68 Alaskan Science Conference 



place 4,000 years ago. This division in itself indicates a much 

 longer period of Eskimo occupation in southern Alaska than 

 in any other area from Alaska to Greenland. The separation 

 of Yupik and Inupik is provisionally estimated by Swadesh to 

 have taken place some 1500 years ago. 



Corollary to the problem of the Aleut-Eskimo separation is 

 that of the dialect diversity in the Aleutian Islands. There are 

 at present three major dialects. The Eastern dialect includes 

 the Aleuts of the Alaska Peninsula, the Fox Islands as far west 

 as Umnak Island, and the Pribilof Islands where the Aleuts 

 were first transplanted in 1786 by the Russians. The Central 

 dialect takes in the region of the Andreanof and Rat Islands. 

 The Western dialect includes only the Near Islands. The 

 differences between these dialects are primarily lexical, with 

 minor variations in phonology and morphology. As a conse- 

 quence they are mutually intelligible. The Western dialect, 

 spoken by the people from Attu Island, now living in Atka 

 Village, is most in need of study. Little is known of sub-dialects 

 which exist within the area of each of the major dialects and 

 for which evidence can still be secured from native speakers. 

 Most Attu speakers now live on Copper Island and most Atka 

 speakers on Bering Island of the Commander group where they 

 were transplanted in 1826. Owing to the fact that there has 

 been less dialect mixture there, a study of them would be 

 highly informative. Similarly, a study of Aleut on the Pribilof 

 Islands would be useful though dialect mixture has gone on 

 there for many years. 



Linguistic information is not only of use for the study of 

 language itself, and for the study of the cultures for which it is 

 indispensable, but for the light which it throws on the past 

 movements of the people. Thus, the linguistic evidence from 

 the Aleutian Islands confirms the westward movements of the 

 Aleuts which have been deduced from other forms of evidence. 

 The earliest accounts of dialect divisions indicate the west side 

 of Unalaska belonged to the same dialect as Umnak Island and 

 that in the time of Bishop Veniaminov (1825-35) tne Umnak 

 people spoke the Central dialect rather than the Eastern dia- 



