Abaza language

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Abaza Абаза Бызшва, Abaza Byzšwa
Spoken in:	Russia, Turkey
Region:	Karachay-Cherkess Republic of Russia
Total speakers:	~45,000
Language family:	Caucasian (disputed)  North Caucasian (disputed)   Northwest Caucasian    Abkhaz-Abazin     Abaza
Official status
Official language in:	Russian autonomous republic of Karachay-Cherkess
Regulated by:	no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	cau
ISO 639-3:	abq
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

The Abaza language (Абаза Бызшва, Abaza Byzšwa) is a language of the Caucasus mountains in the Russian Karachay-Cherkess Republic 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 using a modified Cyrillic alphabet, as well as another 10,000 in Turkey, where the Roman alphabet is used.

Abaza, like its relatives in the family of Northwest Caucasian languages, is highly agglutinative and has a large consonantal inventory (63 phonemes) coupled with a minimal vowel inventory (two vowels). It is very closely related to Abkhaz, but it preserves a few phonemes which Abkhaz lacks, such as a pharyngeal voiced fricative. Work on Abaza has been carried out by W. S. Allen, Brian O'Herin, and John Colarusso.

[edit] Orthography

А а	Б б	В в	Г г	Гв гв	Гъ гъ	Гъв гъв	Гъь гъь
Гь гь	ГӀ гӀ	ГӀв гӀв	Д д	Дж дж	Джв джв	Джь джь	Дз дз
Е е	Ё ё	Ж ж	Жв жв	Жь жь	З з	И и	Й й
К к	Кв кв	Къ къ	Къв къв	Къь къь	Кь кь	КӀ кӀ	КӀв кӀв
КӀь кӀь	Л л	Ль ль	М м	Н н	О о	П п	ПӀ пӀ
Р р	С с	Т т	Тл тл	Тш тш	ТӀ тӀ	У у	Ф ф
Х х	Хв хв	Хь хь	ХӀ хӀ	ХӀв хӀв	Ц ц	ЦӀ цӀ	Ч ч
Чв чв	ЧӀ чӀ	ЧӀв чӀв	Ш ш	ШӀ шӀ	Шв шв	Щ щ	Ъ ъ
Ы ы	Ь ь	Э э	Ю ю	Я я

[edit] External links

• Ethnologue report for Abaza

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