Chaplino Eskimo

Sociolinguistic Data

Language Names

Chaplino Eskimo is a code name for one of the Eskimo languages of the Yupik group (Eskimo-Aleut family of languages). Other language names include Asian Eskimo language, Eskimo, Asian Eskimo, Yupik, Yuit; American researchers talk about (Central) Siberian Yupik. The name of Chaplino language can be misleading, since its former and current speakers inhabit not only Novoe Chaplino, but also other settlements, including the ones on St. Lawrence Island (USA). Asian Eskimo Language (AEL) is also not a good fit, since it includes not only Chaplino but also other Asian Eskimo languages, and excludes the language of. St Lawrence Island. Thus, the AEL term has two meanings: a code name for a group of Eskimo languages that exist (or used to exist) on Chukchi Peninsula, and a standard (literary) Eskimo language, created in 1932, that was based on one of these languages, Chaplino. The ethnic name of the language is юпигыстун (speaking Yupik, Novoe Chaplino) or akuzipik (True speech, St. Lawrence Island).

The Number of Native Speakers and the Corresponding Ethnic Group

The total population of the ethnic group is about 3.000 people. The group is spread over the northern coast of the Bering Sea. Approximately 1.200 Chaplino speakers live on the Chukchi Peninsula, mainly in three villages: Novoe Chaplino, Sireniki, and Uelkal, as well as in Anadyr and Provideniya. A further estimated 1.500 people live in two villages on St. Lawrence Island (USA), and another 350 Chaplino speakers reside in mainland Alaska, mostly in Nome and Anchorage (Alaska USA).

Age of Speakers, Use in Communications

The number of Chaplino speakers is rapidly decreasing. While in the mid-1960s, about 200 out of approximately 1.200 Chaplino Eskimos were fluent in their native language, by 2020, there remained only a few speakers. Based on the data provided by Daria Morgunova (2020), Novoe Chaplino is one of two places in Chukotka where one might still hear people speaking Eskimo (the second one is Sireniki). There are only a few fluent Chaplino speakers left in the village, and they are all from the older generation. There are also several women aged between 40 and 50 who are capable of speaking and understanding the language. Nonetheless, the local population still uses Chaplino in some communicative situations: certain words and even expressions are regularly used in everyday conversations. That includes jokes, short tales, lullabies, and standard expressions that sometimes slip even in conversations with younger people, although they are convinced that they speak only Russian. Switching from Russian to Chaplino and back and code-mixing is standard practice for many of them. Chaplino is most often used in everyday life in the following situations:

Greetings : нанытак’син? [how are you?], сāк’ат? [what are you doing?], натын пизин? [where are you going], накын пизин? [where did you come from?], к’уякамкын ысх’аг’лютын [I’m glad to see you], маатын слъя пиних’тук’ сыг’лыг’ук’ [the weather is good today], нāфтык’ук’ ынтак’ун [the weather might turn bad], ануклъима итхук [the wind blows from the sea].

Dealing with children :атиг’у насяпра [put your hat on], ак’уми [sit down], таги [come here], к’ытыхтын [raise your head], аwытын [go away], к’аюлъта [let’s drink tea], пигитун [careful], ныпрыг’и [shut up], ан’ [take it], ин’ах’тын аг’а [go to sleep], таватын [it’s enough].

Interjections and exclamations : ā-а [yes], уук- / хук [watch out], кā [oh], чā [ouch], тава (expression of pain), у-ух [yuk! So dirty!], ка-ай (regret) [ow ow ow], ка-ку [watch out], ынта [come on / no way!], кā [ssh, keep quiet], and сā [I don’t know].

Affectionate terms for babies : пипик (baby, a borrowed English word), аг’вык’сик’ [calf].

Adjectives and adverbs : пиник’ [good], сыг’лык’ [bad], амакылг’и [small], ик’атук’ак’ [dirty], к’инутāлг’и [lazy], кыкā [it hurts].

Besides that, Chaplino is used as a secret language when something needs to be concealed from children or outsiders.

Chaplino is seen as a heritage language, and today, everything related to it evokes very strong emotions in inhabitants of Inuit villages, such as Novoe Chaplino, Sireniki, and others. It is associated with traditional values, such as respect for elders, harmonious relationships with the environment, and child care, and it remains, according to one of local people, “a source of pride for every Inuit in Chukotka.”

Geographic Characteristics

Nowadays, Chaplino speakers live in the following settlements:

1) Novoe Chaplino, located on the north shore of Tkachen Bay, 25 km from Provideniya regional center. It was founded in 1958, and the residents of neighboring villages, such as Ungaziq, Avan, Siklyuk, Qiivaq, etc., were all moved to it. The population is 388 people, with Inuits accounting for 75% of inhabitants; based on the article, the total population of Novoe Chaplino is 462 people;

2) Sireniki, located on the south coast of Chukotka near the Imtuk Lagoon, belongs to the Providensky district. It is the oldest of the existing Inuit settlements: based on archaeological evidence, Inuits have been living here at least for the last 2.000 years. The population is about 500 people, with Inuits accounting for 53%; based on the State Statistics Committee (2015), the total population of Sireniki is 402 people;

3) Uelkal, located in Iultinsky District of Chukotka at the entrance to Kresta Bay, 100 km from the regional center. It was founded in the 1920s by Inuit migrants from Cape Chaplino. The population is 258 people (2002), with Inuits accounting for about 200 people. Based on other data, the population is 243, with Inuits accounting for 56%;

4) Provideniya, a regional center, the population is 2.163 people (2022), including several dozens Inuits;

5) Anadyr, a county seat, the population is about 15.000 people, including several dozens Inuits. [1]

There are comprehensive schools in Novoe Chaplino and Sireniki, where Chaplino Eskimo is taught as a separate course. In Anadyr, there is the Chukotka Multidisciplinary Vocational School that prepares Eskimo teachers, among other trades.

Historical Dynamics

During the 20 ^th century, the population of Chukotka that considered itself Inuits has been growing, and it remained relatively stable for the last 40 years. Census data:

* Living in Anadyr Okrug

There are two aspects that render the estimates complicated:

1) different censuses covered different territories: either the Anadyr Okrug, the Chukotka National District, or the Magadan Oblast, depending on the administrative and territorial division. Census boundaries kept on changing too: in the 1930s–40s, Chukotka was part of the Far Eastern territory with a capital in Khabarovsk; until 1992, the Chukotka Okrug was part of the Magadan Oblast, etc.;

2) With time, more and more Eskimos moved outside the Okrug. Thus, according to the 1926 Census, there were 1.293 Inuits in the USSR, 1.287 of which lived in Anadyr Okrug (so only 6 people outside of the Okrug). But the 2010 Census indicated that there were 1.738 Inuits in the country and 1.529 of them lived in Chukotka Okrug (so over 200 people lived beyond its borders) [2] . In other words, there was a dramatic increase in the mobility of the Inuit population.

The self-designations of speakers of Eskimo languages have also changed: the 2002 Census mentioned Eskimos, Sirenigmits, Unazigmits, Yupigits, Yupiits; whereas in the 2010 Census, there were Eskimos, Imaklits, Nyvukagmits, Sirenigmits, Siginygmits, Unazigmits, Yupagits, Yupigits, Yupiits.

Data on the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug:

It seems impossible to count Chaplino Eskimos separately from Naukans based on the Census data.

II. Linguistic Data

Dialects

Nowadays, the Old Sirenik Eskimo language is extinct, there are only several Naukan speakers left, and no more than two dozen of Chaplino speakers. Historically, the group of Chaplino speakers is the largest of all Eskimo groups in Chukotka. Researchers distinguished at least four sub-dialects of this language: Ungaziq, Avan, Imtuk, and Qiivaq, with a further subdivision into smaller idioms. Until the mid-1940s, Chaplino speakers lived in several large settlements (Unaziq, Imtuk, Avan, Plover) and numerous (up to 15) smaller ones in the southeast of Chukotka. It is quite possible that the parlance of each settlement was different from the neighboring ones. In the mid-1950s, the policy of forced relocation and consolidation resulted in most Chaplino speakers being moved to the newly built Novoe Chaplino, while some of them went to Sireniki. In the 1920s, Chaplino Eskimo speakers were moved to the Wrangel Island and Uelkal.

Short History of Studying the Language

The study of the Eskimo language began with research by V. Bogoras that included the description of settlement, dialect segmentation of Chukotka Eskimo languages, as well as phonetics-related data, and a publication of several texts. He continued to publish texts in the next edition, which included Eskimo fairy tales in English, lyrics of Eskimo songs with word-for-word English translation, texts of dialogues, shamanic chants, and one fairly long document with word-for-word translation. Footnotes contained a few grammar notes. Bogoras’s studies were continued by his pupil A. Forstein, one of the authors of the Eskimo orthography (1932, based on Chaplino) and the first native ABC, who recorded and published several Eskimo fairy tales (Jupigьm unьparatani 1935, 1936). However, he was arrested in 1937, spent 10 years in the camps, and never went back to scientific research again. In 1949, Bogoras’s archive materials on Eskimo were published. The book was prepared for publication by two researchers who were destined to play an important role in the description of Eskimo – E. Rubtsova and G. Menovschikov.

Their work was based on a prolonged fieldwork: they were both teachers in Chukotka, taught Russian to Inuit children, then both graduated in Leningrad and began to describe Eskimo. E. Rubtsova built a big collection of Eskimo folklore, she published the first volume, while the second one was published posthumously in 2019. She also compiled and published a big Eskimo-Russian dictionary. G. Menovschikov was the author of several grammatical descriptions of the Eskimo languages of Chukotka, including Chaplino. These efforts to describe Chaplino Eskimo were continued by N. Yemelianova (1982) and N. Bakhtin (1995, 2007). In recent years, speakers of Chaplino Eskimo with proper education, above all the staff of the Anadyr Multidisciplinary Vocational School, have gotten very involved in this work. In particular, N. Radunovich (Startseva) prepared a big two-volume Russian-Eskimo dictionary (2014).

IIn the mid-1970s, the University of Alaska Fairbanks founded the Alaska Native Language Center, whose employees made a considerable contribution to the description of Alaska languages, including the language of the St. Lawrence Island, i.e. Chaplino. The dictionary of Chaplino Eskimo language (1987) prepared by S. Jacobson together with native speakers was published in 1987. For the complete edition of this dictionary, see St. Lawrence Island 2008. Various school, cultural, and educational literature, mainly in the language of St. Lawrence Island, continues to be published to this day.

[1] 2002 Census contains the Inuit population: Provideniya 174, Anadyr 153 – see http://wiki-org.ru/wiki/Эскимосы, however, it is impossible to verify this data.

[2] 1926 Census: http://www.demoscope.ru/weekly/ssp/ussr_nac_26.php; 2010 Census — on official website.