The peoples living throughout Russia are incredibly diverse and colorful. One of them - the Chukchi - is doubly interesting. These are people living in a harsh climate in the north of the country, having their own special way of life and language. And it is about their official language that you will learn from this article.
Territory
Chukotka, or rather, the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug is a subject of the Russian Federation, and it is located in the Far Eastern Federal District. This is a fairly vast and closed territory in the northernmost point of the country, it is impossible to get there just like that: the traveler will need to obtain a special permit to enter the territory of Chukotka. In total, about 50,000 people live on the territory of this subject, and most of them speak the Chukchi language.
Language of the North
The Chukchi language is spoken not only in the Autonomous Okrug, but also in Magadan, Kamchatka and Yakutia. According to the latest census, about 16,000 people called themselves Chukchi, half of them consider Chukchi their native language, anda small part of the Chukchi speak the language of their people, but do not consider it their native language.
So, we can say that the Chukchi language is one of the main languages of the peoples of the north of Russia. It is spoken by the same textbook Chukchi who lead a closed mono-ethnic life and are engaged in reindeer herding. In local schools, this language is taught as a subject, while the instruction itself is conducted in Russian, in fact, like all office work in the district.
History of the Chukchi language and its development
The Russian ethnographer Vladimir Germanovich Bogoraz was once engaged in an in-depth study of the Chukchi language. His work is considered the most extensive among the rest: Bogoraz published a dictionary of the Chukchi language, compiled a grammar, diligently studied Chukchi folklore. However, this is not his only work, because Vladimir Germanovich was generally engaged in the study of the languages of the northern peoples of Russia.
In general, the first studies of the Chukchi language began long before the first works were published by Bogoraz. Back in the 17th century, when Russian pioneers began to explore the tundra and interact with the indigenous population of this territory. After the establishment of trade relations with the Chukchi, the gradual introduction of this people into the sphere of activity of the state administration of Russia began to take place. By the end of the 17th century, the first documents about Chukchi toponyms appeared. Even later, by the middle of the 19th century, active work was already underway to study the words of the Chukchi language, local folklore and ethnography, and similarities were revealedwith the Koryak language.
Thus, by the 30s of the last century, a literary language appeared, in which Chukchi poems and prose were published. The language continues to develop and live in the post-war period. At this time, an extensive activity of translators and editors is unfolding, helping the functioning of the language, improving its writing.
By the 90s, special manuals for learning the language of this remote northern region, textbooks for elementary, middle and high school students were created, books and classical literary works are being translated into the Chukchi language. Currently, he is taught at a number of higher educational institutions in Anadyr and Magadan at the faculties of the peoples of the Far North and Pedagogy.
About dialects of the Chukchi language
Interestingly, this language is practically the same in all regions of the Autonomous Okrug: although dialects exist, the difference between them is completely insignificant.
Officially allocate the eastern dialect, western and southern. The first of them is also called Uelen, and it formed the basis of the writing of the entire Chukchi language. The southern dialect has the second name "Kolyma". It is customary to refer to it a whole group of languages: Khatyr, Nunligran and Enmylin. It is the southern dialects that are closest to the Koryak and Kerek languages in morphology and phonetics.
Also, dialects can be distinguished in each dialect. In general, all Chukchi are fluent in the literary Chukchi language, regardless of their place of residence.
OhChukchi script
The official writing of the Chukchi language was formed only in the early 30s of the last century, where the Latin alphabet was taken as the basis. By the end of the decade, the Latin alphabet was replaced by the Cyrillic alphabet without any changes and additions, but the Latin alphabet still "lived" in the language for some time. Some time later, already in the 50s, the Cyrillic alphabet of the Chukchi language was replenished with new characters:
- Ӄ - denotes a uvular consonant sound, which is formed by connecting the back of the tongue with the palate.
- Ӈ is the so-called posterior lingual sonant, which is formed by raising the back of the tongue to the posterior palate (to its soft part). This sound is similar to the combination of the sounds "ng" (by the way, this sound was designated in the Chukchi alphabet earlier).
Language and gender
There is one interesting feature in the Chukchi language, namely gender. Women and men here speak differently, since for women there is a certain taboo on pronunciation of the names of relatives by husband. There are also differences in the pronunciation of some words in the Chukchi language:
- sounds "r" or "rk", which can be pronounced by men, women change to "ts" or "tss". For example, the word "walrus" in the masculine version sounds "ryrki", and in the female version - tsitsy";
- instead of the masculine "ch", women also pronounce "c".
Thus, in Chukchi you canhighlight two main dialects - this is male and female.
Other linguistic characteristics
Chukotka is an agglutinative language, and words here are formed using suffixes and prefixes. There are two forms of number (singular and plural), and nouns are declined according to the principle "name of a person" and "name of a non-person".
A verb in the Chukchi language is conjugated in two ways: subject conjugation and subject-object conjugation. Also, the Chukchi verb has three moods - subjunctive, imperative and indicative.
Words in a sentence can be placed relatively freely, there is no strict order here.
Chukotka today
Today, the native language of all Chukchi lives mainly as a way to express themselves in everyday communication. Most often, it is the older generation that speaks it, the younger one maintains knowledge of the language not only through the school curriculum, but also through communication with older family members (from 40 years old and more). Chukchi is also widely spoken among people engaged in traditional crafts (reindeer breeding, leather dressing, fishing, hunting).
Chukotka is widely used in the villages and villages of this Autonomous Okrug, but urban residents have not stopped using it. It is spoken in narrow professional circles, for example, in schools, universities, administration, as well as in the media. The language lives actively among agricultural workers. Phrasebooks of the Chukchi language are published, which are activelyused by both local residents and people who arrived in Chukotka on business issues.
Since the integration with the Russian language among the Chukchi occurred much later than among other northern peoples of Russia, their language has survived quite well and continues to live. Plus, a huge role here is played by a considerable population and the closeness of the territory. Modern Chukchi speak Russian perfectly, for many of them it is the main language of communication, but they do not forget their roots, keep the culture of the people, and with it their own language.
