Language

Тhe Chukchi people living in tundra refer to themselves as the “Chavchu” (“deer-breeders”), while those living by the sea, the “Ankalyn” (“coast-dwellers”). A general term, “luoravetlan” (“real man”) as the name for the nation in general has not been accepted.
The Chukchi language – Luoravetlanish, or Chukchee – is mostly spoken in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug and in the Nizhnekolymsky Region of Yakutia (an autonomous republic in Russia).
Linguistically, the Chukchi language belongs to the Chukot-Kamchat group of Paleo-Asian languages. It has five dialects: Enmylinish, Nunligranish and Hatyrish (Southern group of dialects); Chaounish (Western dialect), and Uelenish (Eastern dialect, which has become the basis of the Chukchi literary language.
Phonetic system of the Chukchi language is characterized by vowel harmony, wide variety of consonant assimilation and dissimilation. Grammar has developed a declension and conjugation systems. Nouns in the Chukchi language have the category of person. The verb has a subject-object conjugation and a related ergative sentence structure. Peculiarity of syntax is incorporation (a whole phrase can be expressed with a single extended attribute). The written Chukchi language was created in 1931, first on the base of the Roman alphabet and in 1936, on the base of the Russian graphics.
According to national census of 1970, about 11 000 people spoke the Chukchi, but this number is reducing every year. During the Soviet period, linguistic cultures of many native peoples of the North, the Chukchi people among them, fell into decay. On the one hand, the language became written; there appeared schools, literate people, such social stratum as the national intellectuals was formed. However, the policy of total unification and elimination of all national peculiarities was carried out. The Chukchi people were even losing their generic names.
Here is a story from a Chukchi woman’s diary describing how she received a passport: “We were brought to a man who asked what my name was. I said, ‘Vyntene’. But he said, this was only the family name and I should also have the first name and the patronymic name. I was confused... Then he congratulated me and said that now my name was Vyntena Maria Vassilyevna. My sister Kirgenaut got the name of Vera Nikolayevna, another sister, Cheiko, became Maria Illarionovna, and my brother Vukvuvge was made Karp Ivanovich”.
Most Chukchi children lived in boarding schools away from their parents, thus having few opportunities to learn their native tongue. Russian became the language of communication not only between the Russians and other nationalities, but also between native people themselves.
Nowadays the situation is gradually changing for the better. The Chukchi language is studied in many schools and the number of such schools is growing. There are newspapers, books, also for children, issued in it; more and more often the Chukchi language can be heard on the local radio and TV.