Abaza language

Abaza
Абаза Бызшва, Abaza Byzšwa
Spoken in	Russia, Turkey
Region	Karachay–Cherkess Republic of Russia
Ethnicity	Abazins
Native speakers	48,000  (1995–2002)
Language family	Northwest Caucasian Abazgi Abaza
Official status
Official language in	Russian autonomous republic of Karachay–Cherkess
Regulated by	No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-3	abq

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 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 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 voiced pharyngeal fricative. Work on Abaza has been carried out by W. S. Allen, Brian O'Herin, and John Colarusso.

Phonology

		Labial	Alveolar		Post- alveolar			Velar			Uvular			Pharyngeal		Glottal
			central	lateral	plain	pal.	lab.	plain	pal.	lab.	plain	pal.	lab.	plain	lab.
Plosive	voiceless	p	t					k	kʲ	kʷ	q	qʲ	qʷ			ʔ
	voiced	b	d					ɡ	ɡʲ	ɡʷ
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ					kʼ	kʲʼ	kʷʼ	qʼ	qʲʼ	qʷʼ
Affricate	voiceless		t͡s		t͡ʃ	t͡ʃʲ	t͡ʃʷ
	voiced		d͡z		d͡ʒ	d͡ʒʲ	d͡ʒʷ
	ejective		t͡s		t͡ʃʼ	t͡ʃʲʼ	t͡ʃʷʼ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ɬ	ʃ	ʃʲ	ʃʷ	x	xʲ	xʷ				ħ	ħʷ
	voiced	v	z	ɮ	ʒ	ʒʲ	ʒʷ	ɣ	ɣʲ	ɣʷ				ʕ	ʕʷ
	ejective	fʼ		ɬʼ
Nasal		m		n
Approximant				l					j
Trill			r

The vowels /o, a, u/ may have a /j/ in front of it.

	Front	Central	Back
Close			u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open	a

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

External links

• Entry for Abaza at EKI's KNAB

• Abaza language at Ethnologue (16th ed., 2009)
• Entry for Abaza at Omniglot
• Entry for Abaza at Rosetta Project