Old Sirenik

Sirenik, Sirenik Yupik, Sireniki Yupik (also Old Sirenik or Vuteen), or Sirenikskiy, is an extinct Eskaleut language. It was spoken in and around the village of Sireniki (Сиреники) in Chukotka Peninsula, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. The language shift has been a long process, ending in total language death. In January 1997, the last native speaker of the language, a woman named Vyjye (Valentina Wye; Russian: Выйе) died. Ever since that point, the language has been extinct; nowadays, all Sireniks speak Siberian Yupik or Russian. Despite this, censuses as late as 2010 report up to 5 native speakers of Sirenik.

Сиӷы́ных ([siˈʁənəx]) is the endonym for the eponymous settlement of Sireniki. The endonym for the people itself is сиӷы́ныгмы̄́ӷий ([siˈʁənəɣˈməːʁij]; 'Sirenikites'); the singular form is сиӷы́ныгмы̄́ӷа [siˈʁənəɣˈməːʁa].

This article is based on Menovschikov (1964), with cited examples transliterated from Cyrillic transcription to the International Phonetic Alphabet.

From Wikipedia · Sirenik language · CC BY-SA 4.0