Chirag language
Northeast Caucasian language or dialect in Dagestan, Russia
| Chirag | |
|---|---|
| хьаргънилла xarʁnilla kub | |
| Native to | North Caucasus |
| Region | Agulsky District, Dagestan |
Native speakers | 2,000 (2021)[1] |
Language family | Northeast Caucasian
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | chir1284 |
 Chirag | |
Chirag (Chirag: хьаргънилла, xarʁnilla kub[2]) is a language in the Dargin dialect continuum spoken in Dagestan, Russia. It is spoken around the village of Chirag, but some speakers have moved to Kaspiysk. Chirag is often considered a divergent dialect of Dargwa,[3] despite not being mutually intelligible with literary Dargwa.[4] Ethnologue lists it under the dialects of Dargwa but recognizes that it may be a separate language.[5]
Classification
Based on lexical similarity, Chirag is usually classified as a separate language from other varieties of Dargwa.[6] It has 67% lexical similarity with the North-Central group, 77.6% with the South group, and 69% with Kaitag; within the South group, it has 84% lexical similarity with Qunqi Amuq.[6]
Phonology
Vowels
Chirag has four vowels: /i/, /e/, /u/, and /a/,[7] along with two "epiglottalized" vowels, /iˁ/ and /aˁ/. Vowel length also exists for most vowels.[4]
Prosody
In Chirag, stressed syllables are specified for tone.[8]
Morphophonology
Chirag has some phonological processes that pertain to specific morphological elements. The plural suffix -e attracts stress and induces vowel deletion on the final syllable of disyllabic nouns (e.g., qisqan 'spider', qisqne 'spiders').[9] Verbal prefixes have optional front/back vowel harmony.[9]
Phonotactics
The permitted syllable structures are CV, CVC, and CVRT.[4]
Grammar
Chirag is head-final, has fairly flexible word order and is rich with inflectional morphology.[10] It has ergative–absolutive alignment in its case marking; the subject of a transitive verb is overtly marked with ergative case, and the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb are unmarked:[1][10]
(1)
ʡale
Ali(ABS)
šːa
home.LOC
w-ačʼ-ib.
M.SG-come:PFV-AOR.3
ʡale šːa w-ačʼ-ib.
Ali(ABS) home.LOC M.SG-come:PFV-AOR.3
Ali came home.
(2)
ʡali-le
Ali-ERG
qa̰r-be
apple-PL(ABS)
d-iʡ-un.
N.PL-steal:PFV-AOR.3
ʡali-le qa̰r-be d-iʡ-un.
Ali-ERG apple-PL(ABS) N.PL-steal:PFV-AOR.3
Ali stole apples.
There are three noun classes, being male, female, and neuter. In the plutal form, however, the male and female classes are identical, thus leading to a two-way human-nonhuman opposition.[11]
Lexicon
Due to the proximity of Chirag to Aghul, Lak, and Lezgin, it has some loanwords from these languages, such as марххале ("snow", derived from Lak марххале).
Usage
There are efforts to enable automated translation of text from English to Chirag.[12]
References
- ^ a b Ganenkov, Dmitry (2021). "Person agreement with inherent case DPs in Chirag Dargwa". Natural Language & Linguistic Theory. 40 (3): 741–791. doi:10.1007/s11049-021-09520-3.
- ^ Polinsky, Maria, ed. (2020). "Languages and Language Names". The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- ^ Friedman, Victor A. (2009). "Sociolinguistics in the Caucasus". In Ball, Martin J. (ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Sociolinguistics Around the World. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9780415422789.
- ^ a b c "Чирагский язык | Малые языки России". minlang.iling-ran.ru. Retrieved 2024-06-06.
- ^ Ethnologue report for Dargwa
- ^ a b Malyshev, Vladislav; Malysheva, Viktoria; Gutz, Angelina; Novaya, Irina; Panina, Anastasia; Yurkova, Alyona; Clifton, John M.; Tiessen, Calvin (2019). The Sociolinguistic Situation of the Dargwa in Dagestan (PDF). SIL International.
- ^ Berg, Helma van den (2005). "The East Caucasian language family". Lingua. 115 (1–2): 147–190. doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2003.06.004.
- ^ Borise, Lena (2020). "Tone and Intonation in Languages of the Caucasus". In Polinsky, Maria (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- ^ a b Ganenkov, Dmitry; Maisak, Timur (2020). "Nakh-Dagestanian Languages". In Polinsky, Maria (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- ^ a b Rudnev, Pavel (2021). "Against Upwards Agree". The Linguistic Review. 38 (1): 65–99. doi:10.1515/tlr-2021-2059. S2CID 232234094.
- ^ Евстигнеева, А. П. "Согласование в чирагском даргинском". Acta Linguistica Petropolitana.
- ^ "Chirag Engagement Interface". aditu.tech. Retrieved 2023-08-15.
External links
- ELAR archive of Chirag Documentation Project
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