Kerek () was a language in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

of the Chukotkan branch of the

Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages The Chukotko-Kamchatkan or Chukchi–Kamchatkan languages are a Language families and languages, language family of extreme northeastern Siberia. Its speakers traditionally were indigenous hunter-gatherers and reindeer-herders. Chukotko-Kamchatk ...

. Before its extinction, it was spoken by the Kereks of the

Russian Far East The Russian Far East ( rus, Дальний Восток России, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in North Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asia, Asian continent, and is coextensive with the Far Easte ...

. It went extinct in 2005 with the death of Ekaterina Khatkana.

Classification

On historical linguistic grounds it is most closely related to Koryak (both languages have a

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of the Proto-Chukotko-Kamchatkan

phonemes A phoneme () is any set of similar speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word from another. All languages con ...

/*ð/ and /*r/ with /*j/). The next closest relative is Chukchi (/*ð/ and /*r/ are merged, but not /*j/).

Dialects

There were two dialects, the Maino-Pilgin and Khatyr dialects.

Situation

In 1997 there were still two speakers remaining, but in 2005 the language went extinct, with the death of Ekaterina Khatkana. According to the 2010 census, there were 10 people claiming Kerek as their native language, believed to only consist of partial speakers and non-speakers who claim the language as part of their ethnic heritage. In 2020, that number had decreased to 4. Over the 20th century many members of the Kerek ethnic group shifted to Chukchi, the language of the majority ethnic group in the area, but now most Chukchis and Kereks speak Russian.

Phonology

Vowels

Vowels may be

long Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...

Consonants

Consonants may also be

, is palatalized intervocalically, and is pronounced as by some.

Grammar

Kerek is an agglutinative language, meaning that the morphemes build on each other to have different meanings.

References

External links

Bibliography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kerek Language Agglutinative languages Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages Languages of Russia Extinct languages of Asia