Kaitag (self des. ''Хайдакьан кув'' ; oth. des. ''Kaidak'', ''Karakaitak'', ''Karkaidak'', ''Qaidaqlan'') is a
Northeast Caucasian language spoken in
Dagestan
Dagestan ( ; rus, Дагеста́н, , dəɡʲɪˈstan, links=yes), officially the Republic of Dagestan (russian: Респу́блика Дагеста́н, Respúblika Dagestán, links=no), is a republic of Russia situated in the North ...
,
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...
. It has sometimes been considered a divergent dialect of
Dargwa due to it being part of the
Dargin dialect continuum. The ''Routledge Ethnographic Handbook'' (2017) divided Kaitag into two dialects: northern (Magalis-Kaitak) and southern (Karakaitak). Recent results of the ''Association of the Russian Sociolinguists'' (2021) further developed it into three dialects: Lower Kaitag, Upper Kaitag and Shari.
Dialects
The languages consists of eight varieties, forming three dialects. Each of the Upper varieties corresponds to a historical province of the region.
* Upper Kaitag – Хъар Хайдакь (south-west).
** Shurkkant – ''"The Cliff Dwellers"'' – Шурккант.
**Qattagan – ''"The Gorge Dwellers"'' – Къаттагне.
**Irchamul – ''"The Land of Nine"'' – Ирчӏамул.
*Lower Kaitag – Ххьар Хайдакь.
**Barshamai – Баршамаӏъган.
**Karatsan – Гъаӏрцӏнила.
**Jibahni – Чӏивгьаӏн.
**Sanchi – Сунклан.
*Shari – Шаӏръи.
Phonology
Vowels
Consonants
Consonants form by series of voiced, aspirated, fortis, ejective, and labialized variants. The palatal fricative
�might be the ''voiceless post-palatal fricative'', which can be more precisely transcribed as
�̠or
̟
Alphabet
The Kaitag language is usually written in the
Cyrillic script
The Cyrillic script ( ), Slavonic script or the Slavic script, is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking cou ...
. The letters of the alphabet are (with their pronunciation given below in
IPA
IPA commonly refers to:
* India pale ale, a style of beer
* International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation
* Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound
IPA may also refer to:
Organizations International
* Insolvency Practitioner ...
transcription):
Lexicon
Most of Kaitag's vocabulary stems from proto-
Northeast-Caucasian roots. Like with other languages of
Dagestan
Dagestan ( ; rus, Дагеста́н, , dəɡʲɪˈstan, links=yes), officially the Republic of Dagestan (russian: Респу́блика Дагеста́н, Respúblika Dagestán, links=no), is a republic of Russia situated in the North ...
, there is a considerable number of Arabic, Iranian, Turkic and recently Russian loanwords.
References
Northeast Caucasian languages
{{NEC-lang-stub