Proto-Eskaleut language
Reconstructed ancestor of the Eskimo–Aleut languages
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Proto-Eskaleut or Proto-Eskimo–Aleut (sometimes Proto-Inuit-Yupik-Unangan)[1] is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Eskaleut languages, the family containing Eskimo and Aleut. Its existence is known through similarities in Eskimo and Aleut. The existence of Proto-Eskaleut is generally accepted among linguists. It was for a long time true that no linguistic reconstruction of Proto-Eskaleut had yet been produced, as stated by Bomhard.[2][better source needed] Such a reconstruction was offered by Knut Bergsland in 1986. Michael Fortescue offered another version of Proto-Eskaleut,[3] largely based on the reconstruction of Proto-Eskimo in the Comparative Eskimo Dictionary he co-authored with Steven Jacobson and Lawrence Kaplan.[4]
| Proto-Eskaleut | |
|---|---|
| Proto-Eskimo–Aleut Proto-Inuit-Yupik-Unangan | |
| Reconstruction of | Eskaleut languages |
| Era | 4000 BC - 2200 BC |
| Lower-order reconstructions | |
Phonology
Fortescue reconstructs the phoneme inventory of Proto-Eskaleut as follows:[3]
Notes:
- /nʲ/ may not have been distinct from */n/; Fortescue reconstructs it for the correspondence of "Sirenikski Eskimo initial /j/, elsewhere /n/".
- /ɬ/ may have been a later development from clusters of */l/ with a plosive.
- /j/ was most likely a fully palatal approximant, but it is grouped with the palatalized alveolars for convenience.
Possible relation to other language families
There are no generally accepted relations between Proto-Eskaleut and other language families. A substantial case for a genetic relationship between Proto-Eskaleut, Yukaghir and Uralic was published by Michael Fortescue in 1998 in Language Relations across Bering Strait (see Uralo-Siberian languages).