages; it is sometimes used to express motion away from something, among other uses. ...
/
Instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to inst ...
, used also in
accusative The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘th ...
structures. # Dative / Lative # Locative # Vialis case, see also Prosecutive case, and "motion via" #
Equative The term equative (or equational) is used in linguistics to refer to constructions where two entities are equated with each other. For example, the sentence ''Susan is our president'', equates two entities "Susan" and "our president". In English, ...
(comparative) To see why a single case can play such distinct roles at all, read
morphosyntactic alignment In linguistics, morphosyntactic alignment is the grammatical relationship between arguments—specifically, between the two arguments (in English, subject and object) of transitive verbs like ''the dog chased the cat'', and the single argument ...
, and also a short table about it. Some finer
grammatical function In linguistics, grammatical relations (also called grammatical functions, grammatical roles, or syntactic functions) are functional relationships between constituents in a clause. The standard examples of grammatical functions from traditional gra ...
s are expressed using
postposition Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
s. Most of them are built as a combinations of cases * lative or locative or ablative * combined with relative (used as genitive) in a similar way as we use expressions like "on top of" in English.


Verbal lexical categories

Also at verbs, the morphology is very rich. Suffixes can express grammatical moods of the verb (e.g. imperative, interrogative,
optative The optative mood ( or ; abbreviated ) is a grammatical mood that indicates a wish or hope regarding a given action. It is a superset of the cohortative mood and is closely related to the subjunctive mood but is distinct from the desiderative mo ...
), and also negation, tense,
aspect Aspect or Aspects may refer to: Entertainment * ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art * Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company * Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England * ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
, the
person A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of prope ...
of subject and object. Some examples (far from being comprehensive): The rich set of
morpheme A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology. In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone are ...
s makes it possible to build huge verbs whose meaning could be expressed (in most of widely known languages) as whole sentences (consisting of more words) . Sireniki – like the other Eskimo languages – has
polysynthetic In linguistic typology, polysynthetic languages, formerly holophrastic languages, are highly synthetic languages, i.e. languages in which words are composed of many morphemes (word parts that have independent meaning but may or may not be able t ...
and incorporative features, in many forms, among others
polypersonal agreement In linguistics, polypersonal agreement or polypersonalism is the agreement of a verb with more than one of its arguments (usually up to four). Polypersonalism is a morphological feature of a language, and languages that display it are called p ...
.


Grammatical categories

The
polysynthetic In linguistic typology, polysynthetic languages, formerly holophrastic languages, are highly synthetic languages, i.e. languages in which words are composed of many morphemes (word parts that have independent meaning but may or may not be able t ...
and incorporative features mentioned above manifest themselves in most of the ways Sirenik language can express grammatical categories.


= Transitivity

= For background, see transitivity. (Remember also section #Ergative–absolutive.) See also.Nicole Tersis and Shirley Carter-Thomas
Integrating Syntax and Pragmatics: Word Order and Transitivity Variations in Tunumiisut
It treats an Inuit language: not Sireniki, but a relative. Availability: on paper and restricted online.


= Polarity

= Even the
grammatical polarity In linguistics and grammar, affirmation ( abbreviated ) and negation () are ways in which grammar encodes positive and negative polarity into verb phrases, clauses, or other utterances. An affirmative (positive) form is used to express the validi ...
can be expressed by adding a suffix to the verb. An example for negative polarity: the negation form of the verb (to go): * (the man walks) * (the man does not walk)


= Aspect

= Grammatical aspect: * (to work slowly) and (he works slowly),Suffix - for slow action
aspect Aspect or Aspects may refer to: Entertainment * ''Aspect magazine'', a biannual DVD magazine showcasing new media art * Aspect Co., a Japanese video game company * Aspects (band), a hip hop group from Bristol, England * ''Aspects'' (Benny Carter ...
: p. 72 of
from (to work)


= Modality

= Also
linguistic modality In linguistics and philosophy, modality refers to the ways language can express various relationships to reality or truth. For instance, a modal expression may convey that something is likely, desirable, or permissible. Quintessential modal ex ...
can be expressed by suffixes.
Modal verb A modal verb is a type of verb that contextually indicates a modality such as a ''likelihood'', ''ability'', ''permission'', ''request'', ''capacity'', ''suggestion'', ''order'', ''obligation'', or ''advice''. Modal verbs generally accompany the b ...
s like "want to", "wish to" etc. do not even exist:Modality: p. 68 of The table illustrates also why Sirenik is treated as
agglutinative In linguistics, agglutination is a morphological process in which words are formed by stringing together morphemes, each of which corresponds to a single syntactic feature. Languages that use agglutination widely are called agglutinative lang ...
(rather than
fusional Fusional languages or inflected languages are a type of synthetic language, distinguished from agglutinative languages by their tendency to use a single inflectional morpheme to denote multiple grammatical, syntactic, or semantic features. For e ...
).


= Voice

= Four
grammatical voice In linguistics, grammaticality is determined by the conformity to language usage as derived by the grammar of a particular speech variety. The notion of grammaticality rose alongside the theory of generative grammar, the goal of which is to form ...
s are mentioned in:
Grammatical voice In linguistics, grammaticality is determined by the conformity to language usage as derived by the grammar of a particular speech variety. The notion of grammaticality rose alongside the theory of generative grammar, the goal of which is to form ...
s: p. 78–80 of
;active ;passive :confer that variant of Siberian Yupik which is spoken by UngazigmitРубцова 1954, pp. 121–123 ;middle (medial) ;causative : (Malika makes Kitugi go to the reindeer.) all of them are expressed by agglutination, thus, no separate words are required.


Participles

A distinction between two kinds of
participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
s (
adverbial participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
and
adjectival participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
) makes sense in Sireniki (just like in Hungarian, see határozói igenév and melléknévi igenév for detailed description of these concepts; or in
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
, see деепричастие and причастие). Sireniki has many kinds of participles in both categories. In the following, they will be listed, grouped by the relation between the “dependent action” and “main action” (or by other meanings beyond this, e.g. modality) – following the terminology of. A sentence with a participle can be imagined as simulating a subordinating compound sentence where the action described in the dependent clause relates somehow to the action described in the main clause. In English, an adverbial clause may express reason, purpose, condition, succession etc., and a
relative clause A relative clause is a clause that modifies a noun or noun phraseRodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, ''A Student's Introduction to English Grammar'', CUP 2005, p. 183ff. and uses some grammatical device to indicate that one of the argument ...
can express many meanings, too. In an analogous way, in Sireniki Eskimo language, the "dependent action" (expressed by the adverbial participle in the sentence element called
adverbial In English grammar, an adverbial ( abbreviated ) is a word (an adverb) or a group of words (an adverbial clause or adverbial phrase) that modifies or more closely defines the sentence or the verb. (The word ''adverbial'' itself is also used as an ...
, or expressed by the adjectival participle in the sentence element called attribute) relates somehow to the “main action” (expressed by the verb in the sentence element called
predicate Predicate or predication may refer to: * Predicate (grammar), in linguistics * Predication (philosophy) * several closely related uses in mathematics and formal logic: **Predicate (mathematical logic) **Propositional function **Finitary relation, o ...
), and the participles will be listed below grouped by this relation (or by other meanings beyond this, e.g. modality).


Adverbial participles

They can be translated into English e.g. by using an appropriate adverbial clause. There are many of them, with various meanings. An interesting feature: they can have person and number. The person of the dependent action need not coincide with that of the main action. An example (meant in the British English usage of “shall / should” in the 1st person: here, conveying only conditional, but no necessity or morality): Another example (with a different adverbial participle): They will be discussed in more details below.


= Reason, purpose or circumstance of action

= An adverbial participle “explaining reason, purpose or circumstance of action” is expressed by suffix -- / -- (followed by appropriate person-number suffix). Examples:Adverbial participle -- / - - “explaining reason, purpose or circumstance of action”: pp. 90–91 of Another example,Adverbial participle -- / -- “explaining reason, purpose or circumstance of action” exemplified in another usage: p. 99 of with a somewhat different usage:


= Dependent action ends just before main action begins

= Using the adverbial participle -- / --, the dependent action (expressed by the adverbial participle in the sentence element called
adverbial In English grammar, an adverbial ( abbreviated ) is a word (an adverb) or a group of words (an adverbial clause or adverbial phrase) that modifies or more closely defines the sentence or the verb. (The word ''adverbial'' itself is also used as an ...
) finishes just before the main action (expressed by the verb in the sentence element called
predicate Predicate or predication may refer to: * Predicate (grammar), in linguistics * Predication (philosophy) * several closely related uses in mathematics and formal logic: **Predicate (mathematical logic) **Propositional function **Finitary relation, o ...
) begins.Adverbial participle -- / -- (dependent action ends just before main action begins): pp. 91–92 of


= Dependent action begins before main action, but they continue together till end

= It can be expressed by suffix --. Examples: where Another example:


= Conditional

= Dependent action is conditional: it does not takes place, although it would (either really, or provided that some—maybe irreal—conditions would hold). Confer also
conditional sentence Conditional sentences are natural language sentences that express that one thing is contingent on something else, e.g. "If it rains, the picnic will be cancelled." They are so called because the impact of the main clause of the sentence is ''con ...
. Sireniki Eskimo has several adverbial participles to express that.Adverbial participles conveying conditional dependent action: pp. 92–93 of We can distinguish them according to the concerned condition (conveyed by the dependent action): it may be * either real (possible to take place in the future) * or irreal (it would take place only if some other irreal condition would hold)


Real

It is expressed with suffix -- / --, let us see e.g. a paradigm beginning with (if I get off / depart); (if you get off / depart):


Irreal

Confer
counterfactual conditional Counterfactual conditionals (also ''subjunctive'' or ''X-marked'') are conditional sentences which discuss what would have been true under different circumstances, e.g. "If Peter believed in ghosts, he would be afraid to be here." Counterfactua ...
. Sireniki can compress it into an adverbial participle: it is expressed with suffix -- / --. The dependent action is expressed with an adverbial participle. The main action is conveyed by the verb. If also the main action is conditional (a typical usage), than it can be expressed with a verb of conditional mood. The persons need not coincide. An example (meant in the British English usage of “shall / should” in the 1st person: here, conveying only conditional, but no necessity or morality): The example in details: Dependent action:


Adjectival participles

There are more kinds of them. * (The sledge hat went to Imtukreturned.) * (I saw erceiveda sleeping man.) They can be used not only in attributive role (as in the above examples), but also in predicative role:Attribute versus predicative usage of adjectival participles: p. 95 of * (The man is sleeping.)


= Modality

= Adjectival participle - / - conveys a meaning related rather to modality (than to the relation of dependent action and main action). It conveys meaning “able to”.Adjectival participle - / - (able to): p. 97 of * (A child who is able to walk moves around spontaneously)


Syntax


Ergative–absolutive

Sireniki is (just like many Eskimo languages) an ergative–absolutive language. For English-language materials treating this feature of Sireniki, see Vakhtin's book, or see online a paper treating a relative Eskimo language.Bodil Kappel Schmidt
West Greenlandic antipassive
/ref>


Usage of third person suffixes

Although the below examples are taken from
Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...
Eskimo languages ( Kalaallisut), but e.g. Sireniki's distinguishing between two kinds of 3rd person suffixes can be concerned, too (remember section #Person above: there is a distinct reflexive (“own”-like) and an “another person”-like 3rd person suffix).


Topic–comment

For a detailed theoretical treatment concerning the notions of topic (and anaphora, and binding), with Eskimo-related examples, see onlin
Maria Bittner
s works, especially.Word Order and Incremental Update
See also the author's Kalaallisut materials.


Obviation

For a treatment of ''obviation'' in (among others) Eskimo languages, see onlineMaria Bittner and Ken Hale
Comparative notes on ergative case systems
Rutgers and MIT. 1993.
and in more details (also online)Maria Bittner and Ken HaleErgativity
Towards a theory of a heterogenous class
/ref> from the same authors.


Word order

See also.


See also

* Siberian Yupik * Eskimo * Ergative–absolutive language *
Transitive verb A transitive verb is a verb that accepts one or more objects, for example, 'cleaned' in ''Donald cleaned the window''. This contrasts with intransitive verbs, which do not have objects, for example, 'panicked' in ''Donald panicked''. Transiti ...
*
Intransitive verb In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb whose context does not entail a direct object. That lack of transitivity distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Additionally, intransitive verbs are ...
*
Polysynthetic language In linguistic typology, polysynthetic languages, formerly holophrastic languages, are highly synthetic languages, i.e. languages in which words are composed of many morphemes (word parts that have independent meaning but may or may not be able ...
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Incorporation (linguistics) In linguistics, incorporation is a phenomenon by which a grammatical category, such as a verb, forms a compound with its direct object (object incorporation) or adverbial modifier, while retaining its original syntactic function. The inclusion o ...
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Language death In linguistics, language death occurs when a language loses its last native speaker. By extension, language extinction is when the language is no longer known, including by second-language speakers. Other similar terms include linguicide, the de ...


Notes


References


English

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Russian

* The transliteration of author's name, and the rendering of title in English: * The transliteration of author's name, and the rendering of title in English: * * The transliteration of author's name, and the rendering of title in English:


External links

* (Languages of the world – Paleoasian languages.) * * {{Authority control Agglutinative languages Languages of Russia Eskaleut languages Extinct languages of Asia Siberian Yupik Languages extinct in the 20th century