Aghul language

Aghul is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by the Aghuls in southern Dagestan, Russia and in Azerbaijan. It is spoken by about 29,300[3] people (2010 census).

Aghul
агъул чӀал / Ağul ҫ̇al
Native toRussia, also spoken in Azerbaijan
RegionSoutheastern Dagestan
EthnicityAguls
Native speakers
29,300 (2010 census)[1]
Northeast Caucasian
  • Lezgic
    • Samur
      • Eastern Samur
        • Lezgi–Aghul–Tabasaran
          • Aghul
Cyrillic
Official status
Official language in
 Russia
Language codes
ISO 639-3agx
Glottologaghu1253
ELPAghul[2]

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]

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
Vowels of Aghul[6]
Front Central Back
Close i ɯ u
Mid e
Open a

Consonants
Consonant phonemes of Aghul[7]
Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn-
geal		 Glottal
plain lab.
Nasal m n
Plosive voiced b d ɡ
voiceless fortis pː tː kː qː
lenis p t k q ʡ ʔ
ejective pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼ
Affricate voiced d͡ʒ d͡ʒʷ
voiceless fortis t͡sː t͡ʃː t͡ʃːʷ
lenis t͡s t͡ʃ t͡ʃʷ
ejective t͡sʼ t͡ʃʼ t͡ʃʷʼ
Fricative voiceless fortis fː sː ʃː ʃːʷ xː χː
lenis f s ʃ ʃʷ x χ ħ
voiced v z ʒ ʒʷ ʁ ʢ ɦ
Trill r ʜ
Approximant l j
  • The glottal stop transcribed here is named rather ambiguously a "glottalic laryngeal" by the source.
  • The epiglottal stop is included by Omniglot 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.[8]

Alphabet
А а Б б В в Г г Гъ гъ Гь гь Гӏ гӏ
Д д Дж дж Е е Ё ё Ж ж З з И и Й й
К к Кк кк Къ къ Кь кь Кӏ кӏ Л л М м Н н
О о П п Пп пп Пӏ пӏ Р р С с Т т Тт тт
Тӏ тӏ У у Уь уь Ф ф Х х Хъ хъ Хь хь Хӏ хӏ
Ц ц Цӏ цӏ Ч ч Чч чч Чӏ чӏ Ш ш Щ щ ъ
ӏ ы ь Э э Ю ю Я я

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).

Personal pronouns
  Singular (Aghul) Plural (Aghul) Singular (Tokip) Plural (Tokip)
1 zun čin (ex), xin (in) či (ex), xi (in) či, xi
2 wun čun čun ču

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».[9]

Transliteration

ˡisaji punaja geburis: – 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." [8]

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.[10]

References
  1. Aghul at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Endangered Languages Project data for Aghul.
  3. "Aghul".
  4. "Aghul".
  5. Ladefoged & Maddieson (1996:167–168)
  6. Magometov, Aleksandr Amarovic. 1970. Agul'skij jazyk: (issledovanie i teksty). Tbilisi: Izdatel'stvo "Mecniereba".
  7. Gippert, Jost. "Titus Didactica: North-East Caucasian Consonant Systems". titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de.
  8. "Photo" (GIF). www.omniglot.com.
  9. "Aghul lp". Archived from the original on 2011-07-04. Retrieved 2016-07-12.
  10. "Bible Gateway passage: Luke 11 - King James Version". Bible Gateway.

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.
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