The Yup'ik Thread [Lesson Two, slowly but surely]

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The Yup'ik Thread [Lesson Two, slowly but surely]

Post by Lethe »

Yes, I realize it's been too long in the coming, and it'll probably grow slowly as well. Small talk aside, I'll toss out some basic stuff to keep you occupied for the time being.

Briefly: The Yu'pik language as taught here (as best as possible) is spoken in south-western Alaska, in the areas of Bristol Bay and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Approximately 20,000 as of 1995 speak the language, with 10,500 speaking the language as their only or first.

As I don't speak the language myself, and am only a 14-year-old kid with a grammar and a want to teach, if I happen to make up a sentence I can't guarantee its accuracy. To err on the safe side, the majority will be straight out of the book, paraphrasing where needed.

Lesson 1/2: Yup'ik Orthography and Phonology

I'm not going to present the orthography and phonology in table form as presented in the book - I believe that it's in the Wiki if you're interested. Since each letter is a practical one-to-one correspondence anyways, I'll just list it as... well, a list. :mrgreen:

p /p/
t /t/
c /ts, tS/
k /k/
q /q/
v /v/
l /l/ (this is probably more of a /K\/ than anything else)
s /z/
y /j/
g /G/
ug /G_w/
r /R\/
ur /R\_w/
w /W/
vv /f/
ll /K/
ss /s/
gg /x/
rr /X/
urr /X_w/
m /m/
n /n/
ng /N/
m` /m_0/
n` /n_0/
ng` /N_0/

i /i/
u /u/
e /@, 1/
a /a/

There aren't many notable things about the orthography, except the doubling of consonants to indicate voicelessness. Please note, however, that in writing /ug/, /ur/, and /urr/ have ligature marks over the first two letters. Note also that the ` over /m`/, /n`/ and /ng`/ are acute accents in writing which indicate voicelessness (for the curious, nasals are not doubled in writing due to the existence of a rule which permits two nasals differing only in the feature of voicing to appear adjacent to one another).

Yep, that's your first half-lesson. The other half will feature the dreaded apostrophe and introduce the rules of (de-)voicing, rhythmic length, gemination, and how to form the absolutive form of a word from its stem. Nothing to be biting your nails about, but it's going to be there. <3

EDIT: Minor Sampa fix.
Last edited by Lethe on Sat Apr 30, 2005 6:12 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Post by Whimemsz »

Excellent.

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Post by Matt »

Awesome! Phonemic voiceless nasals! :D
Kuku-kuku kaki kakak kakekku kaku kaku.
'the toenails of my grandfather's elder brother are stiff'

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Post by Echobeats »

You rock. I can't wait for the next instalment.

Incidentally, it'gairtua.

Tim.
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Post by Trebor »

Echobeats wrote:You rock. I can't wait for the next instalment.
what he said. :D the orthography is kinda weird, though...
Incidentally, it'gairtua.
being a canuck, shouldnt i be saying that? (you brits are blessed with lots of rain; i dont see why would you say that. :mrgreen:)

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Post by Echobeats »

Trebor wrote:
Echobeats wrote:Incidentally, it'gairtua.
being a canuck, shouldnt i be saying that? (you brits are blessed with lots of rain; i dont see why would you say that. :mrgreen:)
I said it because I had cold feet at the time (well, I actually said it because it's the only Yup'ik word I know, but that was also true!). We might not have as much snow as you, but it can still be cold (by our standards)!

Yours, Tim.
[i]Linguistics will become a science when linguists begin standing on one another's shoulders instead of on one another's toes.[/i]
—Stephen R. Anderson

[i]Málin eru höfuðeinkenni þjóðanna.[/i]
—Séra Tómas Sæmundsson

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Post by gach »

Most wonderful. Good that there are people to keep us in interesting langs. :D

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Post by Nuntar »

gach wrote:Most wonderful. Good that there are people to keep us in interesting langs. :D
Indeed, very wonderful. Lethe, you rock more than any words could possibly express.
[quote="Amaya"]Every now and then, the world tries to say something. I'm never quite sure whether or not to listen to it at times like that.[/quote]

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Post by Echobeats »

Ahribar wrote:Indeed, very wonderful. Lethe, you rock more than any words could possibly express.
Except for extremely long Yup'ik words :mrgreen:.
[i]Linguistics will become a science when linguists begin standing on one another's shoulders instead of on one another's toes.[/i]
—Stephen R. Anderson

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Post by Nuntarin »

Even those.
[quote]Let us not look too closely at ourselves to see whether or not we have, in our untime, been successful. Turn your face from yourself; it is too late for that. I turn my face from you and I; let us look instead at how the ocean purrs.[/quote]

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Post by Lethe »

Here you go.

Lesson One: The Apostrophe Marking Gemination; Automatic Devoicing; Rhythmic Lengthening; Double Vowel Length with Automatic Gemination and Rhythmic Length; Review of Uses for the Apostrophe; Automatic Gemination Due to ?hatted e?; and Enclitics. (Sorry - absolutives and simple verbs will have to wait until the next installment due to time constraints [read: bedtime].)

1. The Apostrophe Marking Gemination

The apostrophe in Yup?ik orthography has about five or six uses, but the most common is indicating gemination. Since doubling of letters is already taken (indicating voiceless frictives), the consonant to be geminated has an apostrophe written after it. Compare the word Yup?ik [jup:ik] ?Yup?ik? with pupik [pu.pik] ?skin sore?.

2. Automatic Devoicing

In Yup?ik, consonant clusters rarely have a combination of unvoiced and voiced consonants. There are four main rules outlining automatic devoicing:

1. A fricative written next to a stop is written single (i.e. in its voiced form) and pronounced voiceless. (For example, compare qilugaa [qi.lu.Ga:] ?it ?s barking at her? with qilugtuq [qi.lux.tuq] ?it?s barking? and ekvik [@k.fik] ?riverbank?.)

2. A fricative following a voiceless fricative is written single and pronounced voiceless. (Compare asriq [az.Riq] ?naughty child? with issran [is.Xan] ?grass tote bag? and inarrvik [i.naX.fik] ?sleeping bag?.)

3. Initial <s> and final <r> are written single but pronounced voiceless. (as in necuar [n@.tSu.aX] ?little house? and suugiuq [su:.Gi.uq] ?she?s scrubbing the floor? with luusitaq [lu:.zi.taq] ?horse?)

4. A nasal following a stop or voiceless fricative is written without an accent mark but pronounced voiceless.

When consonant clusters do vary in voicing, the constituents are separated by an apostrophe to indicate this. For example, compare tep?lek [t@p.l@k] ?one having an odor? with tepluni [t@p.Ku.ni] and at?nguuq [at.Nu:q] ?he?s getting a name? with cavutnguuq [tSa.vut.N_0u:q] ?it?s an oar?.

3. (Syllabification and) Rhythmic Lengthening of Vowels

Yup?ik syllables have a nucleus consisting of one or two like or unlike vowels, always begin with a consonant (excepting word-initial syllables, which may begin with a vowel), and may optionally end in a consonant. Thus, a syllable may take the shapes CV, CVV, CVC, or CVVC anyplace in a word and the shapes V, VV, VC, or VVC at the beginning of a word only. Syllable division points fall first between adjacent consonants (C/C) and second between adjacent vowels and consonants (V/C).

For example, the word arnaq [aR.naq] ?woman? is divided ar/naq; nuna [nu.na] ?land? is divided nu/na; and talliq [ta.Kiq] ?arm? is divided ta/lliq (NOT tal/liq ? remember, doubled consonants are unvoiced fricatives and not geminates!). Words with media or final syllables containing two vowels as their nuclei are syllabified thus: ukatiini [u.ka.ti:.ni] u/ka/tii/ni ?on this side of it?; ikamrapialiciqnilua [i.kam.Ra.pia.li.ciq.ni.lua] i/kam/ra/pia/li/ciq/ni/lua ?saying that I will make an authentic sled?. Words with a (virtually) silent initial e count that as a syllable, even if it?s not pronounced ? see elituq [li:.tuq] e/li/tuq ?he is learning? and elaturraq [la:.tu.Xaq] e/la/tu/rraq ?enclosed porch?.

Rhythmic lengthening of vowels occurs in what the grammar aptly terms simple open syllables (those of CV or V [word-initial only] form). (It says that the ?simple? in the term refers to the single-vowel nucleus, and the ?open? because they don?t end in a consonant.) Rhythmical lengthening isn?t explicitly indicated orthographically. About all you need to know pronunciation-wise is that rhythmically lengthened syllables are pronounced a bit longer and louder than adjoining syllables.

The rule for rhythmic lengthening is:

In a sequence of simple open syllables, every second one receives lengthening unless it ends the word.

Given nalluyagucaqunaku ?don?t forget it?, you would syllabify it na/llu/ya/gu/ca/qu/na/ku, and pronounce it [na.Ku:.ja.Gu:.tSa.qu:.na.ku] (remembering that rhythmic lengthening never applies to the last syllable of a word). Pay attention to breaks in the pattern, though: observe qayalitaraqama [qa.ja:.li.ta:.Ra.qa:.ma] ?whenever I?m going to make a kayak?; angyalitaraqama [aN.ja.li:.ta.Ra:.qa.ma] ?whenever I?m going to make a boat?; and qayaliciqngatuten [qa.ja:.li.tSiq.N_0a.tu:.t@n] ?it seems like you will make a kayak?.

4. Double Vowel Length with Automatic Gemination and Rhythmic Length

Consider the words tekituq [t@.ki:.tuq] ?he came? and tekiituq [t@k.ki:.tuq] ?she doesn?t have earwax?. Both [i:]s are pronounced the exact same ? the only difference between the two words, in fact, is the geminate [k] in the second. Quoth the book: ?[It may seem perverse to] ?show a difference in consonant length (gemination) by writing a difference in vowel length [?].?Although it?s not explicitly stated in the book, the rule for automatic gemination seems to be:

Consonants are automatically geminated before a cluster of like or unlike vowels.

In the rare case that a consonant cluster doesn?t cause gemination of the preceding consonant, an apostrophe is written separating the two vowels to indicate this. See pika?antuq [pi.ka:n.tuq] and apa?urluq [a.pauR.luq]. (NB: Apparently, it doesn?t matter if the vowel cluster is in an open or closed syllable ? it will still cause gemination unless marked as an exception by the dreaded apostrophe.)

5. Review of Uses for the Apostrophe

1. between consonants, separating [n] from [g] to avoid confusion (compare tan?gurraq [tan.Gu.Xaq] ?boy? with tang! [taN] ?look!; over there!?), or to separate a voiced fricative or nasal from a stop or voiceless consonant which otherwise would devoice it
2. between a consonant and a vowel to indicate gemination
3. between two vowels to indicate that a preceding consonant is not geminated
4. at the end of a word in which a segment has been optionally deleted (in qaill? [qaiK], a shortened form of qaillun [qai.Kun] ?how??)
5. in transcribing speech in which a final stop [k] or [q] is spirantized to [G] or [R] when followed by a vowel-initial word (arnar? una [aR.naR.u.na] ?this woman?, arnag? ukuk [aR.naG.u.kuk] ?these women?)

6. Automatic Gemination Due to Retention of ?hatted e?

I?ve diverged from the book in that in transcribing this chapter I?ve not marked rhythmically lengthened vowels with ?hats? (circumflexes) over them. However, to avoid making up a new term, the term ?hatted e? refers to an e [@] in rhythmically lengthened position (although the vowel e [@] itself is never pronounced lengthened).

As we shall see, a hatted e is generally deleted in constructing a word. However, if a hatted e separates two identical or nearly identical consonants, it is retained and the second of the two consonants is geminated (tumemi [tu.m@m:i] ?in the footprint?). This is in line with the observation that e cannot be doubled; in general, e doesn?t lengthen, either rhythmically or by being doubled.

7. Enclitics

Enclitics are particles which attach to the end of a word. They don?t follow normal pattern of stress or rhythm, and I?ll have to cover that more in-depth later, when I?ve got time. Enclitics are written with an equals sign separating them from the word (as on nuna=qaa [nu.naq:a:] ?the land? (yes/no question)? and kuigpagmi=llu=gguq [kuix.paG.mi:.Ku.xuq] 'and in the big river, they say'), and are always written with voiceless initial fricatives (doubled letters instead of single).

8. Hypenation in English Words

A hyphen is used to separate an English word with English spelling from a Yup?ik suffix: call-aqsaituq [ka.laq.sai.tuq] ?she hasn?t called yet?, vote-artuq [vo.taX.tuq] ?she?s voting?.

I'll try not to take six or seven weeks to post the next part, in all seriousness. Do enjoy! <3

Oh, and if you find an error in the SAMPA or you need something clarified, tell me and I'll attempt to rectify the problem. :D
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Post by gach »

I looked at the vowel lengthening rules and noticed how well your examples show how a closed syllable blocks the lengthening and begins a whole new "lengthenable" sequense. However what didn't come clear was that do syllables with inherently long vowels act as such blocks as well or what? Another thing I'm interested to know is that does the lengthening rule have anything in common with the stressing pattern?

EDIT: [continues the original post, I had to leave it half way so that I wouldn't have been late from my English oral test]

What I mean with the connection to the stress is that are the lengthened syllables always the stressed ones or are they perhaps foot final and preciding a stressed syllable? At lest the lengthening of /@/ by geminating the following consonant (essentially making the syllable closed and thus long) would suit to that.

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Post by Lethe »

gach wrote:However what didn't come clear was that do syllables with inherently long vowels act as such blocks as well or what?
Yes, they do; I think this is because long vowels are treated as vowel clusters/geminates (if that makes any sense). Basically, anything that's not a CV syllable (consonant followed by any short vowel that isn't /@/) breaks the pattern.
gach also wrote:Another thing I'm interested to know is that does the lengthening rule have anything in common with the stressing pattern? What I mean with the connection to the stress is that are the lengthened syllables always the stressed ones or are they perhaps foot final and preciding a stressed syllable?
Reading the supplement to the first chapter which deals with rhythm and prosody (and assuming I understood the last option to your last question *ashamed*), I think the first is the case. Lengthened syllables are always stressed. However - however - a syllable can be stressed without being open (and for that matter, lengthened). According to the chapter supplement on prosody, if you attack the prosody problem from the viewpoint of vowels rather than syllables, every second vowel is stressed (regardless of the type of syllable that vowel is the nucleus of, and regardless of whether the vowel-nucleus is geminate or a cluster of vowels; however, if the syllable that that vowel belongs to is the second in a series CV/CV, it will be lengthened since it's in position for rhythmic lengthening).

I'm unsure if this answers the question - if that's the case, please tell me. ^^; I should probably post the rest of the text of the supplement, too.

Bedtime!
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Post by gach »

Lethe wrote:I'm unsure if this answers the question - if that's the case, please tell me. ^^; I should probably post the rest of the text of the supplement, too.
Well a little more exact definition would be nice if possible. Your post seems also to conflict with itself a bit. What I mean is that first you state that lengthened syllables are always stressed. On the other hand you say that every other syllable is stressed. If I've understood the lengthening system correctly there can, however, be instances where the distance of two lengthened syllables is something else than one syllable in the middle. In that case we end up in a situation where either not all stresses fall onto lengthened syllables which are so not all stressed or the stresses aren't located on every other syllable. Now is it you who has done the error or have I missed something? If you don't find any ready answers from the book you could try to find some longer samples with marked lengthening and stress (if you possibly can) and post them here so we could try to find out something ourselves.

BTW if you are wondering what I meant with the foot finl lengthening: A foot is (as long as I undestand it) an element in a word with one single stressed dybbalme in it. It can for example mean that if every odd syllable in a word is stressed we can divide the word into two syllable foots with initial stress each. So if a lang has a fairly regular stress pattern the foot analysis is a simple way to analyse it. Now it happens that the last syllable in a foot gets lengthened. This has for example happened apparently in Proto Balto Finnic and is happening still in some of its dougter langs. I'm also using it in my conlang. The reason I took this as an example is that it was a possible reason for the lengthening.

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Post by chris_notts »

gach wrote: Well a little more exact definition would be nice if possible. Your post seems also to conflict with itself a bit. What I mean is that first you state that lengthened syllables are always stressed. On the other hand you say that every other syllable is stressed. If I've understood the lengthening system correctly there can, however, be instances where the distance of two lengthened syllables is something else than one syllable in the middle. In that case we end up in a situation where either not all stresses fall onto lengthened syllables which are so not all stressed or the stresses aren't located on every other syllable. Now is it you who has done the error or have I missed something? If you don't find any ready answers from the book you could try to find some longer samples with marked lengthening and stress (if you possibly can) and post them here so we could try to find out something ourselves.
I think she's saying that the lengthening is dependent on other factors as well.... all lengthened vowels are stressed but no all stressed vowels are lengthened if you see what I mean. There is no contradiction. ;) Not having read it all in detail I can't say, but perhaps the rule is something to do with codas or whether the onset is long or short as well as vowel stress?

EDIT: yes. Having looked at it, it seems to me that she's saying that stress is determined by right headed feet left to right with every head stressed, and stressed vowels in CV or V syllables are lengthened.
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Post by Nuntarin »

So, how does one say "Happy Birthday" in Yu'pik?
[quote]Let us not look too closely at ourselves to see whether or not we have, in our untime, been successful. Turn your face from yourself; it is too late for that. I turn my face from you and I; let us look instead at how the ocean purrs.[/quote]

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Post by Lethe »

Actually, that's got me stumped for the time being. :P Next time I check out the uber-dictionary from the library, I need to look that up. The lexicon in back of my grammar lists an emotional root 'happy' with no accompanying adjective or adverb (though were I not being lazy I'd probably find a way to compose them), and I (strangely) can't find any gloss for birth or being born.

However, quyana=qvaa=lli (thank you very much) for the happy birthday wish. :mrgreen: You and Alexa have both made my day.
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Post by Lethe »

Hurrah for Lethe being a lazy freshie! While I'm here, I might as well update these. The next lesson is fairly short and somewhat simple -

Lesson Two - The Present Intransitive Indcative and Forming the Verbal Stem; Velar Dropping; and Absolutive Nouns and Their Stems

Vocabulary

Particles

ii-i 'yes'
qaang / qang'a 'no'

akwaugaq 'yesterday'
unuamek 'today'

ataam 'again'
cakneq 'very much'
cali 'more, still'

Yugcetun 'in the Yup'ik language; like a Yup'ik'

Verbs

alinguq 'he is scared'
an'uq 'he is going out'
aquiguq 'he is playing'
assirtuq 'it is good'
aurruq 'he s crawling'
ayagtuq 'he is leving; he left'
caliuq 'he is working'
cenirtuq 'he is visiting'
cukauq 'it is slow'
elituq 'he is learning'
inartuq 'he is (in the act of) lying down; he lay down'
iqauq 'it is dirty'
iqvartuq 'he is picking berries'
itertuq 'he is coming in, entering'
kaigtuq 'he is hungry'
kuimartuq 'he is swimming'
kuuvviartuq 'he is drinking coffee'
naulluuguq 'he is sick'
ner'uq 'he is eating'
pissurtuq 'he is hunting'
qalartuq 'he is talking, speaking'
qavartuq 'he is sleeping'
qiaguq 'he is crying'
taiguq 'he is coming over (to the speaker); he came over'
taq'uq 'he s finishing, quitting; he quit'
tuquuq 'he is dying, dead'
yurartuq 'he is dancing Yup'ik-style'

~*~

Deriving Verb Stems

The boldface part of verbs in the vocab list is the actual base of the verb; to convert the citation form of a verb into its stem, simply remove the bolded part (adding e in certain cases).

Summarized in columnar form:

termnation of citation form > termination of stem

gtuq > g-
rtuq > r-
'uq > e-
Cuq > Ce-
VVguq > VV-
Vuq > V-

For example:

ayagtuq > ayag-
itertuq > iter- (itr-)
an'uq > an-
alinguq > alinge-
taiguq > tai-
tuquuq > tuqu-

Attaching the Present Intransitive Indicative to the Stem

This ending takes a few diferent forms depending on the termination of the base it's attached to.

1) If the base ends in g or r, the stem takes the ending -tuq.
2) If the base ends in e, the e is dropped and -uq is added. However, for 'short' (of the shape (C)VCe-) bases, the consonant before e is geminated.
3)-uq is added to stems ending in a single prime vowel; -guq is added to stems endng in two prime vowels.

In symbols, this ending is represented +'(g/t)uq. The plus indicates that base-fina consonants are retained, the apostrophe that base-final consonants of stems ending in short e are geminated, and the (g/t) that g and t are used between base and ending with certain base-terminations and not others. Although base-final e is dropped this isn't indicated because all suffixes which are vowel-intial (such as the one in question, which is basically uq) drop a base-final e.

Dual- and Plurality

The fnal consonant of +'(g/t)uq changes to k in the dual and t in the plural.

Duals wil be indicated with a subscipt two (or closest to that): ^2. Thus: caliuq 'he works', caliut 'they work', and caliuk 'they^2 work'.

Velar Dropping

The first person singular ending is +'(g/t)u:nga (for example caliunga 'I am working'). The colon before ng indicates that it wil be dropped when in constructing the word it falls between two single prime vowels. This process will crop up frequently later into the lessons.

Ataching +'(g/t)u:nga to the base cali- yields caliunga - since ng isn't flanked by single vowels, it isn't dropped; however, attaching this ending to nere- and inarte- gives first *ner'unga and *inartunga, then the correct forms nerua [n@R\:ua] and inartua as the conditions for velar dropping are met and the process applies.

(NB: If I recall correctly, velar dropping only applies to g, r, and ng, meaning that velars like k and q are not to be dropped in endings such as +'(g/t)ukuk.)

The Rest of the Present Intransitive Indicative Paradigm

The beginning of this ending (+'(g/t)u)is unchanging; the ending changes to indicate person.

To +'(g/t)u- you add

q for third singular
t for third plural
k for third dual

:nga for first singular
kut for first plural
kuk for first dual

ten for second singuar
ci for second plural
tek for second dual

Deriving Stems from Absolutive Nouns

Again summarized in columnar form:

termination of citation form > termination of base

k > g-
q > r-
Vn > Vte-
Cta > Cte-
i > i-
u > u-
a^e > e- (the e is a subscript in the book, merely there to indicate that the base terminates in e- instead of a-)
a > a-

For example:

kuik > kuig- 'river'
arnaq > arnar- 'woman'
angun > angute- 'man'
qimugta > qimugte- 'dog'
ui > ui- 'husband'
epu > epu- 'shaft'
neqa^e (otherwise written neqa) > neqe- 'fish'
nuna > nuna- 'land'

Nouns in their absolutive forms may serve as the subject of a verb in the third person.

~*~

That's all for today's leson - hopefully next should be a set of exercises for this lesson, then another lesson with more vocabulary, some basic verbal and nominal postbases, another process involvng hatted e (specifically the dropping of such), and the ablative-modalis case.

If you find any typos (there should be a whole bunch), don't hesitate to say something. This keyboard sucks. :mrgreen:
Make it a point to bother me about bringing back a Yup'ik thread so I won't let it die this time.

AND: If you have stairs in your house, let me know. (Three of you thus far!)

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dhok
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Post by dhok »

My aunt Linda, who lives in Alaska, speaks Yupik. I'd like to learn, but as an amerindian language it's probably really complicated.

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Radagast
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Post by Radagast »

Yupik is not a part of the socalled amerindian languages - which isnt a valid linguistic grouping anyhow. It is an Eskimo-aleutian language. And yes it is complicated but not more complicated than you can learn it just as you can learn any other language.
[i]D'abord on ne parla qu'en poésie ; on ne s'avisa de raisonner que long-temps après.[/i] J. J. Rousseau, Sur l'origine des langues. 1783

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dhok
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Post by dhok »

Radagast wrote:Yupik is not a part of the socalled amerindian languages - which isnt a valid linguistic grouping anyhow. It is an Eskimo-aleutian language. And yes it is complicated but not more complicated than you can learn it just as you can learn any other language.
Learn it just like any other language. Have you ever heard of Cree? Apparently it's so complicated that kids don't get the full hang of it until they're around 10.

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Post by Vijay »

dhok wrote:My aunt Linda, who lives in Alaska, speaks Yupik.
One of the professors in my alma mater is supposed to be the world's expert on Eskimo languages and used to work on Yupik.

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