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It has generally been assumed in the literature on ergativity that the phenomenon of ergative clause structure in Chukotkan languages represents a family-internal development reflecting the common source of such constructions in earlier passives. On closer inspection it appears that Chukotkan ergativity is of a typologically quite aberrant kind, however, whose most likely source is to be found in influence from neighbouring Eskimo. Prior to that, all Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages had already developed complex transitive verbal paradigms of a non-ergative type.