Aqusha is a dialect of North Dargwa spoken by over 42,000 Dargins. It is the basis for the literary Dargwa language, along with Urakhi, as was developed in the 1930s. Speakers of Aqusha number the most among Dargwa linguistic groups.

Geographical distribution

Aqusha is most commonly found in the Akushinsky and Levashinsky Districts. There is a significant diaspora of Aqusha speakers in southern

European Russia European Russia is the western and most populated part of the Russia, Russian Federation. It is geographically situated in Europe, as opposed to the country's sparsely populated and vastly larger eastern part, Siberia, which is situated in Asia ...

Dialects

Aqusha is divided into 2 dialects, Aqusha and Levashi. According to , the differences in the Aqusha dialect are hardly noticeable and insignificant.

Phonology

Aqusha, and dialects of its type, lack the

fortis and lenis In linguistics, ''fortis'' ( ; Latin for 'strong') and ''lenis'' (, ; Latin for 'weak'), sometimes identified with 'tense' and 'lax', are pronunciations of consonants with relatively greater and lesser energy, respectively. English has fortis ...

contrast that is found in dialects of the Tsudaqar type.

Vowel length In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived or actual length (phonetics), duration of a vowel sound when pronounced. Vowels perceived as shorter are often called short vowels and those perceived as longer called long vowels. On one hand, many ...

and

labialization Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels invol ...

are also absent.

Glottalized Glottalization is the complete or partial closure of the glottis during the articulation of another sound. Glottalization of vowels and other sonorants is most often realized as creaky voice (partial closure). Glottalization of obstruent conso ...

and occur, and the case indicator is lost after prefixes.

Comparison with standard Dargwa

References

{{Languages of the Caucasus