Kaitag (Kaitag: ; also ''Kaidak'', ''Karakaitak'', ''Karkaidak'', ''Qaidaqlan'') is a
Northeast Caucasian language spoken in
Dagestan
Dagestan ( ; ; ), officially the Republic of Dagestan, is a republic of Russia situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, along the Caspian Sea. It is located north of the Greater Caucasus, and is a part of the North Caucasian Fede ...
,
Russia
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...
. 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, the latter of which may be a separate but closely related language.
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 ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, Mongolic, Uralic languages, Uralic, C ...
. The letters of the alphabet are (with their pronunciation given below in
IPA
IPA commonly refers to:
* International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation
** International Phonetic Association, the organization behind the alphabet
* India pale ale, a style of beer
* Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound
IPA ...
transcription):
Lexicon
Most of Kaitag's vocabulary stems from proto-
Northeast-Caucasian roots. Like with other languages of
Dagestan
Dagestan ( ; ; ), officially the Republic of Dagestan, is a republic of Russia situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, along the Caspian Sea. It is located north of the Greater Caucasus, and is a part of the North Caucasian Fede ...
, there is a considerable number of Arabic, Iranian, Turkic and recently Russian loanwords.
References
External links
Kaytag dictionary
{{Languages of the Caucasus
Northeast Caucasian languages