Lezgian language

Lezgian ( ), also called Lezgi ( ) or Lezgin ( ), is a Northeast Caucasian language. It is spoken by the Lezgins, who live primarily in southern Dagestan—where it is an official language—and northern Azerbaijan. It is classified as "vulnerable" by UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

Lezgian ( ), also called Lezgi ( ) or Lezgin ( ), is a Northeast Caucasian language. It is spoken by the Lezgins, who live primarily in southern Dagestan—where it is an official language—and northern Azerbaijan. It is classified as "vulnerable" by UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

Dialects

According to Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Lezgian is composed of 3 dialects consisting of 17 subdialects. These are: Kyurin Dialect Gyunei (Spoken around along the left bank of the lower reaches of the Samur River basin in the Magaramkentsky, Suleiman-Stalsky Districts including the cities of Magaramkent, Kasumkent and Derbent) Yarkin (Spoken around the middle reaches of Chiragchay River basin in the Suleiman-Stalsky and Khivsky Districts) Kurakh (Spoken around the Kurakh River basin in the Kurakhsky District, including the city of Kurakh) Giliyar (Spoken in the village of Gilyar in the Magaramkentsky District) Gelkhen (Spoken in the village of Gelkhen in the Kurakhsky District) Akhty Dialect Akhtyn (Spoken around the middle reaches of Akhtychay River basin in the Akhtynsky District, including the city of Akhty) Dokuzparin (Spoken around the Usukhchay River basin in the Dokuzparinsky District, including the city of Usukhchay) Kurush (Spoken in the village of Kurush in the Dokuzparinsky District) Dzhaba (Spoken in the village of Dzhaba in the Akhtynsky District) Gdym (Spoken in the village of Gdym in the Akhtynsky District) Dashagil-Filfil (Spoken in the Oghuz District of Azerbaijan) Fiy (Spoken in the village of Fiy in the Akhtynsky District) Quba Dialect Quba (Spoken in the Quba District of Azerbaijan) Kuzun (Spoken in the Qusar District of Azerbaijan including the city of Qusar) Kımıl (Spoken in the village of Qımıl in the Quba District of Azerbaijan) Anykh (Spoken in the village of Əniq in the Qusar District of Azerbaijan) Other classifications differ in their treatment of Lezgian dialects. Glottolog lists 8 dialects of Lezgian, some of which correspond to the villages where they are spoken. The dialects are listed in alphabetical order based on their name in Glottolog: Akhty Anykh Garkin Gyunei Kiuri Kubachi Quba Stal

Phonology

Vowels

has two main allophones: and ; the former prevails in closed syllables (especially before uvulars and ), the latter in open syllables. is very often rounded and raised to after labialized consonants, which may then lose their labialization. For example, becomes or . is more open in stressed syllables and or in pre-stress syllables. In the environment of labialized consonants /e/ is often pronounced as ~ . if a vowel plus sequence is not followed by a vowel, the may be deleted and the vowel nasalized. Thus can be pronounced . Chitoran and Babaliyeva show, at least for Babaliyeva in her native Yargun dialect, pre-tonic high vowels are syncopated.

Consonants

There are 54 consonants in Lezgian. Characters to the right are the letters of the Lezgian Cyrillic Alphabet. Aspiration is not normally indicated in the orthography, despite the fact that it is phonemic.

Grammar

Lezgian is unusual for a Northeast Caucasian language in not having noun classes (also called "grammatical gender"). Standard Lezgian grammar features 18 grammatical cases, produced by agglutinating suffixes, of which 12 are still used in spoken conversation.

Cases

The four grammatical cases are: Absolutive case (basic form of the word, no ending): marks the subject of an intransitive verb and the direct object of a transitive sentence. It is also used to mark a nominal predicate (who or what something turns into/becomes) and as a vocative. Ergative case (various endings; the most common are: -ди, -a or -е; [-di, -a or e], which are added to the Absolutive): marks the subject of transitive verbs, and the subject of some compound intransitive verbs. Genitive case (ending -н [-n]; added to the Ergative): marks possession. It is also used with the meaning 'of', as well as describing the qualities, attributes, and materials. The genitive case precedes the noun that it modifies. Dative case (ending -з [-z]; added to the Ergative): usually marks the indirect object of sentences, that is the recipient of an action. It is also used to mark the subject of some verbs (mainly about emotions) and to express a point of time and direction. There are fourteen Locative cases: Adessive case (ending -в [-v]; added to the Ergative): marks the object of some verbs to mean 'by', 'to', 'with'. Adelative case (ending -вай [-vaj]; added to the Ergative): expresses movement from somewhere. It is also used with the verb 'to be able' and to express an accidental action. Addirective case (ending -вди [-vdi]; added to the Ergative): used as an instrumental case, but also sometimes used with its original meaning, 'in the direction of', and more rarely 'near by'. The Postessive case (ending -хъ [-qh]; added to the Ergative): means 'behind', 'at', 'toward', 'in exchange for', and 'with'. In a construction with the verb ава (ava), it expresses possession. Postelative case (ending -хъай [-qhaj]; added to the Ergative): can either mean 'from' or the cause of fear or shame. Postdirective case (ending -хъди [-qhdi]; added to the Ergative): rarely used case, meaning 'toward(s)'. Subessive case (ending -к [-k]; added to the Ergative): means either 'below' or 'participates'. Subelative case (ending -кай [-kaj]; added to the Ergative): means either 'from below', 'from', '(from) against', 'with' or 'out of' (partitive). It is also used to mark Y in the construction 'X becomes out-of-Y' and can express the topic of a sentence ('about') or the cause of emotions. Subdirective case (ending -кди [-kdi]; added to the Ergative): expresses cause (never motion under), and can mean 'because' or 'of' (when in sentences such as 'the man died of a disease'. Inessive case (endings -а or -е [-a or -e]; added to Absolutive): means 'at', 'in' or 'during/whilst'. Inelative case (endings -ай or -ей [-aj or -ej]; added to Inessive): means 'out of' or 'in return for'. Superessive case (ending -л [-l]; added to the Inessive): means 'on', and also to express the cause of some emotions. Superelative case (ending -лай [-laj]; added to the Inessive): means 'off', 'after' or 'than' (comparison). Superdirective case (ending -лди [-ldi]; added to the Inessive): means 'onto', 'until', 'in' (when followed by an adjective), as an instrumental case (e.g. language) or instructive with abstract nouns.

Declension

The plural form of nouns is most often formed with the suffix -ar (or -jar if the word ends in a vowel). -er is also used to conform with palatal vowel harmony. The suffixes -lar/-ler are borrowed from the Turkic languages and are used for Turkic loanwords. There are two types of declensions.

First declension

Vocabulary

Numbers

The numbers of Lezgian are: Nouns following a number are always in the singular. Numbers precede the noun. "Сад" and "кьвед" lose their final "-д" before a noun. Lezgian numerals work in a similar fashion to the French ones, and are based on the vigesimal system in which "20", not "10", is the base number. "Twenty" in Lezgian is , and higher numbers are formed by adding the suffix -ни to the word (which becomes "къанни"; the same change occurs in пудкъад and кьудкъад) and putting the remaining number afterwards. This way 24 for instance is къанни кьуд ("20 and 4"), and 37 is къанни цӀерид ("20 and 17"). Numbers over 40 are formed similarly (яхцӀур becomes яхцӀурни). 60 and 80 are treated likewise. For numbers over 100 just put a number of hundreds, then (if need be) the word with a suffix, then the remaining number. 659 is thus ругуд вишни яхцӀурни цеӀкӀуьд. The same procedure follows for 1000. 1989 is агьзурни кӀуьд вишни кьудкъанни кӀуьд in Lezgi.

References

Bibliography

External links

Lezgi-Russian online dictionary Appendix:Cyrillic script Notes on the Lezgi language Languages of the World report Lezgian basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database Lezgian Dictionary + Mobile apps

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1377445130 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.