Rutul language

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Rutul мыхIабишды чIел myxʼabišdy čʼel
Spoken in:	Russia, Azerbaijan
Total speakers:	more than 30,000
Language family:	Northeast Caucasian Lezgic Rutul
Writing system:	Cyrillic alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`cau`
ISO 639-3:	`rut`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

Rutul is a language spoken by the Rutuls, an ethnic group living in Dagestan (Russia) and some parts of Azerbaijan. The word Rutul derives from the name of a Dagestani village where speakers of this language make up the majority.^[1]

1 Classification
2 History
3 Related languages
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Classification

Rutul belongs to the Lezgic group of the Northeast Caucasian (Dagestan) language family. Rutuls call their language myxʼabišdy čʼel.

[edit] History

The term Rutul was first used in the 15th century to designate Lezgic-speaking people in what is now southern Dagestan and Azerbaijan's Shaki rayon. It has been in official use since after 1917. Rutul was not a written language until the writing system for it (based on the Cyrillic alphabet) was developed in 1990. Speakers are often bilingual or multilingual having a good command of Azeri, Lezgi and/or Russian languages. There are 8 dialects and 2 sub-dialects of Rutul. The literary version of the language remains in the process of development. In the Rutul-populated regions of southern Russia, Rutul is taught in primary schools (grades 1 to 4).^[1]

[edit] Related languages

Among the languages of the Lezgic group, Tsakhur appears to be the closest one to Rutul.^[2] Other than these two, there are eight more languages in the Lezgic group, namely: Lezgi, Tabasaran, Aghul, Budugh, Kryts, Khinalugh, Udi and Archi.