Sirenik or
Sireniki Eskimos are former speakers of a very peculiar
Eskimo language in
Siberia, before they underwent a
language shift rendering it
extinct. The peculiarities of this language among Eskimo languages amount to the extent that it is proposed by some to classify it as a standalone third branch of Eskimo languages (alongside
Inuit and
Yupik). The total
language death of this peculiar remnant means that now the
cultural identity of Sirenik Eskimos is maintained through other aspects: slight
dialectical difference in the adopted
Siberian Yupik language; sense of place, including appreciation of the antiquity of their settlement Sirenik.