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Alaskan Russian, known locally as Old Russian, is a dialect of Russian, influenced by Eskimo–Aleut languages, spoken in what is now the U.S. state Alaska since the Russian colonial period. Today it is prevalent on Kodiak Island and in Ninilchik (Kenai Peninsula), Alaska; it has been isolated from other varieties of Russian for over a century. [1]
As Russia was the first country to colonize Alaska, Russian words for goods or objects that were new to Native Alaskans were adopted into their native languages. For example, kofe (coffee) and chay (tea) are Russian words that have been added to the vocabularies of the Unangan (Aleut), Alutiiq (Sugpiaq), and Yup'ik .
Alaska Native Languages American Indians and Alaska Natives in Alaska. Below is a full list of the different Alaska Native or Native Alaskan peoples, who are largely defined by their historical languages (within each culture are different tribes):
Alaskan Russian society was characterized by multilingualism and multiculturalism. Generally three languages were used: Church Slavonic was used for religion; for official and educational purposes, Russian was used; Alaska Native languages were used for colloquial purposes. Specific usage of each language depended on the locale within Alaska ...
Juneau: Alaska Native Language Center, 1984. Kizzia, Tom. (1991). The Wake of the Unseen Object: Among the Native Cultures of Bush Alaska. New York: Henry Holt and Company. MacLean, Edna Ahgeak. “Culture and Change for Iñupiat and Yupiks of Alaska.” 2004. Alaska. 12 Nov 2008; Mithun, Marianne. (1999). The languages of Native North America ...
In the Aleut language, they are known by the endonyms Unangan (eastern dialect) and Unangas (western dialect); both terms mean "people". [a] The Russian term "Aleut" was a general term used for both the native population of the Aleutian Islands and their neighbors to the east in the Kodiak Archipelago, who were also referred to as "Pacific Eskimos" or Sugpiat/Alutiit.
Their traditional language, Denaʼina (Dena’ina Qenaga), currently has about 70-75 fluent speakers out of a total population of about 1,400. Denaʼina is one of eleven Alaska Athabascan languages. There are four primary dialects of Denaʼina (grouped with regional bands, local groups and today's tribal names): [7]
Father Ivan Veniaminov (later St. Innocent of Alaska), famous throughout Russian America, developed an Aleut dictionary for hundreds of language and dialect words based on the Russian alphabet. The most visible trace of the Russian colonial period in contemporary Alaska is the nearly 90 Russian Orthodox parishes with a membership of over 20,000 ...