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 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, noting that the Tsegob/Cegob dialet is not mutually intelligible with the Northern dialects without commenting on the Tlyanub/Tljanub or Ratlub dialects.

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]

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

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:

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.^[13] 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.^[14]

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.

Akhvakh distinguishes between an absolutive (i.e., unmarked) and oblique stem. Case endings are attached to the oblique stem (which may, however, coincide with the absolutive). In the singular, the oblique stem is irregular and lexically determined, and there is free variation.^[13]

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, and the ergative is formed with the suffix -de. However, when it follows a close vowel (in Akhvakh, /i, u/), contraction may occur:^[13]

jaše 'girl' > oblique stem jaše-ɬːi- > ergative jaše-ɬːi-de or jaše-ɬː-e

The noun phrase with absolutive case controls agreement on the verb:

In addition to the ergative and absolutive cases, Akhvakh has eighteen other cases, for a total of twenty cases.^[15] The additional cases are

• dative
• genitive
• comitative
• purposive
• fifteen spatial cases, arrayed in five series of three.

The dative case marks indirect the indirect object. The most common suffix is -ƛa, but it is in free variation with -ƛaje. Similarly to the ergative case, it may contract when preceded by a close vowel, e.g., jaše 'girl' > oblique stem: jaše-ɬːi- > dative: jaše-ɬːi-ƛa or jaše-ɬː-a.^[16]

The genitive case expresses possession. Northern Akhvakh has two variants: one with no specific marker, and one with the suffix -ƛːi. The former is used with male and human plural nouns, and the latter is used with female, neuter, and non-human plural nouns. Below is a partial paradigm for šoda "good":^[17]

The comitative case is formed with the suffix -k'ena attached to the oblique stem, and denotes accompaniment e.g., di-k'ena 'with me'.^[18]

The 15 spatial cases are formed by the combination of an 'orientation' marker and a 'spatial case marker' (also called the 'localization' and 'direction' markers, respectively). The orientation marker immediately follows the oblique stem and denotes the orientation of the object, and the spatial marker denotes its type of movement (including no movement).There are 5 orientation markers (labeled OR₁ through OR₅ in Creissler (2009)), and 3 direction markers (locative, allative, and ablative).^[19]

• Creissels, Denis (2009). "Participles and Finiteness: The Case of Akhvakh". Linguistic Discovery. 7 (1). doi:10.1349/PS1.1537-0852.A.334. Archived from the original on 2023-05-16.
• Creissels, Denis (2010). "Specialized converbs and adverbial subordination in Axaxdərə Akhvakh". In Brill, Isabelle (ed.). Clause linking and clause hierarchy: Syntax and pragmatics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. pp. 105–142. doi:10.1075/slcs.121.04cre. S2CID 124019120.
• Laver, John (1994). Principles of Phonetics. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139166621. ISBN 978-0-521-45031-7. OL 1409541M.
• Magomedova, Patimat; Abdulaeva, Indira (2007). Axkaxsko-russkij slovar'. Maxačkala: Dagestanskij Naučnyj Centr Rossiskoj Akademii Nauk.

• Wixman, Ronald (1984). The Peoples of the USSR: An Ethnographic Handbook. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe. p. 8.
• Olson, James S. (1994). An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires. Westport: Greenwood Press. pp. 25–26.
• Магомедбекова, З. М. (1967). Ahvahskij jazyk: Grammatičeskij analiz, teksty, slovarʹ Ахвахский язык: Грамматический анализ, тексты, словарь [Akhvakh language: Grammatical analysis, texts, dictionary] (PDF). Tbilisi.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Богуславская, О. Ю. (1997). "Ахвахский язык". Jazyki Rossijskoj federacii i sosednih gosudarstv Языки Российской федерации и соседних государств [Languages of the Russian Federation and neighboring countries]. Vol. 1. Moscow.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

• The dictionary definition of Akhvakh at Wiktionary