Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages

Chukotko-Kamchatkan
Chukchi–Kamchatkan, Luorawetlan
Geographic
distribution
Russian Far East
Linguistic classificationOne of the world's primary language families
Proto-languageProto-Chukotko-Kamchatkan
Subdivisions
Glottologchuk1271
The distribution of Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages (red) in the 17th century (hatching, approximate) and at the end of the 20th century (solid).

The Chukotko-Kamchatkan or Chukchi–Kamchatkan languages are a language family of extreme northeastern Siberia. Its speakers traditionally were indigenous hunter-gatherers and reindeer-herders. Chukotko-Kamchatkan is endangered. The Kamchatkan branch is moribund, represented only by Western Itelmen, with only 4 or 5 elderly speakers left. The Chukotkan branch had close to 7,000 speakers left (as of 2010, the majority being speakers of Chukchi), with a reported total ethnic population of 25,000.[1]

The language family tree of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages.

While the family is sometimes grouped typologically and geographically as Paleosiberian, no external genetic relationship has been widely accepted as proven. The most popular such proposals have been for links with Eskimo–Aleut, either alone or in the context of a wider grouping.


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