Akhvakh language

Akhvakh
Ашвaлъи мицIи
Region Southern Dagestan, Azerbaijan
Ethnicity Akhvakh
Native speakers
210 in Dagestan (2010 census)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 akv
Glottolog akhv1239[2]

The Akhvakh language (also spelled Axvax, Akhwakh) is a Northeast Caucasian language from the Avar–Andic branch. Ethnologue lists 6500 speakers,[3] but Magomedova and Abulaeva (2007) list 20,000 speakers of the language. Akhvakh has several dialects, though sources do not agree on the number. Ethnologue lists Kaxib, Northern Akhvakh and Southern Akhvakh (which can be further subdivided into the Tlyanub and Tsegob subdialects[4]). Creissels (2010) lists Northern Akhvakh and three dialects of Southern Akhvakh (Cegob, Tljanub, and Ratlub).

A few publications have been made in the Akhvakh language, but for the most part speakers of Akhvakh have adopted Avar as their literary language.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Akhvakh[5]
Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal
central lateral
lenis fortis lenis fortis lenis fortis lenis fortis lenis fortis
Nasal m n
Plosive voiced b d ɡ
voiceless p t k ʔ
ejective kːʼ
Affricate voiced d͡ʒ
voiceless t͡s t͡sː t͡ʃ t͡ʃː t͡ɬ t͡ɬː q͡χ q͡χː
ejective t͡sʼ t͡sːʼ t͡ʃʼ t͡ʃːʼ t͡ɬʼ t͡ɬːʼ q͡χʼ q͡χːʼ
Fricative voiceless s ʃ ʃː ɬ ɬː ç x ħ/ʜ [1] h
voiced v z ʒ ɣ ʕ/ʢ [1]
Trill r
Approximant l j

As with Avar, there are competing analyses of the distinction transcribed in the table with the length sign ː. Length is part of the distinction, but so is articulatory strength, so they have been analyzed as fortis and lenis. The fortis affricates are long in the fricative part of the contour, e.g. [tsː] (tss), not in the stop part as in geminate affricates in languages such as Japanese and Italian [tːs] (tts). Laver (1994) analyzes e.g. t͡ɬː as a two-segment affricatefricative sequence /t͡ɬɬ/ (/tɬɬ/).[6]

Grammar

Agreement classes

Akhvakh has three agreement classes. In the singular, these are human masculine, human feminine, and non-human. In the plural, there are only two—human plural and non-human plural. Akhvakh verbs agree with the absolutive argument (subject of an intransitive or object of a transitive.)

Consider the following examples, which show the general principles. In the first example, the intransitive verb 'run' shows feminine agreement because its subject, 'girl', is feminine. In the second example, the transitive verb 'cook' shows neuter agreement because its object, 'meat', is neuter. (Creissels 2010:114)

Jašeq:'eɬ:-aj-et-ej-i:ni
girlhome-lativefem-run-converb:femfem-go:imperfective
'The girl ran home.'
Ak:'o-deriɬ:'ib-iž-eq:'-e:ni.
wife-ergativemeatneut-eat-converb:neuteat-imperfective
'The wife cooked the meat and ate it.'

Note that in the second example, 'wife' is in the ergative case and appears to be the subject of both the verbs 'cook' and 'eat', but neither verb shows feminine agreement.

Cases

Akhvakh has an ergative-absolutive case-marking system. As the following examples (repeated from above) show, the transitive subject has the ergative case, while an intransitive subject has absolutive case. Absolutive case is not overtly marked by a suffix, but the noun phrase with absolutive case controls agreement on the verb:

Jašeq:'eɬ:-aj-et-ej-i:ni
girlhome-lativefem-run-converb:femfem-go:imperfective
'The girl ran home.'
Ak:'o-deriɬ:'ib-iž-eq:'-e:ni.
wife-ergativemeatneut-eat-converb:neuteat-imperfective
'The wife cooked the meat and ate it.'

In addition to the ergative and absolutive cases, Akhvakh has eighteen other cases, for a total of twenty cases (Creissels 2010:108-9). The additional cases are

Notes

  1. Akhvakh at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Akhvakh". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. Ethnologue entry for Akhvakh, which also mentions its divergent dialects
  4. The peoples of the Red Book: Akhvakhs
  5. Consonant Systems of the North-East Caucasian Languages on TITUS DIDACTICA
  6. Laver (1994) Principles of Phonetics p. 371.

References

Further reading

External links

Akhvakh language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator
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