Abaza language
| Abaza | |
|---|---|
| абаза бызшва, abaza byzšwa | |
| Native to | Russia, Turkey |
| Region | Karachay-Cherkessia |
| Ethnicity | Abazins |
Native speakers | 48,000 (1995–2010)[1] |
| Official status | |
Official language in | Karachay-Cherkessia (Russia) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 |
abq |
| Glottolog |
abaz1241[2] |
The Abaza language (абаза бызшва, abaza byzšwa; Adyghe: абазэбзэ) is a language of the Caucasus mountains in the Russian Karachay–Cherkess Republic spoken by the Abazins. It consists of two dialects, the Ashkherewa dialect and the T'ap'anta dialect, which is the literary standard.
Abaza is spoken by approximately 35,000 people in Russia, where it is written in a Cyrillic alphabet, as well as another 10,000 in Turkey, where the Latin script is used.
Abaza, like its relatives in the family of Northwest Caucasian languages, is a highly agglutinative language. For example, the verb in the English sentence "He couldn't make them give it back to her" contains four arguments (a term used in valency grammar): he, them, give it back, to her. Abaza marks arguments morphologically, and incorporates all four arguments as pronominal prefixes on the verb.[3]
It has a large consonantal inventory (63 phonemes) coupled with a minimal vowel inventory (two vowels). It is very closely related to Abkhaz,[4] but it preserves a few phonemes which Abkhaz lacks, such as a voiced pharyngeal fricative. Work on Abaza has been carried out by W. S. Allen, Brian O'Herin, and John Colarusso.
Phonology
| Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central | lateral | plain | pal. | lab. | plain | pal. | lab. | plain | pal. | lab. | plain | lab. | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||||||||||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | kʲ | kʷ | q | qʷ | ʔ | |||||||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | ɡʲ | ɡʷ | |||||||||||
| ejective | pʼ | tʼ | kʼ | kʲʼ | kʷʼ | qʼ | qʲʼ | qʷʼ | ||||||||
| Affricate | voiceless | t͡s | t͡ʃ | t͡ɕ | t͡ʃʷ | |||||||||||
| voiced | d͡z | d͡ʒ | d͡ʑ | d͡ʒʷ | ||||||||||||
| ejective | t͡sʼ | t͡ʃʼ | t͡ɕʼ | t͡ʃʷʼ | ||||||||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | ɬ | ʃ | ɕ | ʃʷ | χ | χʲ | χʷ | ħ | ħʷ | ||||
| voiced | v | z | n | ʒ | ʑ | ʒʷ | ʁ | ʁʲ | ʁʷ | ʕ | ʕʷ | |||||
| ejective | fʼ | ɬʼ | ||||||||||||||
| Approximant | ɬ | j | w | |||||||||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||||||||||
The vowels /o, a, u/ may have a /j/ in front of it.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | e | ə | o |
| Open | ɡ |
Orthography
Since 1938, Abaza has been written with the version of the Cyrillic alphabet shown below.[7][8]
| А а [a] |
Б б /b/ |
В в /v/ |
Г г /ɡ/ |
Гв гв /ɡʷ/ |
Гъ гъ /ʁ/ |
Гъв гъв /ʁʷ/ |
Гъь гъь /ʁʲ/ |
| Гь гь /ɡʲ/ |
ГӀ гӀ /ʕ/ |
ГӀв гӀв /ʕʷ/ |
Д д /d/ |
Дж дж /d͡ʒ/ |
Джв джв /d͡ʒʷ/ |
Джь джь /d͡ʑ/ |
Дз дз /d͡z/ |
| Е е [e] |
Ё ё [jo] |
Ж ж /ʒ/ |
Жв жв /ʒʷ/ |
Жь жь /ʑ/ |
З з /z/ |
И и [i] |
Й й /j/ |
| К к /k/ |
Кв кв /kʷ/ |
Къ къ /qʼ/ |
Къв къв /qʷʼ/ |
Къь къь /qʲʼ/ |
Кь кь /kʲ/ |
КӀ кӀ /kʼ/ |
КӀв кӀв /kʷʼ/ |
| КӀь кӀь /kʲʼ/ |
Л л /l/ |
Ль ль /ɮ/ |
ЛӀ лӀ /ɬʼ/ |
М м /m/ |
Н н /n/ |
О о [o] |
П п /p/ |
| ПӀ пӀ /pʼ/ |
Р р /r/ |
С с /s/ |
Т т /t/ |
Тл тл /ɬ/ |
Тш тш /t͡ʃ/ |
ТӀ тӀ /tʼ/ |
У у /w/, [u] |
| Ф ф /f/ |
ФӀ фӀ /fʼ/ |
Х х /χ/ |
Хв хв /χʷ/ |
Хъ хъ /q/ |
Хъв хъв /qʷ/ |
Хь хь /χʲ/ |
ХӀ хӀ /ħ/ |
| ХӀв хӀв /ħʷ/ |
Ц ц /t͡s/ |
ЦӀ цӀ /t͡sʼ/ |
Ч ч /t͡ɕ/ |
Чв чв /t͡ʃʷ/ |
ЧӀ чӀ /t͡ɕʼ/ |
ЧӀв чӀв /t͡ʃʷʼ/ |
Ш ш /ʃ/ |
| Шв шв /ʃʷ/ |
ШӀ шӀ /t͡ʃʼ/ |
Щ щ /ɕ/ |
Ъ ъ /ʔ/ |
Ы ы [ə] |
Э э [e] |
Ю ю [ju] |
Я я [ja] |
References
- ↑ Abaza at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Abaza". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- ↑ Dixon, R.M.W. (2000). "A Typology of Causatives: Form, Syntax, and Meaning". In Dixon, R.M.W. & Aikhenvald, Alexendra Y. Changing Valency: Case Studies in Transitivity. Cambridge University Press. p 57
- ↑ Hoiberg, Dale H., ed. (2010). "Abkhaz". Encyclopedia Britannica. I: A-ak Bayes (15th ed.). Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. p. 33. ISBN 978-1-59339-837-8.
- ↑ Starostin, Sergei A.; Nikolayev, Sergei L. (1994). A North Caucasian Etymological Dictionary: Preface, pp. 194-196
- ↑ Consonant Systems of the North-West Caucasian Languages (TITUS DIDACTICA)
- ↑ Abaza (Place Names Database, Institute of the Estonian Language)
- ↑ Abaza alphabet, pronunciation and language (Omniglot)
- Генко А. Н. Абазинский язык. Грамматический очерк наречия Тапанта. Москва-Лениград: АН СССР, 1955. (Russian)
- Ломтатидзе К. В. Тапантский диалект абхазского языка (с текстами). Тбилиси: Издательство Академии Наук Грузинской ССР, 1944. (Russian)
- Ломтатидзе К. В. Ашхарский диалект и его место среди других абхазско-абазинских диалектов. С текстами. Тбилиси: Издательство Академии Наук Грузинской ССР, 1954. (Russian)
- Мальбахова-Табулова Н. Т. Грамматика абазинского языка. Фонетика и морфология. Черкесск, 1976. (Russian)
- Чирикба В. А. Абазинский язык. В: Языки Российской Федерации и Соседних Государств. Энциклопедия. В трех томах. Т. 1. A-И. Москва: Наука, 1998, с. 1-8. (Russian)
- Allen, W.S. Structure and system in the Abaza verbal complex. In: Transactions of the Philological Society (Hertford), Oxford, 1956, p. 127-176.
- Bouda K. Das Abasinische, eine unbekannte abchasische Mundart. In: ZDMG, BD. 94, H. 2 (Neue Folge, Bd. 19), Berlin-Leipzig, 1940, S. 234—250. (German)
- O’Herin, B. Case and agreement in Abaza. Summer Institute of Linguistics, September 2002.
External links
 |
Abaza language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator |
- The first in the world Abaza–Russian and Russian–Abaza online dictionaries
- Abaza basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
- Recordings in Abaza language
- World Atlas of Language Structures information on Abaza
| Federal language | |
|---|---|
| State languages of federal subjects | |
| Languages with official status | |
| Scripts | |
