Dargwa | |
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дарган мез dargan mez دارڮان مز | |
Native to | North Caucasus |
Region | Dagestan |
Ethnicity | 590,000 Dargins (2010 census) |
Native speakers | 490,000 (2010 census) |
Language family | Northeast Caucasian
|
Writing system | Cyrillic |
Official status | |
Official language in | Russia |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-2 | dar |
ISO 639-3 | dar (also Dargin languages) |
Glottolog | darg1241 sout3261 |
Dargwa (дарган мез, dargan mez) is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by the Dargin people in the Russian republic Dagestan. It is the literary and main dialect of the dialect continuum constituting the Dargin languages.
Dargwa is part of a Northeast Caucasian dialect continuum, the Dargin languages. The four other languages in this dialect continuum (Kajtak, Kubachi, Itsari, and Chirag) are often considered variants of Dargwa. Korjakov (2012) concludes that Southwestern Dargwa is closer to Kajtak than it is to North-Central Dargwa.
According to the 2002 Census, there are 429,347 speakers of Dargwa proper in Dagestan, 7,188 in neighbouring Kalmykia, 1,620 in Khanty–Mansi AO, 680 in Chechnya, and hundreds more in other parts of Russia. Figures for the Lakh dialect spoken in central Dagestan are 142,523 in Dagestan, 1,504 in Kabardino-Balkaria, 708 in Khanty–Mansi.
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Like other languages of the Caucasus, Dargwa is noted for its large consonant inventory, which includes over 40 phonemes (distinct sounds), though the exact number varies by dialect. Voicing, glottalization (as ejectives), fortition (which surfaces as gemination), and frication are some of the distinct features of consonants in Dargwa. Particularly noteworthy is the inclusion of an epiglottal ejective by some dialects such as Mehweb, which it may be the only language in the world to use phonemically.
Labial | Dental | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal/ Epiglottal |
Glottal | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
plain | sib. | |||||||||
Nasal | m | n | ||||||||
Plosive/ Affricate |
voiced | b | d | d͡z1 | d͡ʒ1 | ɡ | ɢ1 | ʡ1 | ||
voiceless | p | t | t͡s | t͡ʃ | k | q | ʔ | |||
long | pː2 | tː2 | t͡sː2 | t͡ʃː2 | kː2 | qː2 | ||||
ejective | pʼ | tʼ | t͡sʼ | t͡ʃʼ | kʼ | qʼ | ʡʼ2 | |||
Fricative | voiced | v1 | z | ʒ | ɣ1 | ʁ | ʢ | ɦ2 | ||
voiceless | f1 | s | ʃ | ç1 | x | χ2 | ʜ2 | |||
long | sː2 | ʃː2 | xː2 | χː2 | ||||||
Trill | r | |||||||||
Approximant | w2 | l | j |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
Close | i | u | |
Mid | e | ə | |
Open | a |
The Dargwa language features five vowel sounds /i, e, ə, a, u/. Vowels /i, u, a/ can be pharyngealized as /iˤ, uˤ, aˤ/. There may also be a pharyngealized mid-back vowel as a realization of /uˤ/, occurring in the Megeb dialect.
The current Dargwa alphabet is based on Cyrillic as follows:
А а | Б б | В в | Г г | Гъ гъ | Гь гь | Гӏ гӏ | Д д | Е е | Ё ё | Ж ж | З з |
И и | Й й | К к | Къ къ | Кь кь | Кӏ кӏ | Л л | М м | Н н | О о | П п | Пӏ пӏ |
Р р | С с | Т т | Тӏ тӏ | У у | Ф ф | Х х | Хъ хъ | Хь хь | Хӏ хӏ | Ц ц | Цӏ цӏ |
Ч ч | Чӏ чӏ | Ш ш | Щ щ | Ъ ъ | Ы ы | Ь ь | Э э | Ю ю | Я я |
The Latin alphabet of the 1920s is not supported by Unicode, but is approximately:
a ʙ c ç ꞓ d e ə f g ǥ ƣ h ħ ⱨ i j k ⱪ l m n o p ᶈ q ꝗ r s ꞩ ş t ţ u v w x ҳ ӿ z ƶ ⱬ ƶ̧
(The letter transcribed here ⱨ ⱪ ᶈ ҳ ⱬ might have cedillas instead of hooks; the printing in sources is not clear.)
Modern Cyrillic |
Latin c. 1930 |
Uslar | Arabic (1920—1928) |
Arabic (before 1920) |
IPA |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
А а | A a | а | ا ,آ | آ | a |
Б б | B b | б | ب | b | |
В в | V v | ԝ | و | w | |
Г г | G g | г | گ | ڮ | g |
Гъ гъ | Ƣ ƣ | ӷ | غ | ʁ | |
Гь гь | H h | һ | ھ | ﻬ | h |
ГӀ гӀ | Ⱨ ⱨ | ꜧ | ع | ʕ | |
Д д | D d | д | د | d | |
Е е | E e, je | e | اە | - | e, je |
Ё ё | - | ɵ | |||
Ж ж | Ƶ ƶ | ж | ژ | ج | ʒ |
З з | Z z | з | ز | z | |
И и | I i | i | اى | - | i |
Й й | J j | j | ى | ي | j |
К к | K k | кᷱ | ک | k | |
Къ къ | Q q | к | ڠ | ق | q: |
Кь кь | Ꝗ ꝗ | q | ق | q̇ | |
КӀ кӀ | Ⱪ ⱪ | қ | گ | kʼ | |
Л л | L l | л | ل | l | |
М м | M m | м | م | m | |
Н н | N n | н | ن | n | |
О о | O o | о | او | - | o |
П п | P p | п | پ | ف | p |
ПӀ пӀ | ԥ | ڢ | ب | pʼ | |
Р р | R r | р | ر | r | |
С с | S s | с | س | s | |
Т т | T t | т | ت | t | |
ТӀ тӀ | T̨ t̨ | ҭ | ط | t’ | |
У у | U u | у | او | و | u |
Ф ф | F f | - | ف | f | |
Х х | X x | х | خ | χ | |
Хъ хъ | Ӿ ӿ | k | څ | ق | q |
Хь хь | Ҳ ҳ | ؼ | x: | ||
ХӀ хӀ | Ħ ħ | h ̆ | ح | ћ | |
Ц ц | Ꞩ ꞩ | ц | ڝ | ژ | ʦ |
ЦӀ цӀ | Ⱬ ⱬ | წ | ڗ | ژ | ʦ’ |
Ч ч | C c | ч | چ | tʃ | |
ЧӀ чӀ | Ç ç | ჭ | ج | چ | ʧ’ |
Ш ш | Ş ş | ш | ش | ʃ | |
Щ щ | şş | - | ʃː | ||
Ъ ъ | - | ء | - | ʔ | |
Ы ы | - | ɨ | |||
Ь ь | - | ||||
Э э | E e | - | اه | - | e |
Ю ю | ju | - | ju | ||
Я я | Ә ә, ja | œ | أ | - | ja |
- | Ⱬ̵ ⱬ̵ | ђ | ڞ | - | t͡s |
- | Ӡ ӡ | - | |||
- | є | - | ڃ | چ | |
- | g̵ | гᷱ | ݢ | - |
The Kadar dialect (G'adaran lug'at / Гъадаран лугъат) with 18,000 speakers is a dialect of the Northern Dargin languages, one of the Dargin languages, which is characterized by specific phonetic, morphological, lexical and syntactic features. It is traditionally regarded as a single dialect of Dargwa. The vocabulary layer of the Kadar dialect includes words borrowed from Arabic, Persian, Russian and especially Turkic.
Languages of Russia | |
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Federal language | |
State languages of federal subjects | |
Languages with official status | |
Scripts | |
1 In Russia, the Cyrillic alphabet is officially supported. 2 For other, non-Cyrillic alphabets, separate federal laws are required. |
Northeast Caucasian languages | |
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Avar–Andic | |
Tsezic | |
Dargin | |
Lezgic | |
Nakh | |
Other | |
Italics indicate extinct languages |
Languages of the Caucasus | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Caucasian (areal) |
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Indo- European |
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Turkic |
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Others | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Authority control databases: National |
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