Tabasaran language

Tabasaran (also written Tabassaran) is a Northeast Caucasian language of the Lezgic branch. It is spoken by the Tabasaran people in the southern part of the Russian Republic of Dagestan. There are two main dialects: North (Khanag) and South Tabasaran. It has a literary language based on the Southern dialect, one of the official languages of Dagestan.

Tabasaran is an ergative language. The verb system is relatively simple; verbs agree with the subject in number, person and (in North Tabasaran) class. North Tabasaran has two noun classes (that is, grammatical gender), whereas Southern Tabasaran lacks noun classes / gender.

Geographical distribution

It is spoken in the basin of Upper Rubas-nir and Upper Chirakh-nir.

Phonology

Consonants

{| class="wikitable" border="1" style=text-align:center

|+ Consonant phonemes of Tabasaran

! colspan="2" rowspan="2"|

! rowspan="2"|Labial

! colspan="2"|Dental

! colspan="2"|Post-alveolar

! rowspan="2"|Velar

! rowspan="2"|Uvular

! rowspan="2"|Epiglottal

! rowspan="2"|Glottal

! plain

! sibilant

! plain

! labial

! colspan="2" | Nasal

! rowspan="4" | Plosive/ Affricate

! voiced

! voiceless

!fortis

! ejective

! rowspan="3" | Fricative

!voiceless

!fortis

! voiced

! colspan="2" | Approximant

! colspan="2" | Trill

The post-alveolar sibilants may be whistled.

Vowels

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

! rowspan="2" |

! colspan="2" |Front

! rowspan="2" |Back

|- class="small"

!unrounded

!rounded

!Close

!Mid

!Open

Vowels of Tabasaran are /i, y, ɛ, æ, ɑ, u/.

Writing system

Cyrillic (19th century)

link=https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB:Uslar_-_Tabasaran_alphabet.png|thumb|Peter von Uslar's Tabasaran alphabet

Peter von Uslar devised Cyrillic-based orthographies for many Caucasian languages, including Tabasaran.

Latin (1931–1938)

From 1931 to 1938, the Latin alphabet was used as a base for the Tabasaran writing system. The first book was published in 1932.

Initially, the alphabet took the following form:

a, b, c, cc, cь, ç, çь, d, e, ə, f, g, ƣ, h, i, j, k, kk, ⱪ, l, m, n, u, p, pp, ᶈ, q, ꝗ, r, s, ꟍ, ꟍꟍ, ş, şь, t, tt, t̨, y, v, x, ҳ, ӿ, z, ⱬ, zz, ƶ, ƶƶ, ƶь, '

Soon after, capital letters and the letters O o and 13x13px 10x10px were introduced. The alphabet then took the following form:

{| 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;" |A a

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |B b

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |C c

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Cь cь

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ç ç

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Çь çь

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |D d

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |E e

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ə ə

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |F f

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |G g

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ƣ ƣ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |H h

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |I i

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |J j

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |K k

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ⱪ ⱪ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |L l

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |M m

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |N n

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |O o

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |P p

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |link=https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB:Latin_capital_letter_P_with_appendage.svg|15x15px ᶈ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Q q

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ꝗ ꝗ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |R r

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |S s

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ꟍ ꟍ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ş ş

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Şь şь

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |T t

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |link=https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB:Latin_capital_letter_T_with_descender.svg|19x19px|class=skin-invert link=https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A4%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB:Latin_small_letter_T_with_descender.svg|17x17px|class=skin-invert

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |U u

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |V v

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |X x

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ҳ ҳ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ӿ ӿ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Y y

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Z z

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ⱬ ⱬ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ƶ ƶ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |17x17px 13x13px

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |Ƶь ƶь

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" |'

Cyrillic (1938–present)

Tabasaran has been written using Cyrillic since 1938.

{| class="wikitable"

!colspan=1 align="center" | Letter

!colspan=1 align="center" | IPA

!Letter

!IPA

| valign="middle" align="center"| А а

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |Р р

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| Аь аь

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |С с

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| Б б

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |Т т

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| В в

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |Тт тт

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| Г г

| valign="middle" align="center"| ,

| align="center" valign="middle" |Тӏ тӏ

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| Гг гг

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |У у

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| Гъ гъ

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |Уь уь

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| Гь гь

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |Ф ф

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| Д д

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |Х х

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| Е е

| valign="middle" align="center"| ,

| align="center" valign="middle" |Хъ хъ

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| Ё ё

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |Хь хь

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| Ж ж

| valign="middle" align="center"| ,

| align="center" valign="middle" |Ц ц

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| Жв жв

|valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |Цц цц

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| З з

| valign="middle" align="center"| ,

| align="center" valign="middle" |Цӏ цӏ

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| И и

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |Ч ч

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| Й й

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |Чв чв

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| К к

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |Чч чч

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| Кк кк

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |Чӏ чӏ

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| Къ къ

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |Ш ш

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| Кь кь

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |Шв шв

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| Кӏ кӏ

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |Щ щ

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| Л л

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |Ъ ъ

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| М м

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |Ы ы

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| Н н

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |Ь ь

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| О о

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |Э э

| align="center" valign="middle" |

| valign="middle" align="center"| П п

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |Ю ю

| align="center" valign="middle" |,

| valign="middle" align="center"| ПП пп

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |Я я

| align="center" valign="middle" |,

| valign="middle" align="center"| Пӏ пӏ

| valign="middle" align="center"|

| align="center" valign="middle" |

Note: /ё/ and /o/ are encountered only in loanwords from Russian.

Grammar

Tabasaran is and agglutinating and primarily suffixing language with ergative-absolutive alignment. It is highly probable that Tabasaran is an active language of the fluid-S type.

Nouns

Tabasaran nouns inflect for number and case, and they control gender agreement. Tabasaran is unusual for northeast Caucasian languages in that it does not differentiate between masculine and feminine nouns. It does distinguish between human and non-human nouns, but only in the singular.

Cases

Tabasaran has 4 grammatical, or core, cases (absolutive, ergative, genitive, and dative), but the number of locative cases is debated. Tabasaran was listed in the 1997 Guinness Book of World Records as having the largest case system in the world, with 48. Hjelmslev (1935) claimed that Tabasaran had the 'empirical maximum' number of cases, with 52 (though 2 occur only on adjectives). However, such claims are contested, and other languages such as Tsez would have even larger counts under such definitions.

Babaliyeva (2023) identifies 46 cases

The grammatical cases are formed as follows: