Sanzhi language

Sanzhi (Sanzhi: sunglan ʁaj, also called Sanzhi Dargwa)^[1] is an endangered Dargin language spoken by about 250 people in Dagestan,^[2] closely related to Itsari. It is considered critically endangered due to its obsolescence in favor of Russian.^[3][4][5] The language is unwritten.^[6]

In the 1970s, the Sanzhis left their original village of Sanzhi, which is believed to have been inhabited for around 10,000 years,^[7] and moved to the lowlands, predominantly the village of Druzhba.^[3] In the summers, however, they still return to Sanzhi to do various activities like fishing and berry picking.^[2]

Younger speakers tend to pronounce the labialized consonants as plain ones.

Sanzhi has 7 vowels, 4 plain ones and 3 pharyngealized vowels.

/i/ has the allophones [ı], [i]; [ıˁ], [iˁ], /e/ can be realized as [e] or [ε], and /u/ is realized as [u], [ʊ]; /uˁ/ is also prononced as [ʊˁ].

[aˁ] is by far the most common pharyngealized vowel, as [uˁ] is much rarer and has only one known minimal pair. Only a few words have [iˁ], and even speakers are uncertain about it.

Possible syllables in native words are as follows:

V, VC, VCC, CV, CVC and CVCC

The general structure is (C)V(C)(C).

Simple underived verbs, however, are much more limited in their structure; only [r], [l] and [ʡ] are permitted in the onset.^[10]