The relationship between Unangam Tunuu (Aleut) and Eskimo was established in the early 19th century, and the 20th century
especially saw a number of efforts on the reconstruction of Proto-Eskimo-Aleut (PEA). Reconstruction has supported assumptions of
a largely genealogical relationship between the EA languages, assumptions which include a long history of independent development
in isolation from other languages and language families. The reconstruction of PEA, however, is incomplete; many apparent cognates
have irregular or imperfectly understood sound correspondences. Furthermore, advances in archaeology and genetics have called into
question many assumptions about EA prehistory and about the isolation or lack thereof of Unangam Tunuu. In this study, I
re-examine the proposed cognates and evaluate them based on the strength of their correspondences and their distribution within
the lexicon, with reference to new findings regarding technological innovations and periods of cultural contact. Several patterns
emerge, including a large group of proposed cognates with overly-specific semantic correlations relating to technologies or
cultural practices post-dating the split of EA languages, a gender-based difference in the number of cognates relating to cultural
activities, and a correlation between known borrowings and high levels of cognates in certain semantic domains. Results suggest
extensive language contact, especially in the past millennium.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.