Mednyj Aleut language

Mednyj Aleut
Native to	Russia
Region	Commander Islands
Native speakers	350 (2010)
Language family	mixed Aleut–Russian
Language codes
ISO 639-3	mud
Glottolog	medn1235
ELP	Copper Island Aleut

Mednyj Aleut (also called Copper Island Creole or Copper Island Aleut) is a nearly extinct mixed language spoken on Bering Island. It is characterized by Aleut nouns and Russian verbs, each with the full inflectional complexity of the source languages.

Mednyj Aleut is characterised by a blending of Russian and Aleut (primarily Attu) elements in most components of the grammar, but most profoundly in the verbal morphology. The Aleut component comprises the majority of the vocabulary, all the derivational morphology, part of the simple sentence syntax, nominal inflection and certain other grammatical means. The Russian components comprise verbal inflection, negation, infinitive forms, part of the simple sentence syntax and all of the compound sentence syntax.

Originally, the language was spoken by Alaskan Creoles on Copper Island, from where it takes its name, but all the population of that island was moved to Bering Island in 1970. The Alaskan Creoles are the descendents of promyshlenniki men and Aleut and Alutiiq women, and formed a small but influential population in Russian Alaska.

See also

• Promyshlenniki
• Haida Jargon
• Nootka Jargon
• Chinook Jargon
• Kyakhta Russian–Chinese Pidgin
• Russenorsk
• Ninilchik

Sources

• http://languageserver.uni-graz.at/ls/art?id=981
• Irina Sekerina (1994) Copper Island (Mednyj) Aleut (CIA): A mixed language
• Christopher Moseley (2008) Encyclopedia of the world's endangered languages, p. 42. (15 fluent speakers in the late 1980s.)
• http://archives.conlang.info/so/gentua/vonjhuanjhian.html