Central Siberian Yupik language

Siberian Yupik (also known as Central Siberian Yupik, Bering Strait Yupik, Yuit, Yoit, "St. Lawrence Island Yupik", and in Russia "Chaplinski Yupik" or Yuk) is one of the Yupik languages of the Eskimo–Aleut language family. It the largest Yupik idiom spoken in Siberia, and it is spoken also on St. Lawrence Island. Its speakers, the Siberian Yupik people, are an indigenous people who reside along the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula in the Russian Far East and on St. Lawrence Island in the Alaska villages of Savoonga and Gambell.

In Alaska, about 1,050 people from a total Siberian Yupik population of 1,100 speak the language. In Russia, about 300 of an ethnic population of 1,200 to 1,500 speak the language, making a total of about 1,350 speakers worldwide.

Dialects and subgroups

Siberian Yupik has two dialects: Chaplinski Yupik is spoken on the shores of the Chukchi Peninsula in the Russian Far North, and St. Lawrence Island Yupik (Sivuqaghmiistun) is spoken on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. The majority of Chaplinski Yupik speakers live in the villages of Novoye Chaplino and Sireniki, on the coasts of the Chukchi Peninsula. St. Lawrence Island Yupik is believed to be an offspring of Chaplinski and apart from some few phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactical and lexical peculiarities is practically identical with it.

Yupik languages

The Yupik /ˈjuːpɪk/ languages are the several distinct languages of the several Yupik peoples of western and southcentral Alaska and northeastern Siberia. The Yupik languages differ enough from one another that they are not mutually intelligible although speakers of one of the languages may understand the general idea of a conversation of speakers of another of the languages. One of them, Sirenik, has been a dead language since 1997.

The Yupik languages are in the family of Eskimo–Aleut languages. The Aleut and Eskimo languages diverged about 2000 BC; within the Eskimo classification, the Yupik languages diverged from each other and from the Inuit language about 1000 AD.

List of languages

Siberian Yupik people

Siberian Yupiks, or Yuits, are a Yupik Eskimo people who reside along the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula in the far northeast of the Russian Federation and on St. Lawrence Island in Alaska. They speak Central Siberian Yupik (also known as Yuit), a Yupik language of the Eskimo–Aleut family of languages.

They are also known as Siberian or Asian Eskimo (Russian: эскимосы). The name Yuit (юит, plural: юиты) was officially assigned to them in 1931, at the brief time of the campaign of support of indigenous cultures in the Soviet Union. Their self-designation is Yupighyt (йупигыт) meaning "true people".

Sirenik Eskimos also live in that area, but their extinct language, Sireniki Eskimo, shows many peculiarities among Eskimo languages and is mutually unintelligible with the neighboring Siberian Yupik languages.

Material culture

Traditional crafts

The Siberian Yupik on St. Lawrence Island live in the villages of Savoonga and Gambell, and are widely known for their skillful carvings of walrus ivory and whale bone, as well as the baleen of bowhead whales. These even include some "moving sculptures" with complicated pulleys animating scenes such as walrus hunting or traditional dances.