ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the linguistic features used by speakers of Modern Chukchi, revealing the changes to this polysynthetic language in recent years. After a review of the sociohistorical context and a discussion of the social positioning of contemporary Chukchi speakers, some reasons for these linguistic changes are analyzed. While some impacts to the linguistic structure of this polysynthetic language are very much a product of linguistic contact among ethnic groups, the shifts in social life (from small, tightly knit communities to urbanized spaces connected to a globalizing world) have also prompted and influenced these changes.
