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Languages Of The Caucasus
The Caucasian languages comprise a large and extremely varied array of languages spoken by more than ten million people in and around the Caucasus Mountains, which lie between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Linguistic comparison allows the classification of these languages into several different language families, with little or no discernible affinity to each other. However, the languages of the Caucasus are sometimes mistakenly referred to as a ''family'' of languages.Tuite, Kevin. (1999). The myth of the Caucasian Sprachbund: The case of ergativity. Lingua. 108. 1-29/ref> According to Asya Pereltsvaig, "grammatical differences between the three groups of languages are considerable. ..These differences force the more conservative historical linguistics to treat the three language families of the Caucasus as unrelated." Families indigenous to the Caucasus Three of these families have no current indigenous members outside the Caucasus, and are considered indigenous to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dargwa Language
Dargwa (, ''dargan mez'') is a Northeast Caucasian languages, Northeast Caucasian language spoken by the Dargins, 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 dialect, Aqusha and Urakhi dialect, 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 Kaitag language, Kajtak, Kubachi language, Kubachi, Itsari language, Itsari, and Chirag language, Chirag) are often considered variants of Dargwa, but also sometimes considered separate languages by certain scholars. Korjakov (2012) concludes that Southwestern Dargwa is closer to Kajtak than it is to North-Central Dargwa. Geographic distribution According to the Russian Census (2002), 2002 Census, there are 429,347 speakers of Dargwa proper in Dagestan, 7,188 in neighbo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Areal Feature
In geolinguistics, areal features are elements shared by languages or dialects in a geographic area, particularly when such features are not descended from a common ancestor or proto-language. An areal feature is contrasted with genetic relationship determined similarity within the same language family. Features may diffuse from one dominant language to neighbouring languages (see "sprachbund"). Genetic relationships are represented in the family tree model of language change, and areal relationships are represented in the wave model. Characteristics Resemblances between two or more languages (whether in typology or in vocabulary) have been observed to result from several mechanisms, including lingual genealogical relation (descent from a common ancestor language, not principally related to biological genetics); borrowing between languages; retention of features when a population adopts a new language; and chance coincidence. When little or no direct documentation of ances ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arabic Phonology
While many languages have numerous dialects that differ in phonology, contemporary spoken Arabic is more properly described as a varieties of Arabic, continuum of varieties. This article deals primarily with Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), which is the standard variety shared by educated speakers throughout Arabic-speaking regions. MSA is used in writing in formal print media and orally in newscasts, speeches and formal declarations of numerous types. Modern Standard Arabic has 28 consonant phonemes and 6 vowel phonemes, with four "emphatic consonant, emphatic" (pharyngealized) consonants that contrast with their non-emphatic counterparts. Some of these phonemes have Phonetic merger, coalesced in the various modern dialects, while new phonemes have been introduced through Loanword, borrowing or phonemic splits. A "phonemic quality of length" applies to Gemination, consonants as well as Vowel length, vowels. History Of the 29 Proto-Semitic language, Proto-Semitic consonants, on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russian Phonology
This article discusses the phonology, phonological system of standard language, standard Russian language, Russian based on the Moscow dialect (unless otherwise noted). For an overview of dialects in the Russian language, see Russian dialects. Most descriptions of Russian describe it as having five vowel phonemes, though there is some dispute over whether a sixth vowel, , is separate from . Russian has 34 consonants, which can be divided into two types: * ''hard'' ( ) or ''plain'' * ''soft'' ( ) or ''Palatalization (phonetics), palatalized'' Russian also distinguishes hard consonants from soft consonants and from Iotation, iotated consonants, making four sets in total: , although in native words appears only at morpheme boundaries (, for example). Russian also preserves palatalized consonants that are followed by another consonant more often than other Slavic languages do. Like Polish, it has both hard postalveolars () and soft ones ( and marginally or dialectically ). Russian ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ubykh Language
Ubykh is an extinct Northwest Caucasian language once spoken by the Ubykh people, an ethnic group of Circassian nation who originally inhabited the eastern coast of the Black Sea before being deported ''en masse'' to the Ottoman Empire during the Circassian genocide. The Ubykh language is ergative and polysynthetic, with a high degree of agglutination, with polypersonal verbal agreement and a very large number of distinct consonants but only two phonemically distinct vowels. With around eighty consonants, it has one of the largest inventories of consonants in the world, and the largest number for any language without clicks. The name Ubykh is derived from (), from , its name in the Adyghe language. It is known in linguistic literature by many names: variants of Ubykh, such as ''Ubikh'', ( French); and its Germanised variant (from Ubykh ). Major features Ubykh is distinguished by the following features, some of which are shared with other Northwest Caucasian langua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phonemes
A phoneme () is any set of similar speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word from another. All languages contain phonemes (or the spatial-gestural equivalent in sign languages), and all spoken languages include both consonant and vowel phonemes; phonemes are primarily studied under the branch of linguistics known as phonology. Examples and notation The English words ''cell'' and ''set'' have the exact same sequence of sounds, except for being different in their final consonant sounds: thus, versus in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), a writing system that can be used to represent phonemes. Since and alone distinguish certain words from others, they are each examples of phonemes of the English language. Specifically they are consonant phonemes, along with , while is a vowel phoneme. The spelling of English does not strictly conform ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Consonant
In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and [b], pronounced with the lips; and [d], pronounced with the front of the tongue; and [g], pronounced with the back of the tongue; , pronounced throughout the vocal tract; , [v], , and [z] pronounced by forcing air through a narrow channel (fricatives); and and , which have air flowing through the nose (nasal consonant, nasals). Most consonants are Pulmonic consonant, pulmonic, using air pressure from the lungs to generate a sound. Very few natural languages are non-pulmonic, making use of Ejective consonant, ejectives, Implosive consonant, implosives, and Click consonant, clicks. Contrasting with consonants are vowels. Since the number of speech sounds in the world's languages is much greater than the number of letters in any one alphabet, Linguis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abaza Language
Abaza is the name of an ethnic group closely related to the Circassians, the Abazins, their language, the Abaza language, an Egyptian noble family of the same origin, the Abaza family, Abaza Family, and a surname. The Abazin people's "self-designation" is ''Abaza'' (Abaza language: ). The word is also where the historic country of Abazinia gets its name. Abaza may also refer to: Places *Abazinia, a region in the Caucasus *Abaza (town), a town in the Republic of Khakassia, Russia Other uses *Abaza people, an ethnic group of the Caucasus *Abaza language, a Northwest Caucasian language *Abaza family, an Egyptian noble house of maternal Abazins, Abazin Circassians, Circassian ancestry *Abaza (surname) *Abaza goat, a Turkish breed of domesticated goat *Abaza TV, a television station in the Republic of Abkhazia People * Alexander Abaza (1821–1895), Russian finance minister * Alexander Nikolayevich Abaza (1872–1925), Russian diplomat * Alexey Abaza (1853–1915), Russian admiral * ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abkhaz Language
Abkhaz, also known as Abkhazian, is a Northwest Caucasian languages, Northwest Caucasian language most closely related to Abaza language, Abaza. It is spoken mostly by the Abkhazians, Abkhaz people. It is one of the official languages of Abkhazia, where around 190,000 people speak it. Furthermore, it is spoken by thousands of members of the Abkhazian diaspora in Turkey, Georgia (country), Georgia's autonomous republic of Adjara, Syria, Jordan, and several Western countries. 27 October is the day of the Abkhazian language in Georgia (country), Georgia. Classification Abkhaz is a Northwest Caucasian languages, Northwest Caucasian language and is thus related to Adyghe language, Adyghe. The language of Abkhaz is especially close to Abaza language, Abaza, and they are sometimes considered dialects of the same language,''B. G. Hewitt Abkhaz 1979;'' page 1. Abazgi, of which the literary dialects of Abkhaz and Abaza are simply two ends of a dialect continuum. Grammatically, the two ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adyghe Language
Adyghe ( or ; also known as West Circassian) is a Northwest Caucasian language spoken by the western subgroups of Circassians. It is spoken mainly in Russia, as well as in Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Israel, where Circassians settled after the Circassian genocide (–1870) by the Russian Empire. It is closely related to the Kabardian language, Kabardian (East Circassian) language, though some reject the distinction between the two languages in favor of both being dialects of a unitary Circassian languages, Circassian language. The literary standard of Adyghe is based on its Temirgoy dialect. Adyghe and Russian language, Russian are the two official languages of the Adygea, Republic of Adygea in the Russian Federation. In Russia, there are around 128,000 speakers of Adyghe, almost all of them native speakers. In total, some 300,000 speak it worldwide. The largest Adyghe-speaking community is in Turkey, spoken by the diaspora from the Russo-Circassian War, Russian–Circassi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kabardian Language
Kabardian (), also known as , is a Northwest Caucasian languages, Northwest Caucasian language, that is widely considered to be the eastern dialect of Adyghe language, Adyghe. While some Soviet linguists have treated the two as distinct languages, the Circassians (including Kabardians, Kabardian people) consider the eastern and western language variants to be dialects of one Circassian languages, Circassian language. It is spoken mainly in parts of the North Caucasus republics of Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia (Eastern Circassia), and in Turkey, Jordan and Syria (the extensive post-war diaspora). It has 47 or 48 consonant phonemes, of which 22 or 23 are fricative consonant, fricatives, depending upon whether one counts as phonemic, but it has only 3 phonemic vowels. It is one of very few languages to possess a clear phonemic distinction between ejective affricate consonant, affricates and ejective fricatives. Some linguists argue that Kabardian is only one dial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
