Kryts (Kryc) is a Samur language of the Northeast Caucasian language family spoken in parts of the

Quba Rayon Quba District (; az, Quba rayonu) is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. It is located in the north-east of the country and belongs to the Guba-Khachmaz Economic Region. The district borders the districts of Qusar, Qabala, Ismayilli, Shama ...

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

by 6,000 people in 1975.Ethnologue entry for Kryts
/ref> Its dialects are Kryts, Jek, Khaput, Yergyudzh, and Alyk, which are all quite distinct to the point of only partial

mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as a ...

, therefore they could also be considered separate languages in a

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulate over distance so that widely separated varie ...

. Kryts is

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inv ...

, classified as "severely endangered" by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. I ...

Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger The UNESCO ''Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger'' is an online publication containing a comprehensive list of the world's endangered languages. It originally replaced the ''Red Book of Endangered Languages'' as a title in print after ...

.UNESCO Interactive Atlas of the World’s Languages in Danger

Phonology

Consonants

* /ʁ/ may also be realized as �or ː in complementary distribution. * Sounds /t͡s, d͡z/ only occur in other dialects of the language. * An /h/ may vary from a glottal sound to an epiglottal fricative /ʜ/.

Vowels

* /i/ can be heard as � in free variation * The four vowels may also be pharyngealized as /iˤ, uˤ, eˤ, aˤ/.

References

*Authier, Gilles. 2009. Grammaire kryz. Paris: Peeters.

External links

Kryts basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
Northeast Caucasian languages Languages of Azerbaijan Endangered Caucasian languages Kryts {{NEC-lang-stub