Tabasaran language
| Tabasaran | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| табасаран чIал tabasaran č’al | ||||
| Spoken in | Russia | |||
| Region | Southern Dagestan | |||
| Ethnicity | Tabasarans | |||
| Native speakers | 129,000 (2002) | |||
| Language family | ||||
| Language codes | ||||
| ISO 639-3 | tab | |||
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Tabasaran (also written Tabassaran) is a Northeast Caucasian language of the Lezgic branch. It is spoken by the Tabasaran people in southern part of the Russian Republic of Dagestan. There are two main dialects: North (Khanag) and South Tabasaran. It has a literary language based on the Southern dialect, one of six in the Dagestan Republic.
Tabasaran is an ergative language. The verb system is relatively simple; verbs agree with the noun in number, person and (in North Tabasaran) class. North Tabasaran has two noun classes (also dubbed with the term "grammatical gender" ), while Southern Tabasaran has none (i.e. one fewer than North Tabasaran).
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[edit] Geographical distribution
It is spoken in the basin of Upper Rubas-chai and Upper Chirakh-chai.
[edit] Phonology
[edit] Vowels
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[edit] Consonants
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Epi- glottal |
Glottal | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | lab. | |||||||||||||||
| lenis | fortis | lenis | fortis | lenis | fortis | lenis | fortis | lenis | fortis | lenis | fortis | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ||||||||||||||
| Plosive | voiced | b | d | ɡ | ɢ | |||||||||||
| voiceless | p | pː | t | tː | k | kː | q | qː | ʔ | |||||||
| ejective | pʼ | tʼ | kʼ | qʼ | ||||||||||||
| Affricate | voiced | d͡z | d͡ʒ | d͡ʒʷ | ||||||||||||
| voiceless | t͡s | t͡sː | t͡ʃ | t͡ʃː | t͡ʃʷ | t͡ʃːʷ | ||||||||||
| ejective | t͡sʼ | t͡ʃʼ | t͡ʃʷʼ | |||||||||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | fː | s | sː | ʃ | ʃː | ʃʷ | ʃːʷ | x | xː | ʜ | ||||
| voiced | v | z | ʒ | ʒʷ | ɣ | ʢ | ɦ | |||||||||
| Trill | r | |||||||||||||||
| Approximant | l | j | ||||||||||||||
- Note that the source names the epiglottal series ″pharyngeal″ indiscriminately in all the tables, also when it includes a plosive and thus clearly is not a true pharyngeal.
[edit] Writing system
Tabasaran is written using Cyrillic.
| Letter | IPA |
|---|---|
| А а | /ɑ/ |
| Аь аь | /æ/ |
| Б б | /b/ |
| В в | /v/ |
| Г г | /ɡ/ |
| Гг гг | /ɣ/ |
| Гъ гъ | /ʕ/ |
| Гь гь | /h/ |
| Д д | /d/ |
| Е е | /ɛ/, /jɛ/ |
| Ё ё | /jo/ |
| Ж ж | /ʒ/, /dʒ/ |
| Жв жв | /ʒʷ/ |
| З з | /z/, /dz/ |
| И и | /i/ |
| Й й | /j/ |
| К к | /kʰ/ |
| Кк кк | /kː/ |
| Къ къ | /qːʰ/ |
| Кь кь | /qʼ/ |
| КӀ кӀ | /kʼ/ |
| Л л | /l/ |
| М м | /m/ |
| Н н | /n/ |
| О о | /o/ |
| П п | /pʰ/ |
| ПП пп | /pː/ |
| ПӀ пӀ | /pʼ/ |
| Р р | /r/ |
| С с | /s/ |
| Т т | /tʰ/ |
| Тт тт | /tː/ |
| ТӀ тӀ | /tʼ/ |
| У у | /u/ |
| Уь уь | /y/ |
| Ф ф | /f/ |
| Х х | /ɦ/ |
| Хъ хъ | /qʰ/ |
| Хь хь | /x/ |
| Ц ц | /tsʰ/ |
| Цц цц | /tsːʰ/ |
| ЦӀ цӀ | /tsʼ/ |
| Ч ч | /tʃʰ/ |
| Чв чв | /tʃʷʰ/ |
| Чч чч | /tʃːʰ/ |
| ЧӀ чӀ | /tʃʼ/ |
| Ш ш | /ʃ/ |
| Шв шв | /ʃʷ/ |
| Щ щ | /ɕ/ |
| Ъ ъ | /ʔ/ |
| Ы ы | /ɨ/ |
| Ь ь | |
| Э э | /ɛ/ |
| Ю ю | /y/, /ju/ |
| Я я | /æ/, /jɑ/ |
Note: The letters indicated in red are encountered only in loanwords from Russian.
[edit] Grammar
Tabasaran is very probably[clarification needed] an active language of the fluid-S type[clarification needed] . It is reported to have fifty-three noun cases [2] but see [3] and.[4]
[edit] Sample
Uwu aldakurawu "Уву алдакураву" — "You are falling."
Uzuz uwu kkunduzuz "Узуз уву ккундузуз" — "I love you."
Uwu fudžuwa? "Уву фужува?" — "Who are you?"
Fici wuna? "Фици вуна?" — "How are you?"
Zakur ʕürza "Закур гъюрза" — "I'll come tomorrow"
Uzu kana qheza "Узу кана хъэза" — "I'll be back"
[edit] References
- ^ Consonant Systems of the North-East Caucasian Languages on TITUS DIDACTICA
- ^ Comrie, B (1981.). The languages of the Soviet Union. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Comrie, B. & Polinsky, M. (1998). The great Daghestan case hoax.
- ^ Blake, Barry J. (2001). Case. Cambridge University Press.
- Chanmagomedov, B.G.-K. & K.T. Šalbuzov, Tabasaransko-russkij slovar’, Moskva: Ilim, 2001, ISBN 5-02-022620-3 [Includes outline of Tabasaran grammar (Grammatičeskij očerk tabasaranskogo jazyka) by K.K. Kurbanov (p. 395-476)]
[edit] External links
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Tabasaran language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator |
- Tabasaran dictionary online from IDS (select simple or advanced browsing)
- Entry in the Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire
- Sample text
- Description at Languages of the World
- Entry at the Rosetta Project
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