Abaza language

Abaza
Abaza
абаза бызшва, abaza byzšwa
Native to	Russia, Turkey
Region	Karachay-Cherkessia
Ethnicity	Abazins
Native speakers	(48,000 cited 1995–2010)
Language family	Northwest Caucasian Abazgi Abaza; ;
Official status
Official language in	Karachay-Cherkessia (Russia)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	abq
Glottolog	abaz1241
ELP	Abaza
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The Abaza language (абаза бызшва, abaza byzšwa; Template:Lang-ady) 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.^[2]

It has a large consonantal inventory (63 phonemes) coupled with a minimal vowel inventory (two vowels). It is very closely related to Abkhaz,^[3] 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
		Labial	central	lateral	plain	pal.	lab.	plain	pal.	lab.	plain	pal.	lab.	plain	lab.	Glottal
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	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	ɮ	ʒ	ʑ	ʒʷ				ʁ	ʁʲ	ʁʷ	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	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open	a

Orthography

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 [d͡ʐ]	Джв джв [d͡ʑ]	Джь джь [d͡ʒ]	Дз дз [d͡z]
Е е [e]	Ё ё [jo]	Ж ж [ʐ]	Жв жв [ʑ]	Жь жь [ʒ]	И и [i]	Й й [j]	К к [kʰ]
Кв кв [kʷʰ]	Къ къ [qʼ]	Къв къв [qʷʼ]	Къь къь [qʼʲ]	Кь кь [kʲʰ]	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 [pʰ]	ПӀ пӀ [pʼ]
Р р [r]	С с [s]	Т т [tʰ]	Тл тл [ɬ]	Тш тш [͡tʂʰ]	ТӀ тӀ [tʼ]	У у [u/w]	Ф ф [f]
ФӀ фӀ [fʼ]	Х х [x]	Хв хв [xʷ]	Хъ хъ [qʰ]	Хъв хъв [qʷʰ]	Хь хь [xʲ]	ХӀ хӀ [ħ]	ХӀв хӀв [ħʷ]
Ц ц [t͡s]	ЦӀ цӀ [t͡sʼ]	Ч ч [t͡ʃʰ]	Чв чв [t͡ɕʰ]	ЧӀ чӀ [t͡ʃʼ]	ЧӀв чӀв [t͡ɕʼ]	Ш ш [ʂ]	Шв шв [ɕ]
ШӀ шӀ [͡tʂʼ]	Щ щ [ʃ]	Ъ ъ [ʔ]	Ы ы [ə]	Хь [qʲʰ]	Ю ю [ju]	Я я [ja]

References

^ Abaza at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
^ 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. Vol. I: A-ak Bayes (15th ed.). Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. p. 33. ISBN 978-1-59339-837-8.

Генко А. Н. Абазинский язык. Грамматический очерк наречия Тапанта. Москва-Лениград: АН СССР, 1955. Template:Ru icon
Ломтатидзе К. В. Тапантский диалект абхазского языка (с текстами). Тбилиси: Издательство Академии Наук Грузинской ССР, 1944. Template:Ru icon
Ломтатидзе К. В. Ашхарский диалект и его место среди других абхазско-абазинских диалектов. С текстами. Тбилиси: Издательство Академии Наук Грузинской ССР, 1954. Template:Ru icon
Мальбахова-Табулова Н. Т. Грамматика абазинского языка. Фонетика и морфология. Черкесск, 1976. Template:Ru icon
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. Template:Ru icon
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. Template:De icon
O’Herin, B. Case and agreement in Abaza. Summer Institute of Linguistics, September 2002.

External links

[e18-1] Abaza at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)

[2] 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

[EB-3] Hoiberg, Dale H., ed. (2010). "Abkhaz". Encyclopedia Britannica. Vol. I: A-ak Bayes (15th ed.). Chicago, IL: Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. p. 33. ISBN 978-1-59339-837-8.

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[2]

[3]

v t e Languages of Russia
Federal language	Russian
State languages of federal subjects	Abaza Adyghe Aghul Altai Northern Altai Southern Altai Avar Azerbaijani Bashkir Buryat Chechen Chuvash Crimean Tatar Dargwa Ingush Kabardian Kalmyk Karachay-Balkar Khakas Komi Kumyk Lak Lezgin Mari Hill Meadow Mordvin Erzya Moksha Nogai Ossetian Rutul Yakut/Sakha Tabasaran Tat Tatar Tsakhur Tuvan Udmurt Ukrainian
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Scripts	Cyrillic¹ Cyrillic Braille Latin script² Mongolian script (Buryat script, Kalmyk script)²
¹ In Russia, the Cyrillic alphabet is officially supported. ² For other, non-Cyrillic alphabets, separate federal laws are required. Languages of Russia Wikipedia in languages of Russia Mass media by language of Russia