Dargwa language

"Dargi" redirects here. For places in Iran, see Dargi, Iran.

Dargwa
дарган мез dargan mez
Native to	Russia
Region	Dagestan
Ethnicity	Dargins
Native speakers	440,000 (2002 census)
Language family	Northeast Caucasian Dargin Dargwa
Official status
Official language in	Dagestan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	dar

The Dargwa or Dargin language is spoken by the Dargin people of Dagestan. It is the literary and main dialect of the dialect continuum constituting the Dargin languages. The four other languages in this dialect continuum (Kajtak, Kubachi, Itsari, and Chirag) are often considered variants of Dargwa. Ethnologue lists these under Dargwa, but recognizes that these may be different languages. Its people are Sunni Muslims. Dargwa uses a Cyrillic script.

According to the 2002 Census, there are 429,347 speakers of Dargwa proper in Dagestan, 7,188 in neighbouring Kalmykia, 1,620 in Khanty–Mansi AO, 680 in Chechnya, and hundreds more in other parts of Russia. Figures for the Lakh dialect are 142,523 in Dagestan, 1,504 in Kabardino-Balkaria, 708 in Khanty–Mansi.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Dargwa

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Epi- glottal	Glottal
Nasal		m	n
Plosive	voiced		d			ɡ	ɢ	ʡ
	voiceless	p	t			k	q
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ			kʼ	qʼ	ʡʼ
Affricate	voiced		d͡z	d͡ʒ
	voiceless		t͡s	t͡ʃ
	ejective		t͡sʼ	t͡ʃʼ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ʃ	ç	x
	voiced	v	z	ʒ		ɣ	ʁ		ɦ
Trill				r
Approximant			l		j

• Note that the source is rather ambiguous in its using the term laryngeal for a row of radical consonants that includes both a voiced and a glottalic (i.e. ejective) plosive. A voiced glottal plosive cannot be made, because the glottis needs to be closed. Pending clarification, this row has been transcribed here as the epiglottal and glottal columns.

External links

• Appendix:Cyrillic script
• Dargin language Template:Ru icon