Aghul language

Aghul, also spelled Agul, is a language spoken by the Aghuls 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 so they are traditionally transcribed with the length diacritic. The gemination of the consonant itself does not create its tension, but morphologically tense consonants often derive from adjoining two single weak consonants. Some Aghul dialects have an especially large number of permitted initial tense consonants.^[5]

Vowels

The vowels in bold are vowels that appears in «others letters combinations» in omniglot.

Consonants

• The glottal stop transcribed here is named rather ambiguously a "glottalic laryngeal" by the source.
• The epigottal stop is included by omnigrot in the phoneme list, but not by TITUS didactica.
• Omniglot says that the lenis voiceless stops are aspirated. It also says that the epiglottals are in fact pharyngeals.^[6]

Alphabet

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 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

Examples

Cyrillic writing

Іисайи пуная гебурис: – ДуьгІе акье миштти: «Дад, Ве ттур гирами хьурай; Ве Паччагьвел адирай. ТІалаб аркьая чин Вакес гьер ягьас гуни. Гъил гьушен че гунагьарилас, чинна гьил гьуршанду кІилди час Іайвелар аркьаттарилас. ХІа темехІера хьас амарта час».^[8]

Transliteration

ˡisaji punaja geburisi: – Du’gˡe ak’e mištti: "Dad, Ve ttur girami x’uraj; Ve Paččag’vel adiraj. Tˡalab ark’aja čin Vakes g’er jag’as guni. G″il g’ušen če gunag’arilas, činna g’il g’uršandu kˡildi čas ˡajvelar ark’attarilas. Xˡa temexˡera x’as amarta čas." ^[6]

Translation

And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.^[9]

References

Bibliography

• Haspelmath, Martin. 1993. A grammar of Lezgian. (Mouton grammar library; 9). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter. – ISBN 3-11-013735-6
• Ladefoged, Peter; Maddieson, Ian (1996), The Sounds of the World's Languages, Oxford: Blackwell, ISBN 0-631-19815-6 
• Talibov, Bukar B. and Magomed M. Gadžiev. 1966. Lezginsko-russkij slovar’. Moskva: Izd. Sovetskaja Ėnciklopedija.

External links

Aghul language test of Wikipedia at Wikimedia Incubator

• Languages of the World report
• UCLA phonetics lab data for Aghul
• Aghul word lists from the UCLA phonetics lab archive
• Aghul basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database

State languages of Russia
Federal language	Russian
State languages of federal subjects	Abaza Adyghe Agul Altai Avar Azerbaijani Bashkir Buryat Chechen Chuvash Crimean Tatar Dargwa Erzya Ingush Kabardian Kalmyk Karachay-Balkar Khakas Komi Kumyk Lak Lezgian Mari Hill Meadow Moksha Nogai Ossetic Rutul Sakha Tabasaran Tat Tatar Tsakhur Tuvan Ukrainian Udmurt
Languages with official status	Chukchi Dolgan Even Evenki Finnish Karelian Kazakh Komi-Permyak Veps Yukaghir
Scripts	Cyrillic Cyrillic Braille

Languages of the Caucasus
Caucasian (areal)	Caspian Avar–Andic Andic Akhvakh Bagvalal–Tindi Botlix–Godoberi Chamalal Karata Literary Andi Avar Dargic Literary Dargwa and dialects Chirag Itsari Kajtak Kubachi Didoic Bezhta–Hunzib–Khwarshi Hinukh–Literary Tsez Lezgic Aghul Archi Budukh Kryts Lezgian Rutul Tabasaran Tsakhur Udi Nakh Bats Chechen–Ingush Other Khinalug Lak Kartvelian Karto-Zan–Svan Georgian Svan Zan Laz Mingrelian Pontic Abazgi–Adyghe Abkhaz–Abaza Circassian
Indo-European	Armenian Armenian Germanic German Hellenic Pontic Greek Iranic Northern Ossetian Western Judæo-Tat Talysh Tat Persian Slavic Russian Ukrainian
Mongolic	Kalmyk
Turkic	Kipchak–Cuman Karachay–Balkar Kumyk Kipchak–Nogai Nogai Oghuz Azerbaijani Turkmen
See also: Languages of Armenia  Languages of Azerbaijan  Languages of Georgia  Languages of Russia