Dargwa language

"Dargi" redirects here. For places in Iran, see Dargi, Iran.

Dargwa
дарган мез dargan mez دارگان مەز
Native to	North Caucasus
Region	Dagestan
Ethnicity	630,000 Dargins (2020 census)
Native speakers	590,000 (2020 census, all Dargin languages)
Language family	Northeast Caucasian Dargin North-Central Northern Dargwa Aqusha and Urakhi Dargwa
Writing system	Cyrillic
Official status
Official language in	Russia Dagestan
Language codes
ISO 639-2	dar
ISO 639-3	dar (also Dargin languages)
Glottolog	darg1241 sout3261
Map of all Dargin varieties

Dargwa (дарган мез, dargan mez) is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by the Dargin people in the Russian republic Dagestan. This article discusses the literary dialect of the dialect continuum constituting the Dargin languages. It is based on the Aqusha and Urakhi dialects of Northern Dargin.

Classification

Dargwa is part of a Northeast Caucasian dialect continuum, the Dargin languages. The other languages in this dialect continuum (such as Kajtak, Kubachi, Itsari, and Chirag) are often considered variants of Dargwa. Korjakov (2012) concludes that Southwestern Dargwa is closer to Kajtak than it is to North-Central Dargwa.

Geographic distribution

According to the 2002 Census, there are 429,347 speakers of Dargwa proper in Dagestan, 7,188 in neighbouring Kalmykia, 1,620 in Khanty–Mansi AO, 680 in Chechnya, and hundreds more in other parts of Russia. Figures for the Lakh dialect spoken in central Dagestan are 142,523 in Dagestan, 1,504 in Kabardino-Balkaria, 708 in Khanty–Mansi.

Phonology

Consonants

Like other languages of the Caucasus, Dargwa is noted for its large consonant inventory, which includes over 40 phonemes (distinct sounds), though the exact number varies by dialect. Voicing, glottalization (as ejectives), fortition (which surfaces as gemination), and frication are some of the distinct features of consonants in Dargwa. Particularly noteworthy is the inclusion of an epiglottal ejective by some languages such as Mehweb, which it may be the only language in the world to use phonemically. The following chart is of the literary dialect of Dargwa.

		Labial	Dental		Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal/ Epiglottal	Glottal
			plain	sib.
Nasal		m	n
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p	t	t͡s	t͡ʃ		k	q		ʔ
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ	t͡sʼ	t͡ʃʼ		kʼ	qʼ
	voiced	b	d	d͡z	d͡ʒ		ɡ	ɢ	ʡ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s		ʃ	ç	x1	χ	ʜ
	voiced	v	z		ʒ		ɣ	ʁ	ʢ	ɦ
Trill					r
Approximant		w	l			j

1. Mainly heard as an allophone of /ç/.

• The source is rather ambiguous in its using the term "laryngeal" for a presumed column of consonants that includes both a "voiced" and a "glottalized" plosive. A voiced glottal plosive cannot be made, because the glottis needs to be closed, and an ejective consonant requires an additional closure further up the vocal tract. Pending clarification, this row has been transcribed here as an epiglottal column and a glottal stop, both found in many other East Caucasian languages.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e	ə
Open		a

The Dargwa language features five vowel sounds /i, e, ə, a, u/. Vowels /i, u, a/ can be pharyngealized as /iˤ, uˤ, aˤ/. There is also a pharyngealized mid-back vowel [oˤ] as a realization of /uˤ/, occurring in the Mehweb variety.

Orthography

Main article: Dargin writing

The current Dargwa alphabet is based on Cyrillic as follows:

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

The first Dargin alphabet was created by Peter von Uslar in the late 19th century, published in the grammar Хюркилинский язык for the Urakhi dialect of Dargwa.

The Latin alphabet of the 1920s is not entirely supported by Unicode, but is approximately:

a ʙ c ç ꞓ d e ə f g ǥ ƣ h ħ ⱨ i j k ⱪ l m n o p ᶈ q ꝗ r s ꟍ ş t ţ u v w x ҳ ӿ z ƶ ⱬ ƶ̧

(The letters transcribed here ⱨ ⱪ ᶈ ҳ ⱬ might have cedillas instead of hooks; the printing in sources is not clear.)

Writing system comparison chart

Compiled from:

Modern Cyrillic	Latin c. 1930	Uslar	Arabic (1920—1928)	Arabic (before 1920)	IPA
А а	A a	а	ا ,آ	آ	a
Б б	B b	б	ب		b
В в	V v	ԝ	و		w
Г г	G g	г	گ	ڮ	g
Гъ гъ	Ƣ ƣ	ӷ	غ		ʁ
Гь гь	H h	һ	ھ	ﻬ	h
ГӀ гӀ	Ⱨ ⱨ	ꜧ	ع		ʕ
Д д	D d	д	د		d
Е е	E e, je	e	اە	-	e, je
Ё ё	-				ɵ
Ж ж	Ƶ ƶ	ж	ژ	ج	ʒ
З з	Z z	з	ز		z
И и	I i	i	اى	-	i
Й й	J j	j	ى	ي	j
К к	K k	кᷱ	ک		k
Къ къ	Q q	к	ڠ	ق	q:
Кь кь	Ꝗ ꝗ	q	ق		qʼ
КӀ кӀ	Ⱪ ⱪ	қ	گ		kʼ
Л л	L l	л	ل		l
М м	M m	м	م		m
Н н	N n	н	ن		n
О о	O o	о	او	-	o
П п	P p	п	پ	ف	p
ПӀ пӀ		ԥ	ڢ	ب	pʼ
Р р	R r	р	ر		r
С с	S s	с	س		s
Т т	T t	т	ت		t
ТӀ тӀ	T̨ t̨	ҭ	ط		t’
У у	U u	у	او	و	u
Ф ф	F f	-	ف		f
Х х	X x	х	خ		χ
Хъ хъ	Ӿ ӿ	k	څ	ق	q
Хь хь	Ҳ ҳ		ؼ		x:
ХӀ хӀ	Ħ ħ		ح		ћ
Ц ц	Ꞩ ꞩ	ц	ڝ	ژ	ʦ
ЦӀ цӀ	Ⱬ ⱬ	წ	ڗ	ژ	ʦ’
Ч ч	C c	ч	چ		tʃ
ЧӀ чӀ	Ç ç	ჭ	ج	چ	ʧ’
Ш ш	Ş ş	ш	ش		ʃ
Щ щ	şş	-			ʃː
Ъ ъ	-		ء	-	ʔ
Ы ы	-				ɨ
Ь ь	-
Э э	E e	-	اه	-	e
Ю ю	ju	-			ju
Я я	Ә ә, ja	ӕ	أ	-	ja
-	Ⱬ̵ ⱬ̵	ђ	ڞ	-	t͡s
-	Ӡ ӡ	-
-	є	-	ڃ	چ
-	g̵	гᷱ	ݢ	-

Grammar

Verb

TAM

Assertive (finite) forms

Assertive (finite) forms

TAM CATEGORY	MEANING	ASPECT	MODIFIER	PREDICATIVE MARKER	NEGATION	EXAMPLE
DERIVED FROM THE PROGRESSIVE STEM ( BASIC STEM + -a)
Present	1. all types of present situations including actual and habitual situations, 2. historic present, 3. close future: the speaker‘s intention	IPF	[-ti]	PERSON / PRESENT (–da/–di/–ca=b)	reduplication or negative auxiliary	anwar-ri kaRar luk’-a–ca=b (Anwar is writing a letter)
Past Progressive	a progressive situation in the past	IPF	-ti	PAST (–di)		it uč’-a-Ti–di (He was reading)
DERIVED FROM THE PRETERITE STEM ( BASIC STEM + -ib/-ub/-ur/-un):
Aorist	any completed action in the past	PF	-	PERSON (–da/–di)	negative auxiliary
Imperfect	unspecified imperfective meaning in the past (both durative and multiplicative situations)	IPF	-	PERSON (–da/–di)		hin ha.ruq-ib
Perfect	perfect (a completed action whose results are still presently actual)	PF	-	PERSON /PRESENT (–da/–di/–ca=b)		jabu-l hin d=er{-ib–ca=d (The horse has drunk up the whole of the water)
Pluperfect	a completed action in the past preceding another past action	PF	-li	PAST (–di)
*Evidential Present	1. inference from non-trivial results of a situation that still exist at the moment of speech 2. subject resultative:	IPF	-	PERSON/PRESENT (–da/–di/–ca=b)		jabu hinni b=u{-ib–ca=b (The horse has had a drink of water)
*Evidential Past	1. inference from non-trivial results that existed in the past subject resultative in the past	IPF	-li	PAST (–di)
Resultative	resultative (state of the patient)	-	-li	PERSON /PRESENT (–da/–di/–ca=b)		jabu mura-l b=uK-un-ni–ca=b 'The horse has eaten its fill of hay.‘
Experiential	experiential	-	-ci	PERSON /PRESENT (–da/–di/–ca=b)		ni}a-la }a=b b=uZ-ib-ti–ca=b d=eqel juz-i d=elk'-un-ti ̳There have been in our village those who had written many books'.
Habitual Past	a habitual action in the past	IPF	-a-d-i, -a-T-i, -iri/-ini or -aj	no separable predicative morphemes	reduplication	harzamina b=urs-iri di-la waba-l 'My mother used to tell (this story).‘
DERIVED FROM THE OBLIGATIVE STEM ( BASIC STEM + -an):
Future	all types of future situations	IPF	-	PERSON/FUTURE(–da/–di/-ni)	negative auxiliary
Obligative Present	a situation that the speaker believes necessary to be realized	IPF *	-	PERSON /PRESENT (–da/–di/–ca=b)	negative auxiliary
Obligative Past	an irreal situation that the speaker believes necessary to have been realized in the past	IPF *	-	PAST (–di)
DERIVED FROM THE HYPOTHETICAL STEM ( BASIC STEM + -iZ-):
Hypothetical Present	a possible action in the future	-	-	PERSON(–da/–di)	reduplication or negative auxiliary
Hypothetical Past	a past situation that did not take place, but is treated by the speaker as having been possible under certain conditions	-	-	PAST (–di)
Irrealis	used in the apodosis of the irreal conditional clauses	IPF	-	PAST (–di)	reduplication

Bibliography

• Z. G. Abdullaev: Darginskij jazyk (3 Vol.). Moskau 1993. (in Russian)
• Z. G. Abdullaev: Darginskij jazyk Archived 2006-12-07 at the Wayback Machine. In: Jazyki narodov SSSR. Vol. 4. Moskau 1967. (in Russian)
• Karl Bouda: Die darginische Schriftsprache. (= Beiträge zur kaukasischen und sibirischen Sprachwissenschaft. Vol. 4). Leipzig 1937.
• Tb (2019). Daniel, Michael; Dobrushina, Nina; Ganenkov, Dmitry (eds.). The Mehweb language: Essays on phonology, morphology and syntax. Berlin: Language Science Press. doi:10.5281/zenodo.3374730. ISBN 978-3-96110-208-2.
• van den Berg, Helma (2001). Dargi folktales. Oral stories from the Caucasus. With an introduction to Dargi Grammar. Leiden: University of Leiden. ISBN 978-90-5789-066-6.

External links

• An online dictionary of Sanzhi Dargwa (in Dictionaria), by Diana Forker
• Appendix:Cyrillic script
• Dargin language (in Russian)
• Consonant Systems of the North-East Caucasian Languages
• Dargwa basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
• Sanzhi Dargwa DoReCo corpus compiled by Diana Forker and Nils Norman Schiborr. Audio recordings of narrative texts with transcriptions time-aligned at the phone level, translations, and - for some texts - time-aligned morphological annotations.