269 km away
A Chukotko-Kamchatkan language of the Kamchatka peninsula. Spoken by Koryak reindeer herders and coastal communities; sister language to Chukchi within the Chukotian sub-branch.
Itelmen
Also known as: Western Kamchadal
The sole surviving language of the Kamchatkan branch of Chukotko-Kamchatkan, spoken in villages along the western coast of Kamchatka such as Kovran. Only a few elderly fluent speakers remain; known for extremely complex consonant clusters, and structurally so divergent from Chukchi-Koryak that its place in the family is debated.
Shareable facts
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Frequently asked questions
What language is Itelmen?
Itelmen is a dialect of the Itelmen language.
Where is Itelmen spoken?
Itelmen is primarily spoken in Russia.
Which region is Itelmen associated with?
Itelmen is part of the East Asia region on DialectAtlas.
Is Itelmen known by other names?
Yes — Itelmen is also referred to as Western Kamchadal.
Is Itelmen endangered?
Itelmen is critically endangered. Only a small number of mostly elderly speakers remain, and the variety is at imminent risk of being lost.
Nearby dialects
See on the atlas →1,235 km away
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A Chukotko-Kamchatkan language of the Chukotka Peninsula in north-eastern Siberia. Around 5,000 speakers; one of the few languages with male and female speech-form distinctions.
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The Siberian Turkic language of the Sakha Republic in north-eastern Russia. The northernmost Turkic language and one of the most linguistically divergent, with extensive Mongolic and Tungusic influence.
1,738 km away
A Tungusic language of the lower Amur basin, spoken in Russia's Khabarovsk Krai and adjacent China. Around a thousand speakers, all elderly.
1,750 km away
A highly divergent Eskaleut language of the village of Sireniki on the southern Chukchi peninsula, mutually unintelligible with its nearest Yupik relatives and sometimes treated as a third Eskimo branch. Died with its last speaker in 1997; the community now speaks Central Siberian Yupik and Russian.