Akhvakh language

The Akhvakh language (also spelled Axvax, Akhwakh) is a Northeast Caucasian language from the Avar–Andic branch. Ethnologue lists 210 speakers based on the 2010 census,^[4] but Magomedova and Abulaeva (2007) list 20,000 speakers of the language, and the 2021 Russian census gave 7,521 speakers in Russia.^[1] There are also some 1,000-2,000 speakers in Akhvakh-Dere, a village in Zagatala District, Azerbaijan.^[5] It is the most divergent out of all of the Andic languages.^[6]

Akhvakh
Ашвaлъи мицIи ašʷaƛi mic’ːi
Pronunciation	[aʃʷat͡ɬi mit͡s’ːi]
Native to	North Caucasus, Azerbaijan
Region	Southern Dagestan, northern Azerbaijan
Ethnicity	Akhvakh
Native speakers	7,521 in Dagestan (2020 census)[1] 6,500 total (2006)[2] 20,000 total (2007)[3]
Language family	Northeast Caucasian Avar–Andic Andic Akhvakh–Tindi Akhvakh
Writing system	Cyrillic
Language codes
ISO 639-3	akv
Glottolog	akhv1240  Akhvakhic
ELP	Akhvakh
Akhvakh
Akhvakh is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010)

Dialects

Akhvakh has several dialects, though sources do not agree on the number. Ethnologue lists Kaxib, Northern Akhvakh and Southern Akhvakh (which can be further subdivided into the Tlyanub and Tsegob subdialects).^[7] Creissels (2010) lists Northern Akhvakh and three dialects of Southern Akhvakh (Cegob, Tljanub, and Ratlub). Glottolog considers the Northern and Southern dialects to be separate languages.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Akhvakh^[8]

		Labial	Dental			Alveolar				Palatal	Velar		Uvular		Pharyngeal	Glottal
						central		lateral
			lenis	sib.	fortis	lenis	fortis	lenis	fortis		lenis	fortis	lenis	fortis
Nasal		m	n
Plosive/ Affricate	voiced	b	d			d͡ʒ					ɡ		(ɢ͡ʁ)
	voiceless	p	t	t͡s	t͡sː	t͡ʃ	t͡ʃː	t͡ɬ	t͡ɬː		k	kː	q͡χ	q͡χː		ʔ
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ	t͡sʼ	t͡sʼː	t͡ʃʼ	t͡ʃʼː	t͡ɬʼ	t͡ɬʼː		kʼ	kʼː	q͡χʼ	q͡χʼː
Fricative	voiceless			s	sː	ʃ	ʃː	ɬ	ɬː	ç	x	xː			ħ/ʜ [1]	h
	voiced	v		z		ʒ					ɣ				ʕ/ʢ [1]
Trill						r
Approximant								l		j

As with Avar, there are competing analyses of the distinction transcribed in the table with the length sign ⟨ː⟩. Length is part of the distinction, but so is articulatory strength, so they have been analyzed as fortis and lenis.^[9] The fortis affricates are long in the fricative part of the contour, e.g. [tsː] (tss), not in the stop part as in geminate affricates in languages such as Japanese and Italian [tːs] (tts). Laver (1994) analyzes e.g. t͡ɬː as a two-segment affricate–fricative sequence /t͡ɬɬ/ (/t𐞛ɬ/ = /t^ɬɬ/).^[10]

Vowels

Akhvakh has a standard five-vowel system /i e a o u/ with distinctive vowel length.^[9]

Alphabet

A few publications have been made in the Akhvakh language, such as the newspaper Zaman "Time", published since the early 1930s,^[11] but for the most part speakers of Akhvakh have adopted Avar as their literary language. In the 2000s, an alphabet for Akhvakh was devised, and some publications, like the newspaper Ахвахцы — Ашвадо,^[12] have been published since then. The alphabet is as follows:

А а	Аᵸ аᵸ	Б б	В в	Г г	Гъ гъ	Гь гь	ГӀ гӀ	Д д	Е е
Еᵸ еᵸ	Ж ж	Дж дж	З з	И и	Иᵸ иᵸ	Й й	К к	Кк кк	Къ къ
КъӀ къӀ	Кь кь	КьӀ кьӀ	КӀ кӀ	КӀкӀ кӀкӀ	Л л	Лъ лъ	Лълъ лълъ	ЛъӀ лъӀ	ЛӀ лӀ
М м	Н н	О о	Оᵸ оᵸ	П п	ПӀ пӀ	Р р	С с	Сс сс	Т т
ТӀ тӀ	У у	Уᵸ уᵸ	Х х	Хх хх	Хъ хъ	ХъӀ хъӀ	Хь хь	ХӀ хӀ	Ц ц
Цц цц	ЦӀ цӀ	ЦӀцӀ цӀцӀ	Ч ч	Чч чч	ЧӀ чӀ	ЧӀчӀ чӀчӀ	Ш ш	Щ щ	Ъ ъ
Э э

Grammar

Agreement classes

Akhvakh has three agreement classes. In the singular, these are human masculine, human feminine, and non-human. In the plural, there are only two—human plural and non-human plural. Akhvakh verbs agree with the absolutive argument (subject of an intransitive or object of a transitive.)

Consider the following examples, which show the general principles. In the first example, the intransitive verb 'run' shows feminine agreement because its subject, 'girl', is feminine. In the second example, the transitive verb 'cook' shows neuter agreement because its object, 'meat', is neuter.^[13]

Jaše-∅

girl-ABS

q:'eɬ:-a

home-LAT

j-et-e

FEM-run-CVB:FEM

j-i:ni

FEM-go:IPFV

Jaše-∅ q:'eɬ:-a j-et-e j-i:ni

girl-ABS home-LAT FEM-run-CVB:FEM FEM-go:IPFV

'The girl ran home.'

Ak:'o-de

wife-ERG

riɬ:'i

meat

b-iž-e

N-eat-CVB:N

q:'-e:ni.

eat-IPFV

Ak:'o-de riɬ:'i b-iž-e q:'-e:ni.

wife-ERG meat N-eat-CVB:N eat-IPFV

'The wife cooked the meat and ate it.'

Note that in the second example, 'wife' is in the ergative case and appears to be the subject of both the verbs 'cook' and 'eat', but neither verb shows feminine agreement.

Cases

Akhvakh has an ergative-absolutive case-marking system. As the following examples (repeated from above) show, the transitive subject has the ergative case, while an intransitive subject has absolutive case. Absolutive case is not overtly marked by a suffix, but the noun phrase with absolutive case controls agreement on the verb:

Jaše-∅

girl-ABS

q:'eɬ:-a

home-LAT

j-et-e

FEM-run-CVB:FEM

j-i:ni

FEM-go:IPFV

Jaše-∅ q:'eɬ:-a j-et-e j-i:ni

girl-ABS home-LAT FEM-run-CVB:FEM FEM-go:IPFV

'The girl ran home.'

Ak:'o-de

wife-ERG

riɬ:'i

meat

b-iž-e

N-eat-CVB:N

q:'-e:ni.

eat-IPFV

Ak:'o-de riɬ:'i b-iž-e q:'-e:ni.

wife-ERG meat N-eat-CVB:N eat-IPFV

'The wife cooked the meat and ate it.'

In addition to the ergative and absolutive cases, Akhvakh has eighteen other cases, for a total of twenty cases.^[14] The additional cases are

• dative
• genitive
• comitative
• purposive
• fifteen spatial cases, arrayed in five series of three.^[which?]