| Chirag | |
|---|---|
| хьаргънилла, xarʁnilla kub хьугъул мец, ĥuġul | |
| Pronunciation | [xarʁnilla kub] [xuʁul] |
| Native to | North Caucasus |
| Region | Agulsky District, Dagestan |
| Ethnicity | 2,300 Chirag Dargins (2019–2024) |
Native speakers | 2,000 (2021)[1] |
Northeast Caucasian
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
dar-chi | |
| Glottolog | chir1284 |
_2021.png) 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
[edit]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] It was apparently the first language to diverge from Proto-Dargwa.[4]
Phonology
[edit]![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding missing information. (March 2022) |
Vowels
[edit]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
[edit]In Chirag, stressed syllables are specified for tone.[8]
Morphophonology
[edit]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
[edit]The permitted syllable structures are CV, CVC, and CVRT.[4]
Grammar
[edit] | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding missing information. (March 2022) |
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]
ʡale
Ali(ABS)
šːa
home.LOC
w-ačʼ-ib.
M.SG-come:PFV-AOR.3
Ali came home.
ʡali-le
Ali-ERG
qa̰r-be
apple-PL(ABS)
d-iʡ-un.
N.PL-steal:PFV-AOR.3
Ali stole apples.
There are three noun classes, being male, female, and neuter. In the plural form, however, the male and female classes are identical, thus leading to a two-way human-nonhuman opposition.[11]
Lexicon
[edit]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
[edit]There are efforts to enable automated translation of text from English to Chirag.[12]
References
[edit]- ^ 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 d "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
[edit]- ELAR archive of Chirag Documentation Project
The proposed North Caucasian language family comprises the Northeast and Northwest Caucasian language families. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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