Yinuqat

Setting
A group Eskimo-Aleut people started to migrate westwards from Siberia or Alaska around 600 BC. Eventually they arrived in Northern Scandinavia where they stayed. Over time their isolated language developed uniquely from the other Eskimo-Aleut languages and took over loanwords and some grammatical features from other languages, most notably Finnic, but later also from Germanic and to a lesser extent also traces from Baltic and Slavic influence can be found. The language differs hugely from other Eskimo-Aleut languages because of the lack of differentiation in vowel and consonant length (even though this is also to be found in Finnic languages).

Consonants

 * 1) Allophone of [s].
 * 2) Allophone of [x].
 * 3) Only as [tɬ].
 * 4) Allophone of [l].

Vowels

 * 1) [ɪ] is realised as [i] before nasal consonants.
 * 2) [ʊ] is realised as [u] before nasal consonants.
 * 3) [ə] is an unstressed allophone of [a], does not occur before nasal consonants.
 * 4) [ɑ] is a stressed allophone of [a], does not occur before nasal consonants.
 * 5) Vowels can be lengthened when being stressed.

Phonotactics
There is only one common diphthongue: , which is realised as [ɪ̯a] or [ɪ̯ɛ] (before nasal consonants).

Consonant clusters never take up more than one consonant: CV(C), except for -nt and tl-.

, , , <ŋ> and  never occur word initially.

Dialects
There are several dialects which can be grouped into three branches. Typically every village has (or had) its own dialect. Below is a list of all dialects which were still spoken in the twentieth century. Behind the dialect there is the number of native speakers. A dagger (†) marks that the dialect is extinct.
 * Polar Yinuqat (features: voicing of v and g, pronouncing r as ʁ, devoicing of m, n and l)
 * East Yinuqat (features: aspiration of k, q, p, palatalisation)
 * Arvikunan dialect †
 * Negianan dialect †
 * Qarenan dialect †
 * North Yinuqat (features: bilabial consonants become labiodental, ŋ is pronounced as n̥)
 * Puyeyusan dialect †
 * Inland Yinuqat (features: common cluster -net is being pronounced as -nt, common cluster e- is being replaced by a short glottal stop, devoicing of v and g, ŋ has changed to n, except word final)
 * Central Yinuqat (features: l̥ is always accompanied by t, ia may be pronounced as ie)
 * Arviran dialect (±230 speakers)
 * Qamtakaman dialect (±20 speakers)
 * Qanantan dialect (3 speakers)
 * Qaŋavan dialect (±160 speakers)
 * Siliaqugrenan dialect (16 speakers)
 * Standard Yinuqat (Yuqarvites, originally spoken in Kapaqan, ±7000 speakers)
 * Yubetan dialect (unknown)
 * South Yinuqat (features: absence of different realisation of vowels before nasal sounds, ŋ is always pronounced as n, q is pronounced as h, g is pronounced as χ)
 * Imirgag dialect (±400 speakers)
 * Kamantun dialect †
 * Qankaman dialect (47 speakers)
 * Qivetan dialect †
 * West Yinuqat (features: palatalisation, glottal stop is being avoided, therefore allowing x, m, ŋ and v word initially)
 * Sakalman dialect (±5 speakers)
 * Satorfeman dialect †
 * Yalka dialect (28 speakers)

Orthography
The Yinuqat language uses an orthography based on the Latin alphabet with the extra letter "ŋ".

Adjectives
Most adjectives end on -v and they are regular. "qativ" means white. To indicate masculine forms one can use -(g)i and to indicate feminine forms -(g)u.

Irregular is f.e. "sen" (abandoned).

Nouns
Practically all nouns can be divided into two groups: ending on a vowel and ending on a consonant. A few nouns show somekind of an umlaut shift in the plural (and more rarely also the dual), f.e. anunt (man) -> anintet (men) and nukaq (brother) -> nikeqet (brothers).

Ending on a vowel: "qikmi" means wolf:

Ending on a consonant: "arvir" means fox:

Most nouns are treated as being neuter. Only nouns related to people (man, woman, sister, etc.), activities typically attributed to a specific gender (hunting, fishing) and animals/trees (bear, wolf, dog, oak) can be masculine or feminine.

A rather common suffix is -ka, which is used to indicate "a group of something", f.e.: napar (tree) -> naparka (a group of trees; a forest). Another common one is -(e)s, which defines nouns, f.e. pitlun (a car) -> pitlunes (the car).

Postpositions
Most postpositions are actually suffixes. For example "inlu" (house) -> "inlusatlas" (in the house): inlu- (house) + -satl- (postpositional case) + -a (in) + -s (definitive). Some postpositions however do show some number agreement. They are left overs of the older case system. The dual is constructed by using the plural form and replacing the plural marker -t- with the dual marker -k-. The dual forms are: arvirkianit, arvirkiani, arviriavkut, arvirkianut, arvirkianik and qikimiknit, qikmikni, qikmivkut, qikmiknut, qikmiknik. (originally the plural forms were "qikimitnit" and so on).

Pronouns
Personal pronouns are very rare in Yinuqat, but they exist. They are only used to emphasize something.

Possessive pronouns are suffixes that are added to the noun, f.e. inlusatla (in a house) -> inlusatlana (in my house) and arvirektut (like the two foxes) -> arvirektutinik (like the two foxes which are of you two). There are nine possessive pronouns. Words ending on -nt have the -nt dropped sometimes.

(demonstrative pronoun)

Verbs
Verbs are highly inflected in the Yinuqat language. The verb qur- means to drink. Below are the normal present, past and future tenses (indicative first, then interrogative). Masculine forms are created by adding i(s)-, feminine by adding u(s)-. Note the umlaut change in the future tense.

The gerund is constructed by adding -iatlun (quriatlun), the present particle by adding -itiv (quritiv) and the past particle by adding -tutitiv (qurtutitiv). Sometimes an umlaut form is used, though this is very rare, f.e. yit- (to wash): yetiatlun, yetitiv and yetutitiv.

The imperative forms are: qur (drink!), qurik (you two, drink!), qurit (you all, drink!), uqurit (women, drink!) and so on. The conditional mood is constructed by adding -in to the past tense, though it's actually a mixture between the past and future tense, it also keeps the umlaut: qirtitkiqeten (we should drink).

Other forms: Reflexive forms are constructed by adding -(a)n, f.e.: yitkuq (I wash something) -> yitkuqan (I wash myself) and yitva? (does he wash something?) -> yitvan? (does he wash himself?). The passive forms are constructed by adding qia(q)-. If something is evident, one can place the -ikti- marker between the stem and all other suffixes. A reason/cause is indicated by adding -us- (or -uv-), f.e.: qurtuq (he drinks) -> qurustuq (because he drinks) and qursuq (you drink) -> quruvsuq (because you drink). Optional markers are: -sup- (wish/hope/desire), -pat- (or -pav-; probability), -taq- (emotional) and -paq- (possibility).

Some verbs are irregular, like the verb m-/yu- (to be): yuq (I am), qumek (we two were), mitit (they are) etc.

Ergativity
(nominative-accusative constructions)

Dictionary
/Dictionary