Chukotkan (Chukotian, Chukotic) is a

dialect cluster A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated vari ...

that forms one branch of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan

language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The term "family" reflects the tree model of language origination in his ...

. It is spoken in two

autonomous regions An autonomous administrative division (also referred to as an autonomous area, entity, unit, region, subdivision, or territory) is a subnational administrative division or internal territory of a sovereign state that has a degree of autonomy— ...

at the extreme northeast of

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-eigh ...

, bounded on the east by the Pacific and on the north by the Arctic. The term Luorawetlan (Luoravetlan), used for Chukchi in the 1930s, is actually the ethnonym of both the Chukchi and Koryak.

Varieties

* Chukchi, spoken mostly within

Chukotka Autonomous Okrug Chukotka (russian: Чуко́тка), officially the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug,, ''Čukotkakèn avtonomnykèn okrug'', is the easternmost federal subject of Russia. It is an autonomous okrug situated in the Russian Far East, and shares a bo ...

. * Koryak, also called Nymylan, spoken in Koryak Okrug of

Kamchatka Krai Kamchatka Krai ( rus, Камча́тский край, r=Kamchatsky kray, p=kɐmˈtɕatskʲɪj kraj) is a federal subject of Russia (a krai), situated in the Russian Far East, and is administratively part of the Far Eastern Federal District. ...

. The main dialect is known as Chavchuven Koryak. *

Alyutor The Alyutors (russian: Алюторцы; self designation: Алутальу, or Alutal'u) are an ethnic group (formerly classified as a subgroup of Koryaks) who lived on the Kamchatka Peninsula and Chukchi Peninsula of the Russian Far East. Tod ...

(Alutor, Aliutor), also spoken in Koryakia. According to

Michael Fortescue Michael David Fortescue (born 8 August 1946) is a British-born linguist specializing in Arctic and native North American languages, including Kalaallisut, Inuktun, Chukchi and Nitinaht. He gained his PhD in Linguistics from the University of ...

(2005), Palana Koryak and Alutor should be considered dialects of a single language. * Kerek, spoken along the southern coast of Chukotka. In 1997 two elderly speakers remained, but now the language is extinct, with the ethnic group assimilated into the Chukchi (Fortescue 2005: 1). Traditionally, Chukotkan was considered two languages, Chukchi and Koryak, due to a sharp ethnic division between the Chukchi and Koryak people. However, the Kerek and Alyutor dialects, spoken by ethnic Chukchi and Koryak, are as different from those varieties as they are from each other. Thus Chukotkan is currently generally classified as four languages, but it could as easily be considered one language with significant dialectal variation.

Bibliography

* Comrie, Bernard. 1981, ''The Languages of the Soviet Union''. Cambridge University Press. * Fortescue, Michael. 1998. ''Language Relations Across Bering Strait''. London: Cassell & Co. * Fortescue, Michael. 2005. ''Comparative Chukotko–Kamchatkan Dictionary''. ''Trends in Linguistics'' 23. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. {{Paleosiberian languages Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages