Abaza language

Abaza
Абаза Бызшва, Abaza Byzšwa
Native to	Russia, Turkey
Region	Karachay-Cherkess Republic of Russia
Native speakers	~45,000
Language family	Northwest Caucasian Abkhaz Abaza
Official status
Official language in	Russian autonomous republic of Karachay-Cherkess
Language codes
ISO 639-2	cau
ISO 639-3	abq
ELP	Abaza

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.

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

• Ethnologue: Languages of the World (unknown ed.). SIL International.
• Entry for Abaza at Rosetta Project