Yupik
/ˈjuːpɪk/noun
A member of several Indigenous peoples of Alaska and Siberia, or the Eskimo-Aleut language family they speak.
Did you know?Yupik is an Indigenous self-designation, and linguists generally analyze it as meaning something like “real person” or “the people,” though exact historical details vary by language and community.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Eskimo-Aleut
PEA
*yupik?
“Reconstructed ancestral form behind the Yupik self-name, likely connected to “person” or “human being” in the family”
Yupik languages
Yupik
yuk / yupik
““person; human being,” and by extension a group identity”
19th Century
English
Yupik
“An ethnonym adopted into English for the Indigenous peoples and languages of western Alaska and nearby regions”
Modern English
English
Yupik
“The modern ethnonym and language name used in anthropology, linguistics, and community self-identification”