Dargwa language

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 modified version of the Cyrillic script.

As per the 2002 Census, there are 429,347 speakers of Dargwa proper in Dagestan, 7,188 in neighbouring Kalmykia, 1,620 in Khantia-Mansia, 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 Khantia-Mansia.

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

• 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 canʼt be made, as the glottis needs to be closed. Pending clarification, this row has been transcripted here as the epiglottal and glottal columns.

References

External links

• Appendix:Cyrillic script
• Dargin language (Russian)