Kamchatkan Languages
Kamchatkan (Kamchatic) is a former dialect cluster spoken on the Kamchatka Peninsula. It now consists of a single language:
- (Western) Itelmen, also called Kamchadal. It had 100 or fewer speakers in 1991, mostly of the older generation.
There are incomplete records attesting of at least two other divergent varieties, which though traditionally considered dialects, were apparently distinct enough to be classified as separate languages (Comrie 1981). The three varieties were spoken in western, eastern, and southern Kamchatka. The degree of difference can be illustrated with the pronoun 'we', which is Western muza, muza'n, Southern muš, burin, Eastern buze.
Read more about Kamchatkan Languages: Classification
Famous quotes containing the word languages:
“The less sophisticated of my forbears avoided foreigners at all costs, for the very good reason that, in their circles, speaking in tongues was commonly a prelude to snake handling. The more tolerant among us regarded foreign languages as a kind of speech impediment that could be overcome by willpower.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)