Kerek
Native toRussia
RegionChukotka Autonomous Okrug
EthnicityKereks
Extinct2005[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3krk
Glottologkere1280
ELPKerek
Pre-contact distribution of Kerek (dark orange) and other Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages

Kerek (Russian: Керекский язык) is an extinct language of Russia of the northern branch of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages. On historical linguistic grounds it is most closely related to Koryak (both languages have a merger of the proto-Chuktotian phonemes /*ð/ and /*r/ with /*j/). The next closest relative is Chukchi (/*ð/ and /*r/ are merged, but not /*j/).

In 1997 there were still two speakers remaining, but by 2005 the language was considered extinct.[2] According to the 2010 census,[3] 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. 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.

Kerek is an agglutinative language, meaning that the morphemes build on each other to have different meanings.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Kerek at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. ↑ Fortescue, Michael 2005. Comparative Chukotko-Kamchatkan Dictionary. Berlin / New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
  3. ↑ 2010 census
  4. ↑ "Endangered Languages of Siberia – The Kerek Language". lingsib.iea.ras.ru. Retrieved 10 February 2017.
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