Alyutor or Alutor is a language of Russia that belongs to the Chukotkan branch of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages, by the Alyutors. It is moribund, as only 25 speakers were reported in the 2010 Russian census.

Sociolinguistic situation

The Alutor are the indigenous inhabitants of the northern part of the Kamchatka Peninsula. The language is unwritten and moribund; in the 1970s residents of the chief Alutor village of Vyvenka under the age of 25 did not know the language. In recent years the Vyvenka village school has started teaching the language. Until 1958 the language was considered the "village" (settled) dialect of the Koryak language, but it is not intelligible with traditionally nomadic varieties of Koryak. The autonym means "villager".

Phonology

Vowels

Alyutor has six vowels, five of which may be long or short. The schwa cannot be long.

Consonants

There are 18 consonants in Alyutor.

Stress

Stress generally falls on the second syllable of polysyllabic words, and on the first syllable of disyllabic words, e.g.: An open syllable containing schwa cannot be stressed. As a consequence, if a disyllabic term begins with such a syllable, the stress is shifted to the last syllable and thereafter a new, epenthetic syllable is added at the end, e.g.: The final syllable of a word is never stressed.

Syllable structure

All Alyutor syllables begin with a single consonant. If the vowel is short, including a schwa, they may also close with a single consonant. Consonant clusters are not permitted in the word initial or word final positions. The schwa is used to break up disallowed clusters. Examples are 'to work', 'eagle', 'parka'. Alyutor word boundaries always coincide with syllable boundaries.

Orthography

The Alutor language does not have an official orthography, but the newspaper Aborigen Kamchatki uses the following orthography:

Typology

Alutor is a polysynthetic language. ɣəmmə t-ə-plak+tavamjat-ə-tkən I.ABS 1SG.S-E-boot+crumple-E-IMPERF 'I soften boots ' The morphology is agglutinative, with extensive prefixes and suffixes. qəlʲippə tətu-kki ɣeqə⟩masla⟨ta n-ə-mal-qin. bread+NOM+SG eat.with.something-CVB ASSOC⟩butter⟨ASSOC good 'Bread (eaten) with butter is excellent.' The argument structure is ergative. ən-an(nə) ɣəmmə ina-ɣal-i. he-ERG me+ABS 1SG.P-walk.past-3SG.A 'He walked past me.' The word order is variable, and it is difficult to say which typology is basic. The verb-absolutive orders AVO and VAO are perhaps most common. tita·qa qutkinʲnʲaqu-nak maŋ.ki·ʔana ɣa⟩laʔu⟨lin ʔənnə-ʔən. once (name)-ERG+SG somewhere RES⟩see⟨RES+3SG.P fish-ABS+SG 'Once Qutkinnyaqu saw a fish somewhere.' ɣa⟩nvə⟨lin qutkinʲnʲaqu-nak təlɣə-lŋən ŋan.tiŋ. RES⟩poke⟨RES+3SG.P (name)-ERG+SG finger-ABS+SG there 'Qutkinnyaqu stuck his finger there.'

Morphology

Alyutor has the following parts of speech: nouns, adjectives, numerals, pronouns, verbs, participles, adverbs, postpositions, conjunctions, and particles.

Nouns

Nouns are inflected for number, case, definiteness, and grammatical person. There are three grammatical numbers: singular, dual and plural. There are eleven cases: absolutive, ergative, locative, dative, lative, prolative, contractive, causative, equative, comitative, and associative. Number and case are expressed using a single affix. A suffix is used for all cases except the comitative and associative, which are expressed using circumfixes. There are two declensions, taught as three noun classes. The first class are nonhuman nouns of the first declension. Number is only distinguished in the absolutive case, though verbal agreement may distinguish number when these nouns are in the ergative. The second class are proper names and kin terms for elders. They are second declension, and distinguish number in the ergative, locative, and lative cases, as well as the absolutive. The third class are the other human nouns; they may be either first or second declension.

Case roles

ənnu ɣilŋatə-tkən ujatiki-k. he-ABS.SG drive-IMPERF sledge-LOC 'he drove away the sledge.'

Grammatical person

Grammatical first and second person suffixes on nouns are used to equate a noun with participants in the discourse. They only appear in the absolutive, with an intervening j on nouns ending in a vowel and an i on nouns ending in a consonant.

Numerals

Alyutor has simple numerals for the numbers one to five, ten, and twenty. All other numbers are compounds based on these numerals.

Verbs

There are finite (conjugated) and non-finite verbs. There are several conjugations.

Polypersonal conjugation

Finite verbs agree in person and number with their nuclear arguments; agreement is through both prefixes and suffixes. Transitive verbs agree with both arguments (ergative and absolutive), whereas intransitive verbs agree with their sole (absolutive) argument. Verbs distinguish two aspects, perfective, the bare stem, and imperfective, using the suffix -tkə / -tkəni. There are five moods, indicative, imperative, optative, potential (marked by the circumfix ta…(ŋ)), and conjunctive (prefix ʔ-/a-).

Monopersonal conjugation

Monopersonal verbs include two conjugations, one with the third-person singular in ɣa-...-lin, and the other in n-...-qin.

Impersonal conjugation

For impersonal forms of conjugation include verbal predicate (formed with the circumfix a...ka) and imperative (formed by circumfix ɣa...a/ta). Non-finite forms Impersonal forms include the verbal predicate with the circumfix a…ka, and the imperative in ɣa…a/ta.

Non-finite forms

These include the infinitive, supine, gerunds, and participles.