Aghul language

Aghul
агъул чӀал / Ağul ç'al
Native to Russia, also spoken in Azerbaijan
Region Southeastern Dagestan
Ethnicity Aguls
Native speakers
 29,000  (2010 census)[1]
Northeast Caucasian

  • Lezgic

    • Samur
      • Eastern Samur
        • Lezgi–Aghul–Tabasaran
          • Aghul
Cyrillic
Official status
Official language in
  Dagestan (Russia)
Language codes
ISO 639-3 agx
Glottolog aghu1253[2]

Aghul, also spelled Agul, is a language spoken by the Aguls who live in southern Dagestan, Russia and in Azerbaijan. It is spoken by about 29,300[3] people (2010 census).

Classification

Aghul belongs to the Eastern Samur group of the Lezgic branch of the Northeast Caucasian language family.

Geographic distribution

In 2002, Aghul was spoken by 28,300 people in Russia, mainly in Southern Dagestan, as well as 32 people in Azerbaijan.[4]

Official status

Aghul is not an official language, and Lezgian is used as the literary language.

Related languages

There are nine languages in the Lezgian language family, namely: Aghul, Tabasaran, Rutul, Lezgian, Tsakhur, Budukh, Kryts, Udi and Archi.

Phonology

Aghul has contrastive epiglottal consonants.[5] Aghul makes, like many Northeast Caucasian languages, a distinction between tense consonants with concomitant length and weak consonants. The tense consonants are characterized by the intensiveness (tension) of articulation, which naturally leads to a lengthening of the consonant, which is the reason why they are traditionally transcribed with the length diacritic. The gemination of the consonant does not by itself create its tension, though morphologically tense consonants do often derive from adjoining two single weak consonants. Some Aghul dialects have an especially large number of permitted initial tense consonants.[5]

Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Aghul[6]
Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Epi-
glottal		 Glottal
plain lab.
Nasal m n
Plosive voiced b d ɡ
voiceless fortis pː tː kː qː
lenis p t k q ʔ
ejective pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ
Affricate voiced d͡ʒ d͡ʒʷ
voiceless fortis t͡sː t͡ʃː t͡ʃːʷ
lenis t͡s t͡ʃ t͡ʃʷ
ejective t͡sʼ t͡ʃʼ t͡ʃʷʼ
Fricative voiceless fortis fː sː ʃː ʃːʷ xː χː
lenis f s ʃ ʃʷ x χ ʜ
voiced v z ʒ ʒʷ ʁ ʢ ɦ
Trill r
Approximant l j

Alphabet

А а Б б В в Г г Гъ гъ Гь гь ГьI гьI ГI гI
Д д Дж дж Е е Ё ё Ж ж З з И и Й й
К к Кк кк Къ къ Кь кь КI кI Л л М м Н н
О о П п Пп пп ПI пI Р р С с Т т Тт тт
ТI тI У у Уь уь Ф ф Х х Хъ хъ Хь хь ХI хI
Ц ц ЦI цI Ч ч Чч чч ЧI чI Ш ш Щ щ ъ
I ы ь Э э Ю ю Я я

Grammar

Case

There are four core cases: absolutive, ergative, genitive, and dative, as well as a large series of location cases. All cases other than the absolutive (which is unmarked) and ergative take the ergative suffix before the their own suffix.

Adjectives

Independent and predicative adjectives take number marker and class marker; also case if used as nominal. As attribute they are invariable. Thus idžed "good", ergative, idžedi, etc. -n, -s; pl. idžedar; but Idže insandi hhuč qini "The good man killed the wolf" (subject in ergative case).

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

  Singular (Aghul) Plural (Aghul) Singular (Tokip) Plural (Tokip)
1 zun čin (ex), xin (in) či (ex), xi (in) či, xi
2 wun čun čun ču

References

  1. ↑ Aghul at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Aghul". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. ↑ http://www.ethnologue.com/language/agx
  4. ↑ Ethnologue entry for Aghul
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:167–168)
  6. ↑ Consonant Systems of the North-East Caucasian Languages on TITUS DIDACTICA

Bibliography

External links

Aghul language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator