Yupik

[yoo-pik]

noun

plural

Yupiks ,

plural

Yupik .

1. a member of any of several Indigenous peoples inhabiting western coastal Alaska from Prince William Sound north to Norton Sound, and St. Lawrence Island and the coast of the Chukchi Peninsula of Siberia.

2. any of the Eskimo-Aleut languages spoken by the Yupik.

Yupik

/ ˈjuːpɪk /

noun

1. an aboriginal people of Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, and E Siberia

2. any of the languages of this people

3. of or relating to the Yupik people or their languages Compare Inuit Inuktitut

Word History and Origins

Origin of Yupik¹

First recorded in 1950–55; from Central Alaskan Yup'ik Yup'ik, a self-designation, equivalent to yuk “human being, person” + -pik “real”

Example Sentences

The Yupik athlete from the western Alaska village of Kipnuk can no longer compete because he’s graduated, but he performed for the crowd on Friday, and jumped 38 feet, 9 inches.

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In Alaska, that can look like getting friends together for a maqiq, the Yupik word for a sauna or steam bath.

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Residents filled the gym at John Apangalook School in Gambell, home to the King Polar Bears — or Qughsatkut in Siberian Yupik— sports teams.

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When the armed Siberian Yupik Eskimo egg hunters showed up, the Navy men didn’t know if they were about to be captured or rescued.

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It appears the words and phrases used in the translated documents were taken from Nikolai Vakhtin’s 2011 edition of “Yupik Eskimo Texts from the 1940s,” said John DiCandeloro, the language center’s archivist.

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