Lezgian ( ), also called Lezgi ( ) or Lezgin ( ), is a Northeast Caucasian language. It is spoken by the Lezgins, who live primarily in southern Dagestan—where it is an official language—and northern Azerbaijan. It is classified as "vulnerable" by UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. <!--UNESCO Endangered Language Criteria: 1. Vulnerable, 2. Definitely Endangered, 3. Severely Endangered, 4. Critically Endangered, 5. Extinct-->
Geographic distribution
In 2002, Lezgian was spoken by about 397,000 people in Russia, mainly Southern Dagestan; in 1999 it was spoken by 178,400 people in mainly the Qusar, Quba, Qabala, Oghuz, Ismailli and Khachmaz provinces of northeastern Azerbaijan. Lezgian is also spoken in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Germany and Uzbekistan by immigrants from Azerbaijan and Dagestan.
Some speakers are in the Balikesir, Yalova, İzmir, Bursa regions of Turkey especially in Kirne (Ortaca), a village in Balikesir Province which touches the western coast, being south-west of Istanbul.
The total number of speakers is about 800,000.
Classification
Related languages
Nine languages survive in the Lezgic language family:
- Lezgin
- Tabasaran
- Rutul
- Aghul
- Tsakhur
- Budukh
- Kryts
- Udi
- Archi
These have the same names as their ethnic groups.
Some dialects differ heavily from the standard form, including the Quba and Akhty dialects spoken in Azerbaijan.
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |
! rowspan="2" | Labial
! colspan="2" | Dental
! rowspan="2" | Post-<br>alveolar
! rowspan="2" | Palatal
! colspan="2" | Velar
! colspan="2" | Uvular
! rowspan="2" | Glottal
|-
! <small>plain</small>
! <small>lab.</small>
! <small>plain</small>
! <small>lab.</small>
! <small>plain</small>
! <small>lab.</small>
|-
! colspan="2" | Nasal
| //
| //
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="4" | Plosive
! <small>voiced</small>
| //
| //
|
|
|
| //
| //
|
|
|
|-
! <small>voiceless</small>
| //
| //
| //
|
|
| //
| //
| //
| //
| //
|-
! <small>aspirated</small>
| //
| //
| //
|
|
| //
| //
| //
| //
|
|-
! <small>ejective</small>
| //
| //
| //
|
|
| //
| //
| //
| //
|
|-
! rowspan="4" | Affricate
! <small>voiced</small>
|
| //
|
|//
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! <small>voiceless</small>
|
| //
| //
| //
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! <small>aspirated</small>
|
| //
| //
| //
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! <small>ejective</small>
|
| //
| //
| //
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" | Fricative
! <small>voiced</small>
| //
| //
| //
| //
|
|
|
| //
| //
|
|-
! <small>voiceless</small>
| //
| //
| //
| //
|
| //
| //
| //
| //
| //
|-
! colspan="2" | Approximant
|
| //
|
|
| //
|
| //
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" | Trill
|
| //
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|}
Alphabets
Lezgian has been written in several different alphabets over the course of its history. These alphabets have been based on three scripts: Arabic (before 1928), Latin (1928–1938), and Cyrillic (1938–present).
The Lezgian Cyrillic alphabet is as follows:
{| class="wikitable" style="font-family:Arial Unicode MS; font-size:1.4em; border-color:#000000; border-width:1px; border-style:solid; border-collapse:collapse; background-color:#F8F8EF"
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |А а
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Б б
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |В в
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Г г
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Гъ гъ
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Гь гь
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Д д
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Е е
|-
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ё ё
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ж ж
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |З з
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |И и
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Й й
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |К к
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Къ къ
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Кь кь
|-
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |КI кl
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Л л
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |М м
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Н н
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |О о
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |П п
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |ПI пl
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Р р
|-
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |С с
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Т т
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |ТI тl
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |У у
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Уь уь
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ф ф
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Х х
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Хъ хъ
|-
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Хь хь
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ц ц
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |ЦI цl
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ч ч
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |ЧI чl
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ш ш
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ъ ъ
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ы ы
|-
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ь ь
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Э э
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ю ю
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Я я
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |
| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |
|}
Grammar
Lezgian is unusual for a Northeast Caucasian language in not having noun classes (also called "grammatical gender"). Standard Lezgian grammar features 18 grammatical cases, produced by agglutinating suffixes, of which 12 are still used in spoken conversation.
Vowel Harmony
Lezgian has a limited form of palatal and labial vowel harmony. In native Lezgian words, only syllables up to and including the stressed syllable are subject to vowel harmony. Since native Lezgian words are never stressed after the second syllable, only two vowels in a word can be subject to vowel harmony.
Palatal harmony contrasts the front vowels // with the back vowels //, and labial vowel harmony contrasts the labialized vowels // with non-labialized //. The vowels (// are considered neutral).
Cases
The four grammatical cases are: