ABSTRACT
Chukchi belongs, with Koryak and Itelmen, to the Chukotko-Kamchatka group of Palaeo-Siberian languages. It is spoken in the Chukchi National Region and elsewhere over a vast area, extending from the Bering Strait to the Yakut Autonomous Region, by fewer than 8,000 people (less than 50% of the total population) who fall into two groups: the Tundra Chukchi and the Maritime Chukchi. The language is in everyday use for education, administration and journalism. Both the Chukchi and the Koryak called themselves luoravetlat (/ləhttps://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203717936/fb9c3a2a-f200-49ad-b059-9bf2941ec518/content/vring.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>?orawətl?at/), which means ‘proper people’, but the term seems to have fallen from use, as has the former specific ‘women’s pronunciation’ of Chukchi.
