Tsakhur () is a Lezgic language spoken by the Tsakhurs in northern

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

and southwestern

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 is spoken by about 11,700 people in Azerbaijan and by about 10,600 people in Russia. The word ''Tsakhur'' derives from the name of a Dagestani village where speakers of this language make up the majority. Although Tsakhur 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, inv ...

in communities in closest contact with Azerbaijani, it is vigorous in other communities, gaining prominence in the region, seen in the growth of interest in learning Tsakhur in school and a growing body of Tsakhur-learning materials. Tsakhur is classified as "definitely endangered" by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

's ''

Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger The UNESCO ''Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger'' was 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 ...

''.

Classification

Tsakhur belongs to the Lezgic group of the Northeast Caucasian language family. The Tsakhurs call their language .

Related languages

Among the languages of the Lezgic group, Rutul appears to be the closest one to Tsakhur. Other than these two, there are eight more languages in the Lezgic group, namely: Lezgian, Tabasaran, Aghul, Budukh, Kryts, Udi, and Archi.

History

The first written documentation of Tsakhur dates back to 1895 and is attributed to Roderich von Erckert. The first description of Tsakhur grammar was published by Adolf Dirr in 1913. In the 1930s, a

literary Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, plays, and poems. It includes both print and digital writing. In recent centuries, ...

form of Tsakhur was developed. Starting from 1934, the language was taught in

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

s in

and

. In 1938, the use of literary Tsakhur in Azerbaijan was discontinued but regained its status in 1989. The Tsakhur alphabet in Azerbaijan is based on the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...

, whereas in Dagestan the language uses

Cyrillic The Cyrillic 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 countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...

. In the past (as early as the 11th century) there have been attempts to write Tsakhur in the

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic (Arabic alphabet) and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world (after the Latin script), the second-most widel ...

. In 2008, Asif Rustamov directed the first and so far only feature film in Tsakhur called ''Facing Back to the

Qibla The qibla () is the direction towards the Kaaba in the Great Mosque of Mecca, Sacred Mosque in Mecca, which is used by Muslims in various religious contexts, particularly the direction of prayer for the salah. In Islam, the Kaaba is believed to ...

''.

Geographic distribution

Tsakhur is spoken mostly in rural areas of Azerbaijan's Zaqatala and

Qakh Qakh District (; ; ) is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. It is located in the north of the country, in the Shaki-Zagatala Economic Region. The district borders the districts of Zagatala, Shaki, Samukh, Yevlakh, as well as the Kakheti ...

rayons, as well as mountainous parts of Dagestan's Rutul region. There are 15,900 Tsakhurs in Azerbaijan (1999 census) and 10,400 in Russia (2002 census). In 1989, 93% of them reported Tsakhur as their first language.

Official status

In Azerbaijan and Russia, Tsakhur is taught as a subject in primary schools (grades 1 to 4) in Tsakhur-populated regions. Newspapers and radio broadcast in Tsakhur are also available. It is one of twelve official languages of the Dagestan region in Russia where it is spoken. However, the language does not have an official status in Azerbaijan.

Dialects

The two major dialects of the Tsakhur language are Tsakh and Gelmets.

Phonology

Similar to many Northeast Caucasian languages, Tsakhur is known for its complex phonology and a large number of vowel phonemes (including 7 simple, 5

pharyngealized Pharyngealization is a secondary articulation of consonants or vowels by which the pharynx or epiglottis is constricted during the articulation of the sound. IPA symbols In the International Phonetic Alphabet, pharyngealization can be indicate ...

and 3 umlauted vowels). Its first in-depth phonological description was provided by

Nikolai Trubetzkoy Prince Nikolai Sergeyevich Trubetzkoy ( ; 16 April 1890 – 25 June 1938) was a Russian linguist and historian whose teachings formed a nucleus of the Prague School of structural linguistics. He is widely considered to be the founder of morpho ...

in 1931.

Consonants

The consonant inventory, according to Shulze's study of the language, of Tsakhur is shown below. Forms are phonemic unless numbered, in which case they are suspected to be phonemes but currently with incomplete evidence for this. The inventory shows some asymmetries, but exhibits series of palatalized,

labialized 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 ...

, and

phonemes. :# Suspected to be phonemes.

Vowels

Writing

Latin (1934–1938)

250px, left, Tsakhur alphabet 1934-1938 The alphabet for the Tsakhur language based on the Latin alphabet was compiled by A. N. Genko in 1934. 8 textbooks were published. However, after 4 years, teaching and publishing books in the Tsakhur language ceased.

Cyrillic (1989–present)

It was resumed only in 1989, but already in a new, Cyrillic alphabet.

Latin (1996–present)

The Latin script has been used for Tsakhur in Azerbaijan since 1996. It was later reformed. The first alphabet was as follows: A a, AӀ aӀ, B b, V v, Q q, Qъ qъ, D d, E e, I i, Y y, K k, G g, KӀ kӀ, Kь kь, Kъ kъ, L l, M m, N n, O o, OӀ oӀ, P p, PӀ pӀ, R r, T t, TӀ tӀ, U u, UӀ uӀ, Ç ç, ÇӀ çӀ, C c, I ı, IӀ ıӀ, Ƶ ƶ, ƵӀ ƶӀ, F f, X x, Xь xь, QӀ qӀ, Xъ xъ, H h, Ş ş, S s, Z z.

Comparison chart

Grammar

Tsakhur has 18

grammatical case A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and Numeral (linguistics), numerals) that corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a Nominal group (functional grammar), n ...

s and has retained ''

suffixaufnahme Suffixaufnahme (, "suffix resumption"), also known as case stacking, is a linguistic phenomenon used in forming a genitive construction, whereby prototypically a genitive noun agrees with its head noun. The term Suffixaufnahme itself is literally ...

''. Verbs may have singular and plural forms, and 7

grammatical mood In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used for signaling modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying (for example, a statement ...

s. The tense system is complex. In contrast to the related languages, Tsakhur sentences can be formed by

affective Affect, in psychology, is the underlying experience of feeling, emotion, attachment, or mood. It encompasses a wide range of emotional states and can be positive (e.g., happiness, joy, excitement) or negative (e.g., sadness, anger, fear, dis ...

construction.

Noun case

Tsakhur exhibits a number of noun cases, including grammatical and local cases. The ergative and

genitive case In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive ca ...

s show agreement with the head noun class, as shown below.

Noun class

Tsakhur has a system of noun class.

Postpositions

As with other related languages, Tsakhur uses a complex system of postpositions, mainly local ones.

Numerals

References

External links

* Appendix:Cyrillic script
Tsakhur basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical DatabaseTskahur picture dictionaryPublic access material related to Tsakhur in SIL International's Language and Culture Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tsakhur Language Northeast Caucasian languages Languages of Azerbaijan Languages of Russia Endangered Caucasian languages