Lezgian, also called Lezgi, is a language spoken by the Lezgins who live in southern Dagestan, and northern Azerbaijan. Lezgian is a literary language and an official language of Dagestan.

Geographic distribution

In 2002, Lezgian was spoken by about 397,000 people in Russia, mainly Southern Dagestan, and in 2007 by 364,000 people in mainly the Qusar and Khachmaz provinces of northeastern Azerbaijan. Lezgian is also spoken in Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. The total number of speakers is about 783,720.^[1]

Related languages

There are nine languages in the Lezgic language family, namely: Lezgian, Tabasaran, Rutul, Aghul, Tsakhur, Budukh, Kryts, Udi and Archi. These languages have the same names as the Lezgic ethnic subgroups.

Some of its dialects are considered very different from the standard form, including the Quba dialect spoken in Azerbaijan.^[1]

Phonology

Vowels

• /a/ has two main allophones: [ɑ] and [ʌ]; the former prevails in closed syllables (especially before uvulars and /r/), the latter in open syllables.
• /a/ is very often rounded after labialized consonants, which may then lose their labialization.
• /e/ is open ([ɛ]) in stressed syllables
• if a vowel plus /n/ sequence is not followed by a vowel, the /n/ may be deleted and the vowel nasalized. Thus /zun/ ('I') can be pronounced [zũ].

Consonants

There are 54 consonants in Lezgian. Characters to the right are the letters of the Lezgian Cyrillic Alphabet. Note that aspiration is not normally indicated in the orthography, despite the fact that it is phonemic.

Grammar

Lezgian is unusual for a Northeast Caucasian language in not having noun classes. Standard Lezgian grammar features 18 noun cases, of which 12 are still used in spoken conversation.

Cases

The four grammatical cases are:

• Absolutive case (basic form of the word, no ending): marks the subject of an intransitive verb and the direct object of a transitive sentence. It is also used to mark a nominal predictate (who or what something turns into/becomes) and as a vocative.
• Ergative case (various endings; the most common are: -ди, -a or -е; [-di, -a or e], which are added to the Absolutive): marks the subject of transitive verbs, and the subject of some compound intransitive verbs.
• Genitive case (ending -н [-n]; added to the Ergative): marks possession. It is also used with the meaning 'of'. The genitive case precedes the noun that it modifies.
• Dative case (ending -з [-z]; added to the Ergative): usually marks the indirect object of sentences, that is the recipent of an action. It is also used to mark the subject of some verbs (mainly about emotions) and to express a point of time and direction.
• There are fourteen Locative cases:
  • Adessive case (ending -в [-v]; added to the Ergative): marks the object of some verbs to mean 'near by'.
  • Adelative case (ending -вай [-vaj]; added to the Ergative): expresses movement from somewhere. It is also used with the verb 'to be able' and to express an accidental action.
  • Addirective case (ending -вди [-vdi]; added to the Ergative): used as an instrumental case, but also sometimes used with its original meaning, 'in the direction of', and more rarely 'near by'.
  • The Postessive case (ending -хъ [-qh]; added to the Ergative): means 'behind', 'in exchange for', and 'with.' In a construction with the verb ава (ava), it means 'there is'.
  • Postelative case (ending -хъай [-qhaj]; added to the Ergative): can either mean 'from' or 'who is feared'.
  • Postdirective case (ending -хъди [-qhdi]; added to the Ergative): rarely used case, meaning 'toward(s)'.
  • Subessive case (ending -к [-k]; added to the Ergative): means either 'below' or 'participates'.
  • Subelative case (ending -кай [-kaj]; added to the Ergative): means either 'from below', 'from', '(from) against', 'with' or 'out of'. It is also used to mark Y in the construction 'X becomes out-of-Y' and can express the topic of a sentence or the cause of emotions.
  • Subdirective case (ending -кди [-kdi]; added to the Ergative): expresses cause, and can mean 'because' or 'of' (when in sentences such as 'the man died of a disease'.
  • Inessive case (endings -а or -е [-a or -e]; added to Absolutive): means 'at', 'in' or 'during/whilst'.
  • Inelative case (endings -ай or -ей [-aj or -ej]; added to Inessive): means 'out of' or 'in return for'.
  • Superessive case (ending -л [-l]; added to the Inessive): means 'on', and also to express the cause of some emotions.
  • Superelative case (ending -лай [-laj]; added to the Inessive): means 'off', 'after' or 'than'.
  • Superdirective case (ending -лди [-ldi]; added to the Inessive): means 'onto', 'until', 'in' (when followed by an adjective) and to mark the language being used.

Declension

There are two types of declensions.

First Declension

Vocabulary

Numbers

The numbers of Lezgi are:

ноль nolʔ - zero

сад sad - one

кьвед qʷ’ed - two

пуд pud - three

кьуд q’ud - four

вад vad - five

ругуд rugud - six

ирид irid - seven

муьжуьд myʒyd - eight

кIуьд k’yd - nine

цIуд ts’ud- ten

цIусад ts’usad - eleven

цIикьвед ts’iqʷ’ed - twelve

цIипуд ts’ipud - thirteen

цIикьуд ts’iq’ud - fourteen

цIувад ts’uvad - fifteen

цIуругуд ts’urugud - sixteen

цIерид ts’erid - seventeen

цIемуьжуьд ts’emyʒud - eighteen

цIекIуьд ts’ek’yd - nineteen

къад qad - twenty

яхцIур jaxts’ur - forty

пудкъад pudqad - sixty

кьудкъад q’udqal - eighty

виш viʃ - one hundred

агьзур aɣeur - one thousand

Nouns following a number are always in the singular. Numbers precede the noun. "сад" and "кьвед" loose their final "-д" before a noun.

Lezgi numerals work in a similar fashion to the French ones, and are based on the vigesimal system in which "20", not "10", is the base number. "Twenty" in Lezgi is "къад", and higher numbers are formed by adding the suffix -ни to the word (which becomes "къанни" - the same change occurs in пудкъад and кьудкъад) and putting the remaining number afterwards. This way 24 for instance is къанни кьуд "20 and 4" and 37 къанни цIерид "20 and 17". Numbers over 40 are formed similarly (яхцIур becomes яхцIурни). 60 and 80 are treated likewise. For numbers over 100 we just put a number of hundreds then (if need be) the word with a suffix, then the remaining number 659 is thus ругуд вишни яхцIурни цIекIуьд'. The same procedure follows for 1000, too... 1989 is агьзурни кIуьд вишни кьудкъанни кIуьд in Lezgi

References

Bibliography

• Chitoran, Ioanna; Babaliyeva, Ayten (2007), "An acoustic description of high vowel syncope in Lezgian", Proceedings of the 16th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, pp. 2153–2156   [1]
• Haspelmath, Martin. 1993. A grammar of Lezgian. (Mouton grammar library; 9). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. – ISBN 3-11-013735-6
• Talibov, Bukar B. and Magomed M. Gadžiev. 1966. Lezginsko-russkij slovar’. Moskva: Izd. Sovetskaja Ėnciklopedija.

External links

• Notes on the Lezgi language
• the Lezgi language
• Languages of the World report