Tsakhur language
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| Tsakhur цIаIхна миз cʼäxna miz |
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|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Azerbaijan, Russia | |
| Total speakers: | about 30,000 | |
| Language family: | Northeast Caucasian Lezgic Tsakhur |
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| Writing system: | Latin alphabet in Azerbaijan, Cyrillic alphabet in Russia | |
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | cau | |
| ISO 639-3: | tkr | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
Tsakhur is a language spoken by the Tsakhurs, an ethnic group, which populates northern Azerbaijan and southwestern Dagestan (Russia). The word Tsakhur derives from the name of a Dagestani village where speakers of this language make up the majority.
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[edit] Classification
Tsakhur belongs to the Lezgic group of the Northeast Caucasian (Dagestan) language family. Tsakhurs call their language C'aiχna miz.
[edit] History
The first written documentation of Tsakhur dates back to 1895 and is attributed to Roderich von Erckert. The first description of Tsakhur grammar was published by Adolf Dirr in 1913.[1]
In the 1930s, a literary form of Tsakhur was developed. Starting from 1934, the language was taught in primary schools in Azerbaijan and Dagestan. In 1938, the use of literary Tsakhur in Azerbaijan was discontinued but regained its status in 1989.[1]
The writing system of Tsakhur in Azerbaijan is based on Latin alphabet, while in Dagestan the language uses Cyrillic alphabet. In the past (as early as the 11th century) there have been attempts to write in Tsakhur using Arabic alphabet.[2]
[edit] Geographic distribution
Tsakhur is spoken mostly in rural areas of Azerbaijan's Zagatala and Gakh rayons, as well as mountainous parts of Dagestan's Rutul region. There are 15,900 Tsakhurs in Azerbaijan (1999 census) and 10,400 in Russia (2002 census). In 1989, 93% of them reported Tsakhur as their first language.[1]
[edit] Official status
In Azerbaijan and Russia, Tsakhur is taught as a subject in primary schools (grades 1 to 4) in Tsakhur-populated regions. Newspapers and radio broadcast in Tsakhur are also available. However the language does not have an official status.[1]
[edit] Related languages
Among the languages of the Lezgic group, Rutul appears to be the closest one to Tsakhur. Other than these two, there are eight more languages in the Lezgic group, namely: Lezgi, Tabasaran, Aghul, Budugh, Kryts, Khinalugh, Udi and Archi.
[edit] Grammar
Similar to many Northeast Caucasian languages, Tsakhur is known for its complex phonology and a large amount of vowel phonemes (including 7 simple, 5 pharyngealized and 3 umlauted vowels). Its first in-depth phonological description was provided by Nikolai Trubetskoi in 1931. Tsakhur has 18 grammatical cases and has retained suffixaufnahme. Verbs may have singular and plural forms, and 7 grammatical moods. The tense system is complex. In contrast to the related languages, Tsakhur sentences can be formed by affective construction.[2]
[edit] Dialects
The two major dialects of the Tsakhur language are Tsakh and Gelmets.[1]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e The Sociolinguistic Situation of the Tsakhur in Azerbaijan by John M. Clifton et al. SIL International, 2005
- ^ a b (Russian) The Tsakhur language. The ETHEO Project. Last updated 11 October 2005. Retrieved 26 December 2006
