Unangam Tunuu
/uːˈnɑːŋəm tʊˈnuː/noun
The Indigenous name for the Unangan (Aleut) language of the Aleutian Islands and parts of Alaska and Kamchatka.
Did you know?Unangam Tunuu is an endonym: unlike the widely known name “Aleut,” it is the name used within the Unangan linguistic and cultural tradition itself.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Eskaleut, prehistoric
Proto-Eskaleut
Reconstructed ancestor of the Unangam Tunuu language
“An ancestral language proposed by historical linguists as the source of the Eskaleut language family; no single securely established form of the modern name is known.”
Precontact era
Unangam Tunuu
Unangam Tunuu
“The language of the Unangan people; the name is an Indigenous endonym rather than a later European label.”
18th Century
Russian
Алеуты (Aleuty)
“The Russian designation Aleuts, applied to the Indigenous peoples of the Aleutian region during Russian exploration and colonization.”
18th–19th Century
English
Aleut
“The English form borrowed from Russian, traditionally used for the people and their language.”
20th–21st Century
English and Unangam Tunuu
Unangam Tunuu
“The increasingly used Indigenous name for the language, alongside Aleut, in linguistic, educational, and revitalization contexts.”