Rutul language

Rutul
мыхӀабишды чӀел myxʼabišdy č̣el
Pronunciation [mɨxabiʃdɨ t͡ʃʼɛl]
Native to Russia, Azerbaijan
Region Southern Dagestan, Russian–Azerbaijani border
Ethnicity Rutul
Native speakers
 30,000 in Russia (2010 census)[1]
17,000 in Azerbaijan (no date)[2]
Cyrillic
Official status
Official language in
 Dagestan (Russia)
Language codes
ISO 639-3 rut
Glottolog rutu1240[3]

Rutul in the Caucasus

Rutul is a language spoken by the Rutuls, an ethnic group living in Dagestan (Russia) and some parts of Azerbaijan. It is spoken by 30,000 people in Dagestan (2010 census)[4] and 17,000 (no date) in Azerbaijan.[2] The word Rutul derives from the name of a Dagestani village where speakers of this language make up the majority.[5]

Rutul is endangered in Russia[6] and classified as "definitely endangered" by UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.[7]

Classification

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

History

Rutul was not a written language until the writing system for it (based on Cyrillic) was developed in 1990. A Latin alphabet was developed in 2013 based on the Shin-Shorsu dialect.[8] Speakers are often bilingual or multilingual, having a good command of the Azeri, Lezgian and/or Russian languages. There are 8 dialects and 2 subdialects 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).[5]

Among the languages of the Lezgic group, Tsakhur appears to be the closest relative of Rutul.[9] Other than these two, there are seven more languages in the Lezgic group, namely: Lezgian, Tabasaran, Aghul, Budukh, Kryts, Udi and Archi.

Rutul alphabet

See also

References

  1. ↑ Rutul at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. 1 2 Rutul language at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
  3. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Rutul". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. ↑ Информационные материалы об окончательных итогах Всероссийской переписи населения 2010 года
  5. 1 2 (in Russian) ETHEO: Rutul Language
  6. ↑ Published in: Encyclopedia of the world’s endangered languages. Edited by Christopher Moseley. London & New York: Routledge, 2007. 211–280.
  7. ↑ UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger
  8. ↑ Clarkson, Jonathan; Iurkova, Elena (December 2015). "Important Factors in the Development of an Orthography: Shin-Shorsu Rutul—a Case Study". SIL Forum for Language Fieldwork 2015-002. SIL International. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015. Retrieved 2016-06-22.
  9. ↑ (in Russian) The Tsakhur language. The ETHEO Project. Last updated 11 October 2005. Retrieved 26 December 2006
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