Yinuqat

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	Stats Nouns 0% Verbs 0% Adjectives 0% Syntax 0% Words of 1500

Name: Yinuqat Type: ? Alignment: mainly ergative-absolutive Head Direction: Final Number of genders: 3 Declensions: Yes Conjugations: Yes Nouns declined according to Case Number Definitiveness Gender Verbs conjugated according to Voice Mood Person Number Tense Aspect

	Gender	Cases	Numbers	Tenses	Persons	Moods	Voices	Aspects
Verb	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Nouns	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Adjectives	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Numbers	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Participles	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Adverb	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Pronouns	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
Adpositions	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Article	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Particle	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No

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).

Phonology

Consonants

Place of articulation →	Labial		Coronal			Dorsal				Glottal
	Bi­la­bial	La­bio­dental	Den­tal	Al­veo­lar	Post­al­veo­lar	Pa­la­tal	Ve­lar	Uvu­lar
Manner of articulation ↓
Nasal	m		n				ŋ
Plosive	p		t				k	q		ʔ
Fricative	ɸ		(θ)1	s	(ʃ)1		x (ɣ)2	χ4		h
Approximant						j
Trill			r
Lateral Fricative			ɬ3
Lateral Approx­imant			l

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

Vowels

	Front	Near-front	Central	Near-back	Back
Close	(i)1				(u)2
Near-close		ɪ		ʊ
Mid			(ə)3
Open-mid	ɛ
Open	a				(ɑ)4

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: <ia>, 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-.

<e>, <g>, <m>, <ŋ> and <v> 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".

Character	IPA	Example	IPA	Translation
a	a	aleqa	ˈalɛqa	grandmother
e	ɛ	nena	ˈnɛna	song
g	x	panig	ˈpanɪx	daughter
i	ɪ	iqalug	ˈɪqalʊx	fish
k	k	kayak	ˈkajak	hunger
l	l	luna	ˈluna	earth
m	m	qemi	ˈqɛmɪ	mountain
n	n	naparka	ˈnaparka	forest
ŋ	ŋ	aleŋ	ˈalɛŋ	nothing
p	p	puyu	ˈpʊjʊ	smoke
q	q	qana	ˈqana	mushroom
r	r	riret	ˈrɪrɛt	tongue
s	s	sigsik	ˈsɪxsɪk	squirrel
t	t	taru	ˈtarʊ	human being
tl	tɬ	tlamlu	ˈtɬamlʊ	chin
v	ɸ	nuvia	ˈnʊɸɪ̯a	cloud
y	j	yukarvit	ˈjʊkarɸɪt	language

Basic Grammar

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.

number	ergative	absolutive	genitive	vocative	postpositional	equative	postpositional 2
singular	qativ	qatip	qatiq	qati	qatitl	qatitut	qatir
dual	qativik	qatipik	qatiqik	qatik	qatitlik	qatitutik	qatirik
plural	qativit	qatipit	qatiqit	qatit	qatitlit	qatitutit	qatirit

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

number	ergative	absolutive	genitive	vocative	postpositional	equative	postpositional 2
singular	sev	sep	seq	sen	senitl	sentut	ser
dual	sekev	sekep	sekeq	sek	senitlik	sentutik	serik
plural	setev	setep	seteq	set	senitlit	sentutit	serit

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:

number	ergative	absolutive	genitive	vocative	postpositional	equative
singular	qikmi	qikmip	qikmiq	qikmi	qikmisatl-	qikmitut
dual	qikmik	qikmikip	qikmikiq	qikmik	qikmikatl-	qikmiktut
plural	qikmit	qikmitip	qikmitiq	qikmit	qikmitatl-	qikmivtut

Ending on a consonant: "arvir" means fox:

number	ergative	absolutive	genitive	vocative	postpositional	equative
singular	arvir	arvirpa	arvirqa	arvira	arviriatl-	arvirtut
dual	arvirek	arvirpak	arvirqak	arvirek	arvirkiatl-	arvirektut
plural	arviret	arvirpat	arvirqat	arviret	arvirtiatl-	arvirevtut

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.

noun	from sg.	from pl.	inside sg.	inside pl.	through sg.	through pl.	towards sg.	towards pl.	with sg.	with pl.
arvir	arviriamit	arvirtianit	arviriami	arvirtiani	arviriakut	arviriatkut	arviriamut	arvirtianut	arviriamik	arvirtianik
qikmi	qikmimit	qikminit	qikmimi	qikmini	qikmikut	qikmitkut	qikmimut	qikminut	qikmimik	qikminik

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.

person	ergative	absolutive	genitive	vocative	postpositional	equative
1ps	ka	kap	kaq	ka	kiatl-	aktut
2ps	sa	sap	saq	sa	siatl-	astut
3ps	ta	tap	taq	ta	tiatl-	avtut
1pd	kak	kapik	kaqik	kak	kakiatl-	aktutik
2pd	sak	sapik	saqik	sak	sakiatl-	astutik
3pd	tak	tapik	taqik	tak	takiatl-	avtutik
1pp	kat	kapit	kaqit	kat	katiatl-	aktutit
2pp	sat	sapit	saqit	sat	satiatl-	astutit
3pp	tat	tapit	taqit	tat	tatiatl-	avtutit

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.

person	1ps	2ps	3ps	1pd	2pd	3pd	1pp	2pp	3pp
anunt	anuna	anuntin	anunan	anunak	anuntinik	anunanik	anunat	anuntinit	anunanit
arvir	arvirna	arvirin	arvirnan	arvirnak	arvirinik	arvirnanik	arvirnat	arvirinit	arvirnanit
qikmi	qikmina	qikmin	qikminan	qikminak	qikminik	qikminanik	qikminat	qikminit	qikminanit

(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.

tense/gender	1ps	2ps	3ps	1pd	2pd	3pd	1pp	2pp	3pp
present n.	qurkuq	qursuq	qurtuq	qurkuqik	qursuqik	qurtuqik	qurkuqit	qursuqit	qurtuqit
past n.	qurtutkuq	qurtutsuq	qurtuvtuq	qurtutkuqik	qurtutsuqik	qurtuvtuqik	qurtutkuqit	qurtutsuqit	qurtuvtuqit
future n.	qurkuqin	qursuqin	qurtuqin	qurkuqikin	qursuqikin	qurtuqikin	qirkiqeten	qirsiqeten	qirtiqeten
present n.	qurvuq?	qurvit?	qurva?	qurvuqik?	qurvitik?	qurvak?	qurvuqit?	qurvitit?	qurvat?
past n.	qurtetvuq?	qurtetvit?	qurtetva?	qurtetvuqik?	qurtetvitik?	qurtetvak?	qurtetvuqit?	qurtetvitit?	qurtetvat?
future n.	qurkuqin?	qursuqin?	qurtuqin?	qurkuqikin?	qursuqikin?	qurtuqikin?	qurkuqitin?	qursuqitin?	qurtuqitin?

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