Chevak Cup’ik language

Last updated
Chevak Cupʼik
Cugtun
Native to United States
RegionCentral Alaska (Chevak)
Ethnicity Cupʼik
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3 –
esu-hoo
Glottolog None
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Chevak Cupʼik or just Cupʼik (and sometimes Cugtun) is a subdialect of Hooper Bay–Chevak dialect of Yupʼik spoken in southwestern Alaska in the Chevak (Cupʼik, Cevʼaq) by Chevak Cupʼik Eskimos (own name Cupʼit or Cevʼallrarmuit). [1] [2] [3] The speakers of the Chevak subdialect used for themselves as Cupʼik (as opposed to Yupʼik), but the speakers of the Hooper Bay subdialect used for themselves as Yupʼik (not Cupʼik), as in the Yukon-Kuskokwim dialect.

Central Alaskan Yupik, or Yupʼik is one of the languages of the Yupik family, in turn a member of the Eskimo–Aleut language group, spoken in western and southwestern Alaska. Both in ethnic population and in number of speakers, the Central Alaskan Yupik people form the largest group among Alaska Natives. As of 2010 Yupʼik was also the second-largest aboriginal language in the United States in terms of numbers of speakers. Yupʼik should not be confused with the related language Central Siberian Yupik spoken in Chukotka and St. Lawrence Island.

Alaska State of the United States of America

Alaska is a U.S. state in the northwest extremity of North America, just across the Bering Strait from Asia. The Canadian province of British Columbia and territory of Yukon border the state to the east, its most extreme western part is Attu Island, and it has a maritime border with Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. To the north are the Chukchi and Beaufort seas—southern parts of the Arctic Ocean. The Pacific Ocean lies to the south and southwest. It is the largest U.S. state by area and the seventh largest subnational division in the world. In addition, it is the 3rd least populous and the most sparsely populated of the 50 United States; nevertheless, it is by far the most populous territory located mostly north of the 60th parallel in North America: its population—estimated at 738,432 by the United States Census Bureau in 2015— is more than quadruple the combined populations of Northern Canada and Greenland. Approximately half of Alaska's residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area. Alaska's economy is dominated by the fishing, natural gas, and oil industries, resources which it has in abundance. Military bases and tourism are also a significant part of the economy.

Chevak, Alaska City in Alaska, United States

Chevak is a city in Kusilvak Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 938, up from 765 in 2000.

Contents

The Central Alaskan Yupik who in the village of Chevak call themselves Cupʼik (plural Cupʼit), whereas those who live on Nunivak Island (Nuniwar in Nunivak Cupʼig, Nunivaaq in Central Yupʼik) call themselves Cupʼig (plural Cupʼit), the spelling differences serving as a self-designated cultural identifier between the two groups. In both dialects, the consonant Yupʼik c is pronounced as an English ch. The Cupʼik dialect is readily distinguished from other dialects of Yupʼik in the pronunciation of Yupʼik "y" sounds as "ch" sounds (represented by the letter "c"), and by some fundamental differences in the basic vocabulary.

Nunivak Island island

Nunivak Island, the second largest island in the Bering Sea, is a permafrost-covered volcanic island lying about 30 miles (48 km) offshore from the delta of the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers in the state of Alaska, at about 60° North latitude. Nunivak Island is 1,631.97 sq mi in area, 76.2 kilometers (47.3 mi) long and 106 kilometers (66 mi) wide, making it the eighth largest island in the United States. It has a population of 191 persons as of the 2010 census, down from 210 in 2000. The island's entire population lived in the north coast city of Mekoryuk.

The oldest fully bilingual person in Chevak is Leo Moses, born in 1933; there are few if any persons born after 1945 who do not speak English. [1]

The first documentation of the Hooper Bay-Chevak dialect (beyond occasional citations) is found in the unpublished notes of Jesuit priests residing ay Hooper Bay and Kashunuk in the 1920s and 1930s. Published recognition of Hooper Bay-Chevak as a morphologically distinct dialect of Yupʼik seems to begin with Michael E. Krauss in 1973, [4] although the fundamental differences between the dialects were common knowledge among native speakers. [1] Cup'ik is a critically threatened language, and English the primary language of everyday communication among most of those with knowledge of the language.

Michael E. Krauss American linguist

Michael E. Krauss is an American linguist, professor emeritus, founder and long-time head of the Alaska Native Language Center. As of February 2013, the Alaska Native Language Archive is named after him.

Education

Chevak, the school (blue), lake, and condemned old school (red) Chevak.jpg
Chevak, the school (blue), lake, and condemned old school (red)

Their unique cultural and linguistic identity has allowed them to form a single-site school district, the Kashunamiut School District, rather than joining a neighboring Yupʼik school district. English and Cupʼik bilingual education is done at this school. There is a tri-language system in Chevak; English, Cupʼik, and a mixture of the two languages.

A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public primary and secondary schools in various nations.

Kashunamiut School District

The Kashunamiut School District is a school district within the village of Chevak. The school district is composed of a single school which teaches grades Kindergarten to High School. The schools mascot is a "comet". The district served approximately 200 students in the 2008-09 academic year and has a 58% graduation rate. English and Cup'ik bilingual education is done at this school.

English language West Germanic language

English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and eventually became a global lingua franca. It is named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to the area of Great Britain that later took their name, as England. Both names derive from Anglia, a peninsula in the Baltic Sea. The language is closely related to Frisian and Low Saxon, and its vocabulary has been significantly influenced by other Germanic languages, particularly Norse, and to a greater extent by Latin and French.

Before 1950 formal education for students in Chevak took place in the Qaygiq [5] (semi-underground men's community house), and in the homes of the people. [6]

Qargi

Qargi, Qasgi or Qasgiq, Qaygiq, Kashim, Kariyit, a traditional large semi-subterranean men's community house' of the Yup'ik and Inuit, also Deg Hit'an Athabaskans, was used for public and ceremonial occasions and as a men’s residence. The Qargi was the place where men built their boats, repaired their equipment, took sweat baths, educated young boys, and hosted community dances. Here people learned their oral history, songs and chants. Young boys and men learned to make tools and weapons while they listened to the traditions of their forefathers.

Vocabulary comparison

The comparison of some words in the two dialects.

Yukon-Kuskokwim YupʼikChevak Cupʼikmeaning
elicaraq (Y) / elitnauraq (K)elicaraq
skuularaq (English root)		student
elicarista (Y) / elitnaurista (K)elicarta
skuularta (English root)		teacher
yugnikekʼngaqaiparnatugaqfriend
yuilquqcuilquqthe wilderness; tundra
nuussiqcaviggaqknife (not semi-lunar)
uluaqkegginalek ulu, semi-lunar woman's knife
canekeveka blade or stalk of grass
ellallukivyukrain

Phonology

There are 18 letters used in the Cupʼik alphabet: a c e g i k l m n p q r s t u v w y. [7]

These letters are not used in the Cupʼik alphabet: b d f h j o x z.

Vowels:

Consonants:

Russian loanwords

Hooper Bay youth, 1930 Edward S. Curtis Collection People 011.jpg
Hooper Bay youth, 1930

The Russian loanwords used in Chevak Cupʼik date from the period of the Russian America (1733–1867). [8]

The names of days and months

See also

Related Research Articles

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Eskimo–Aleut languages Language family

The Eskimo–Aleut languages, Eskaleut languages, or Inuit-Yupik-Unangan languages are a language family native to Alaska, the Canadian Arctic, Nunavik, Nunatsiavut, Greenland and the Chukchi Peninsula, on the eastern tip of Siberia. It is also known as Eskaleutian, Eskaleutic or Inuit–Yupik-Unangan.

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Inupiaq language Group of dialects of the Inuit language, spoken in northern and northwestern Alaska

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Yupik

The Yup'ik or Yupiaq and Yupiit or Yupiat (pl), also Central Alaskan Yup'ik, Central Yup'ik, Alaskan Yup'ik, are an Eskimo people of western and southwestern Alaska ranging from southern Norton Sound southwards along the coast of the Bering Sea on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and along the northern coast of Bristol Bay as far east as Nushagak Bay and the northern Alaska Peninsula at Naknek River and Egegik Bay. They are also known as Cup'ik by the Chevak Cup'ik dialect-speaking Eskimos of Chevak and Cup'ig for the Nunivak Cup'ig dialect-speaking Eskimo of Nunivak Island.

Nunivak Cup'ig or just Cup'ig is a language or separate dialect of Central Alaskan Yup'ik spoken in Central Alaska at the Nunivak Island by Nunivak Cup'ig people. The letter "c" in the Yup’ik alphabet is equivalent to the English alphabet "ch".

Cup'ik, also spelled Cupik, typically refers to the Central Alaskan Yup'ik people. The plural form is Cup'it.

Yupik masks

Yup'ik masks are expressive shamanic ritual masks made by the Yup'ik people of southwestern Alaska. Also known as Cup'ik masks for the Chevak Cup'ik dialect speaking Eskimos of Chevak and Cup'ig masks for the Nunivak Cup'ig dialect speaking Eskimos of Nunivak Island. One of their most popular forms of the Alaska Native art are masks. The Yup'ik masks vary enormously but are characterised by great invention. They are typically made of wood, and painted with few colors. The Yup'ik masks were carved by men or women, but mainly were carved by the men. The shamans (angalkuq) were the ones that told the carvers how to make the masks. Yup'ik masks could be small three-inch finger masks or maskettes, but also ten-kilo masks hung from the ceiling or carried by several people. These masks are used to bring the person wearing it luck and good fortune in hunts. Over the long winter darkness dances and storytelling took place in the qasgiq using these masks. They most often create masks for ceremonies but the masks are traditionally destroyed after being used. After Christian contact in the late nineteenth century, masked dancing was suppressed, and today it is not practiced as it was before in the Yup'ik villages.

Yupik doll

Yup'ik doll is a traditional Eskimo style doll and figurine form made in the southwestern Alaska by Yup'ik people. Also known as Cup'ik doll for the Chevak Cup'ik dialect speaking Eskimos of Chevak and Cup'ig doll for the Nunivak Cup'ig dialect speaking Eskimos of Nunivak Island. Typically, Yup'ik dolls are dressed in traditional Eskimo style Yup'ik clothing, intended to protect the wearer from cold weather, and are often made from traditional materials obtained through food gathering. Play dolls from the Yup'ik area were made of wood, bone, or walrus ivory and measured from one to twelve inches in height or more. Male and female dolls were often distinguished anatomically and can be told apart by the addition of ivory labrets for males and chin tattooing for females. The information about play dolls within Alaska Native cultures is sporadic. As is so often the case in early museum collections, it is difficult to distinguish dolls made for play from those made for ritual. There were always five dolls making up a family: a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, and a baby. Some human figurines were used by shamans.

Yupik cuisine

Yup'ik cuisine refers to the Eskimo style traditional subsistence food and cuisine of the Yup'ik people from the western and southwestern Alaska. Also known as Cup'ik cuisine for the Chevak Cup'ik dialect speaking Eskimos of Chevak and Cup'ig cuisine for the Nunivak Cup'ig dialect speaking Eskimos of Nunivak Island. This cuisine is traditionally based on meat from fish, birds, sea and land mammals, and normally contains high levels of protein. Subsistence foods are generally considered by many to be nutritionally superior superfoods. Yup’ik diet is different from Alaskan Inupiat, Canadian Inuit, and Greenlandic diets. Fish as food are primary food for Yup'ik Eskimos. Both food and fish called neqa in Yup'ik. Food preparation techniques are fermentation and cooking, also uncooked raw. Cooking methods are baking, roasting, barbecuing, frying, smoking, boiling, and steaming. Food preservation methods are mostly drying and less often frozen. Dried fish is usually eaten with seal oil. The ulu or fan-shaped knife used for cutting up fish, meat, food, and such.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Woodbury, Anthony Cabot (1981), Study of the Chevak dialect of Central Yupʼik Eskimo . Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley.
  2. ↑ Woodbury, Anthony Cabot (2002). "The word in Cupʼik". In Dixon, R. M. W. and Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (eds.) Word: A cross-linguistic typology, 79-99. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  3. ↑ Woodbury, Anthony Cabot (2004). Morphological Orthodoxy in Yupik-Inuit . University of Texas, Austin
  4. ↑ Krauss, Michael E. (1973). Eskimo-Aleut. current trends in linguistics 10, ed. by Thomas a. Sebeok, 796-902. The Hague: Mouton.
  5. ↑ Qaygiq (Men's House) by Dr. John Pingayak
  6. ↑ Alaskool: Guidebook for Integrating Cupʼik Culture and Curriculum
  7. ↑ http://www.alaskool.org/projects/chevak/chevak/sound1.htm
  8. ↑ David A Peterson (1991), Russian loan words in Central Alaskan Yupik. Fairbanks, Alaska, April 1991.
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