Kerek language

Kerek
аӈӄалҕакку
Native to	Russia
Region	Chukotka Autonomous Okrug
Ethnicity	Kereks
Extinct	2005, with the death of Ekaterina Khatkana 4 (2020)
Language family	Chukotko-Kamchatkan Chukotkan Kerek
Dialects	Maino-Pilgin Khatyr
Language codes
ISO 639-3	krk
Glottolog	kere1280
ELP	Kerek
Pre-contact distribution of Kerek (dark orange) and other Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages

Kerek (Russian: Керекский язык, romanized: Kereksky yazyk) is an extinct language in Russia of the northern branch of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages. Before its extinction, it was spoken by the Kereks of the Russian Far East. It went extinct in 2005 with the death of Ekaterina Khatkana.

Classification

On historical linguistic grounds it is most closely related to Koryak (both languages have a merger of the Proto-Chukotko-Kamchatkan phonemes /*ð/ and /*r/ with /*j/). The next closest relative is Chukchi (/*ð/ and /*r/ are merged, but not /*j/).

Situation

In 1997 there were still two speakers remaining, but in 2005 the language went extinct, with the death of Ekaterina Khatkana. According to the 2010 census, there were 10 people claiming Kerek as their native language, believed to only consist of partial speakers and non-speakers who claim the language as part of their ethnic heritage. In 2020, that number had decreased to 4. Over the 20th century many members of the Kerek ethnic group shifted to Chukchi, the language of the majority ethnic group in the area, but now most Chukchis and Kereks speak Russian.

Phonology

Vowels

Vowels of Kerek

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid		ə	o
Open		a

Vowels may be long.

Consonants

Consonants of Kerek

	Bilabial	Dental	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Plosive	p	t		k	q		ʔ
Fricative						ħ
Affricate			tʃ
Nasal	m	n		ŋ
Lateral		l
Semivowel	w		j

Consonants may also be long, [l] is palatalized intervocalically, and [tʃ] is pronounced as [s] by some.

Dialects

There were two dialects, the Maino-Pilgin and Khatyr dialects.

Grammar

Kerek is an agglutinative language, meaning that the morphemes build on each other to have different meanings.

External links

• Bibliography