Urakhi (also Khyurkili)
is a dialect of
North Dargwa spoken by around 35,000 people in
Sergokalinsky District, the northern portions of
Akushinsky District
Akushinsky District (; Dargwa: ) is an administrativeLaw #16 and municipalLaw #6 district (raion), one of the forty-one in the Republic of Dagestan, Russia. It is located in the southern central part of the republic. The area of the district is ...
and in the villages of
Gerga and in
Kayakentsky District. Along with the
Aqusha dialect
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.
Geographi ...
, it formed the basis for the
literary Dargwa language.
Phonology
Urakhi does not have
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 ...
or
consonant gemination
In phonetics and phonology, gemination (; from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), or consonant lengthening, is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...
, in contrast with other varieties. The affricates and are also preserved, in contrast with
Tsudaqar and related varieties. The system of phonemic
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 ...
has been lost, in accordance with the related Aqusha dialect, replaced by the corresponding
voiced
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced.
The term, however, is used to refe ...
consonants.
Orthography
Urakhi was one of the bases for the
literary Dargwa language, along with Aqusha.
Peter von Uslar created an orthography for Urakhi in 1892 in his grammar.
References
External links
Urakhi phrasebook and dictionary{{Languages of the Caucasus
Northeast Caucasian languages
Culture of Dagestan