Abaza language

Abaza
абаза бызшва, abaza byzšwa
Native to	Russia, Turkey
Region	Karachay-Cherkessia
Ethnicity	Abazins
Native speakers	unknown (48,000 cited 1995–2010)
Language family	Northwest Caucasian Abazgi Abaza
Official status
Official language in	Karachay-Cherkessia (Russia)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	abq
Glottolog	abaz1241

The Abaza language (абаза бызшва, abaza byzšwa; Adyghe: абазэбзэ) is a language of the Caucasus mountains in the Russian Karachay–Cherkess Republic spoken by the Abazins. It consists of two dialects, the Ashkherewa dialect and the T'ap'anta dialect, which is the literary standard.

Abaza is spoken by approximately 35,000 people in Russia, where it is written in a Cyrillic alphabet, as well as another 10,000 in Turkey, where the Latin script is used.

Abaza, like its relatives in the family of Northwest Caucasian languages, is a highly agglutinative language. For example, the verb in the English sentence "He couldn't make them give it back to her" contains four arguments (a term used in valency grammar: he, them, give it back, to her. Abaza marks arguments morphologically, and incorporates all four arguments as pronominal prefixes on the verb.

It has a large consonantal inventory (63 phonemes) coupled with a minimal vowel inventory (two vowels). It is very closely related to Abkhaz, but it preserves a few phonemes which Abkhaz lacks, such as a voiced pharyngeal fricative. Work on Abaza has been carried out by W. S. Allen, Brian O'Herin, and John Colarusso.

Phonology

		Labial	Alveolar		Postalveolar			Velar			Uvular			Pharyngeal		Glottal
			central	lateral	plain	pal.	lab.	plain	pal.	lab.	plain	pal.	lab.	plain	lab.
Plosive	voiceless	p	t					k	kʲ	kʷ	q	qʲ	qʷ			ʔ
	voiced	b	d					ɡ	ɡʲ	ɡʷ
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ					kʼ	kʲʼ	kʷʼ	qʼ	qʲʼ	qʷʼ
Affricate	voiceless		t͡s		t͡ʃ	t͡ɕ	t͡ʃʷ
	voiced		d͡z		d͡ʒ	d͡ʑ	d͡ʒʷ
	ejective		t͡sʼ		t͡ʃʼ	t͡ɕʼ	t͡ʃʷʼ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	ɬ	ʃ	ɕ	ʃʷ				χ	χʲ	χʷ	ħ	ħʷ
	voiced	v	z	ɮ	ʒ	ʑ	ʒʷ				ʁ	ʁʲ	ʁʷ	ʕ	ʕʷ
	ejective	fʼ		ɬʼ
Nasal		m		n
Approximant				l					j
Trill			r

The vowels /o, a, u/ may have a /j/ in front of it.

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ə	o
Open	a

Orthography

А а [a]	Б б [b]	В в [v]	Г г [ɡ]	Гв гв [ɡʷ]	Гъ гъ [ʁ]	Гъв гъв [ʁʷ]	Гъь гъь [ʁʲ]
Гь гь [ɡʲ]	ГӀ гӀ [ʕ]	ГӀв гӀв [ʕʷ]	Д д [d]	Дж дж [d͡ʐ]	Джв джв [d͡ʑ]	Джь джь [d͡ʒ]	Дз дз [d͡z]
Е е [e]	Ё ё [jo]	Ж ж [ʐ]	Жв жв [ʑ]	Жь жь [ʒ]	И и [i]	Й й [j]	К к [kʰ]
Кв кв [kʷʰ]	Къ къ [qʼ]	Къв къв [qʷʼ]	Къь къь [qʼʲ]	Кь кь [kʲʰ]	КӀ кӀ [kʼ]	КӀв кӀв [kʷʼ]	КӀь кӀь [kʲʼ]
Л л [l]	Ль ль [ɮ]	ЛӀ лӀ [ɬʼ]	М м [m]	Н н [n]	О о [o]	П п [pʰ]	ПӀ пӀ [pʼ]
Р р [r]	С с [s]	Т т [tʰ]	Тл тл [ɬ]	Тш тш [͡tʂʰ]	ТӀ тӀ [tʼ]	У у [u/w]	Ф ф [f]
ФӀ фӀ [fʼ]	Х х [x]	Хв хв [xʷ]	Хъ хъ [qʰ]	Хъв хъв [qʷʰ]	Хь хь [xʲ]	ХӀ хӀ [ħ]	ХӀв хӀв [ħʷ]
Ц ц [t͡s]	ЦӀ цӀ [t͡sʼ]	Ч ч [t͡ʃʰ]	Чв чв [t͡ɕʰ]	ЧӀ чӀ [t͡ʃʼ]	ЧӀв чӀв [t͡ɕʼ]	Ш ш [ʂ]	Шв шв [ɕ]
ШӀ шӀ [͡tʂʼ]	Щ щ [ʃ]	Ъ ъ [ʔ]	Ы ы [ə]	Хь [qʲʰ]	Ю ю [ju]	Я я [ja]

References

• Генко А. Н. Абазинский язык. Грамматический очерк наречия Тапанта. Москва-Лениград: АН СССР, 1955. (Russian)
• Ломтатидзе К. В. Тапантский диалект абхазского языка (с текстами). Тбилиси: Издательство Академии Наук Грузинской ССР, 1944. (Russian)
• Ломтатидзе К. В. Ашхарский диалект и его место среди других абхазско-абазинских диалектов. С текстами. Тбилиси: Издательство Академии Наук Грузинской ССР, 1954. (Russian)
• Мальбахова-Табулова Н. Т. Грамматика абазинского языка. Фонетика и морфология. Черкесск, 1976. (Russian)
• Чирикба В. А. Абазинский язык. В: Языки Российской Федерации и Соседних Государств. Энциклопедия. В трех томах. Т. 1. A-И. Москва: Наука, 1998, с. 1-8. (Russian)
• Allen, W.S. Structure and system in the Abaza verbal complex. In: Transactions of the Philological Society (Hertford), Oxford, 1956, p. 127-176.
• Bouda K. Das Abasinische, eine unbekannte abchasische Mundart. In: ZDMG, BD. 94, H. 2 (Neue Folge, Bd. 19), Berlin-Leipzig, 1940, S. 234—250. (German)
• O’Herin, B. Case and agreement in Abaza. Summer Institute of Linguistics, September 2002.

External links

• Entry for Abaza at EKI's KNAB
• Entry for Abaza at Omniglot
• The first in the world Abaza–Russian and Russian–Abaza online dictionaries
• Abaza basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database