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Eskimo-Aleut, family of Native American languages consisting of Aleut (spoken on the Aleutian Islands and the Kodiak Peninsula) and Eskimo or Inuktitut (spoken in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Siberia). Aleut is the language of a few thousand people, and Eskimo is native to over 100,000 people. There are a few varieties of the Eskimo language. Eskimo and Aleut have enough similarities to justify the theory that they are descendants of a single ancestor language. A striking and important feature of both tongues is polysynthesism (see Native American languages). In a polysynthetic language, a one-word unit composed of a number of word elements can convey the meaning of an entire sentence of an Indo-European language. Eskimo and Aleut make great use of suffixes, but almost never of prefixes. Internal vowel changes are rare. Both languages are highly inflected. The difference between transitive and intransitive verbs is clearly shown. Three numbers are found—singular, dual, and plural. Phonetically, there are three main vowels in Eskimo, and from 13 to 20 consonants, the number varying according to the dialect. In earlier times the Eskimos had only pictographic writing. Since the 18th cent., however, the Eskimos of Greenland, Canada, and Alaska have used an adaptation of the Roman alphabet, introduced by missionaries. The Eskimos of modern Siberia and the Aleut-speaking groups employ the Cyrillic alphabet.

See K. Bergslund, A Grammatical Outline of the Eskimo Language of West Greenland (1955) and Aleut Dialects of Atha and Attu (1959); L. L. Hammerich, The Eskimo Language (1970); M. E. Krauss, Alaskan Native Languages (1980).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press

Aleut

Aleut, native inhabitant of the Aleutian Islands and W Alaska. Like the Eskimo, the Aleuts are racially similar to Siberian peoples. Their language is a member of the Eskimo-Aleut family. When they were first noted by Vitus Jonassen Bering in 1741, their estimated population was between 20,000 and 25,000. Because of their skill in hunting sea mammals, the Aleuts were exploited by Russian fur traders throughout the coastal waters of the Gulf of Alaska, sometimes as far south as California. The ruthless policies of the traders and conflict with the fierce mainland natives reduced their population by the end of the 18th cent. to one tenth its former size. However, by 1990 their numbers had increased to almost 24,000 in the United States. They continue to live in relative isolation; most are members of the Russian Orthodox Church.

See V. I. Jochelson, The History, Ethnology and Anthropology of the Aleut (1933, repr. 1966); R. Ackerman, Ethnohistory in Southwestern Alaska and the Southern Yukon (1970); W. S. Laughlin, Aleuts (1981).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia Copyright © 2004.
Licensed from Columbia University Press

Aleut

Any native of the Aleutian Islands and the western portion of the Alaska Peninsula. The name Aleut, used in 1745 by Russian fur traders from the Kamchatka Peninsula, refers primarily to the people of the Aleutian Islands, who call themselves Unangan or Unangas, but also by extension to the Pacific Yupik, who call themselves Sugpiaq. Aleuts speak two main dialects and are physically and culturally closely related to the Eskimo. Traditional Aleut villages were located on the seashore near fresh water, where the people hunted marine mammals, fish, birds, caribou, and bears. Aleut women wove fine grass basketry; stone, bone, and ivory were also worked. After the arrival of the Russians in the 18th century, their population declined drastically. Aleut descendants numbered more than 15,000 in the early 21st century.

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