Dargwa language

The Dargwa language is 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. 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.[4]

Dargwa
дарган мез dargan mez
Native toRussia
RegionDagestan
Ethnicity590,000 Dargins (2010 census)[1]
Native speakers
490,000 (2010 census)[1]
Official status
Official language in
 Dagestan
Language codes
ISO 639-2dar
ISO 639-3dar (also Dargin languages)
Glottologdarg1241[2]
sout3261[3]

Dargwa uses a Cyrillic script.

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[5] are 142,523 in Dagestan, 1,504 in Kabardino-Balkaria, 708 in Khanty–Mansi.

Phonology

Consonants
Labial Dental Postalveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal/
Epiglottal		 Glottal
lenis fortis lenis fortis lenis fortis lenis fortis lenis fortis
Nasal m n
Plosive voiced b d ɡ ɢ ʡ
voiceless p pː t tː k kː q qː ʔ
ejective pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ ʡʼ
Affricate voiced d͡z d͡ʒ
voiceless t͡s t͡sː t͡ʃ t͡ʃː
ejective t͡sʼ t͡ʃʼ
Fricative voiceless f s sː ʃ ʃː ç x xː χ χː ʜ
voiced v z ʒ ɣ ʁ ʢ ɦ
Trill r
Approximant w l j

Phonemes in gold are present in the literary standard dialect of Dargwa but absent in some other dialect(s).
Phonemes in pink are present in some dialect(s) of Dargwa but absent in the literary standard dialect.

  • Note that the source is rather ambiguous in its using the term "laryngeal" for a presumed column of consonants that includes both a "voiced" and a "glottalized" plosive. A voiced glottal plosive cannot be made, because the glottis needs to be closed, and an ejective consonant requires an additional closure further up the vocal tract. Pending clarification, this row has been transcribed here as an epiglottal column and a glottal stop, both found in many other East Caucasian languages.

Vowels

The Dargwa language features five vowel sounds [i, e, ə, a, u].

Orthography

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

Grammar

Verb

TAM
Assertive (finite) forms
Assertive (finite) forms [6]
TAM CATEGORYMEANINGASPECTMODIFIERPREDICATIVE MARKERNEGATIONEXAMPLE
DERIVED FROM THE PROGRESSIVE STEM ( BASIC STEM + -a)
Present 1. all types of present situations including actual and habitual situations, 2. historic present, 3. close future: the speaker‘s intention IPF[-ti]PERSON / PRESENT (–da/–di/–ca=b) reduplication or negative auxiliary anwar-ri kaRar luk’-a–ca=b (Anwar is writing a letter)
Past Progressive a progressive situation in the pastIPF-tiPAST (–di) it uč’-a-Ti–di (He was reading)
DERIVED FROM THE PRETERITE STEM ( BASIC STEM + -ib/-ub/-ur/-un):
Aorist any completed action in the pastPF-PERSON (–da/–di) negative auxiliary
Imperfect unspecified imperfective meaning in the past (both durative and multiplicative situations)IPF-PERSON (–da/–di)hin ha.ruq-ib
Perfect perfect (a completed action whose results are still presently actual)PF-PERSON /PRESENT (–da/–di/–ca=b)jabu-l hin d=er{-ib–ca=d (The horse has drunk up the whole of the water)
Pluperfect a completed action in the past preceding another past actionPF-liPAST (–di)
*Evidential Present 1. inference from non-trivial results of a situation that still exist at the moment of speech 2. subject resultative: IPF-PERSON/PRESENT (–da/–di/–ca=b)jabu hinni b=u{-ib–ca=b (The horse has had a drink of water)
*Evidential Past 1. inference from non-trivial results that existed in the past subject resultative in the pastIPF-liPAST (–di)
Resultative resultative (state of the patient)--liPERSON /PRESENT (–da/–di/–ca=b)jabu mura-l b=uK-un-ni–ca=b 'The horse has eaten its fill of hay.‘
Experiential experiential--ciPERSON /PRESENT (–da/–di/–ca=b)ni}a-la }a=b b=uZ-ib-ti–ca=b d=eqel juz-i d=elk'-un-ti ̳There have been in our village those who had written many books'.
Habitual Past a habitual action in the pastIPF-a-d-i, -a-T-i, -iri/-ini or -ajno separable predicative morphemesreduplication harzamina b=urs-iri di-la waba-l 'My mother used to tell (this story).‘
DERIVED FROM THE OBLIGATIVE STEM ( BASIC STEM + -an):
Future all types of future situationsIPF-PERSON/FUTURE(–da/–di/-ni)negative auxiliary
Obligative Present a situation that the speaker believes necessary to be realizedIPF *-PERSON /PRESENT (–da/–di/–ca=b) negative auxiliary
Obligative Past an irreal situation that the speaker believes necessary to have been realized in the past IPF *-PAST (–di)
DERIVED FROM THE HYPOTHETICAL STEM ( BASIC STEM + -iZ-):
Hypothetical Present a possible action in the future--PERSON(–da/–di) reduplication or negative auxiliary
Hypothetical Past a past situation that did not take place, but is treated by the speaker as having been possible under certain conditions--PAST (–di)
Irrealis used in the apodosis of the irreal conditional clausesIPF-PAST (–di)reduplication

References
  1. Dargwa at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "North-Central Dargwa". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  3. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Southwestern Dargwa". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. Yu. B. Korjakov, 2012. Leksikostaticeksaya klassifikatsiya Darginskix Jazykov. Paper presented at the Moscow Seminar on Nakh-Dagestanian lanlanguages organized by Nina Sumbatova.
  5. Echols, John (Jan–Mar 1952). "Lakkische Studien by Karl Bouda". Language. Linguistic Society of America. 28 (1): 159. doi:10.2307/410010. JSTOR 410010.
  6. Nina R. Sumbatova, Rasul Osmanovič Mutalov. "A Grammar of Icari Dargwa". Lincom GmbH, 2003


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