Archi language
Encyclopedia
Northeast Caucasian languages
The Northeast Caucasian languages constitute a language family spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, northern Azerbaijan, and in northeastern Georgia, as well as in diaspora populations in Russia, Turkey, and the Middle East...
spoken by the 1,200 Archis
Archi people
The Archins are an ethnic group who live in eight villages in Southern Dagestan, Russia. Archib is the parent village of these. From Archib the other seven villages grew and for three months a year the whole community used to reassemble in Archi to engage in communal work...
in the village of Archib
Archib
Archib is a village in Southern Dagestan, Russia near the Azerbaijani border. It is the central village of the Archi people, who speak Archi.- External links :* , which includes a photograph of the village....
, southern Dagestan
Dagestan
The Republic of Dagestan is a federal subject of Russia, located in the North Caucasus region. Its capital and the largest city is Makhachkala, located at the center of Dagestan on the Caspian Sea...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
and the six surrounding smaller villages. It is used at home and the speakers have positive attitude toward it.
It is unusual for its many phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s and for its contrast between several voiceless velar lateral fricative
Voiceless velar lateral fricative
The voiceless velar lateral fricative is a very rare speech sound. As one element of an affricate, it is found for example in Zulu and Xhosa. However, a simple fricative has only been reported from a few languages in the Caucasus and New Guinea....
s and voiceless
Voiceless velar lateral affricate
The voiceless velar lateral affricate is an uncommon speech sound found as a phoneme in the Caucasus and as an allophone in several languages of eastern and southern Africa....
and ejective velar lateral affricate
Ejective velar lateral affricate
The velar lateral ejective affricate is a rare type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ....
s and a voiced velar lateral fricative
Voiced velar lateral fricative
The voiced velar lateral fricative is a very rare speech sound that can be found in Archi, a Northeast Caucasian language of Dagestan, in which it is clearly a fricative, although further forward than velars in most languages, and might better be called prevelar...
. It is an ergative–absolutive language with four noun classes and has a remarkable morphological
Morphology (linguistics)
In linguistics, morphology is the identification, analysis and description, in a language, of the structure of morphemes and other linguistic units, such as words, affixes, parts of speech, intonation/stress, or implied context...
system with huge paradigms and irregularities on all levels. Mathematically, there are 1,502,839 possible forms that can be derived from a single verb root.
Classification
The classification of the Archi language has not been definitively established. Peter von UslarPeter von Uslar
Baron Peter von Uslar Baron Peter von Uslar Baron Peter von Uslar Baron Peter von Uslar Baron Peter von Uslar Baron Peter von Uslar Baron Peter von Uslar Baron Peter von Uslar Baron Peter von Uslar ( – was a Russian general, engineer and linguist of German descent, known...
felt it should be considered a variant of Avar
Avar language
The modern Avar language belongs to the Avar–Andic group of the Northeast Caucasian language family....
, but Roderich von Erckert
Roderich von Erckert
Roderich von Erckert - was a German ethnographer and officer. His work on the Caucasian languages includes: Der Kaukasus und seine Völker ; Die Sprachen des kaukasischen Stammes ; Wanderungen und Siedelungen der germanischen Stämme in Mitteleuropa ....
saw it is closer to Lak
Lak language
The Lak language is a Northeast Caucasian language forming its own branch within this family. It is the language of the Lak people from the Russian autonomous republic of Dagestan, where it is one of six standardized languages...
. The language has also been considered as a separate entity that could be placed somewhere between Avar and Lak. The Italian linguist Alfredo Trombetti
Alfredo Trombetti
Alfredo Trombetti was an Italian linguist active in the early 20th century.He was born in Bologna on January 16, 1866 and died in Venice on July 5, 1929.Trombetti was a professor at the University of Bologna...
placed Archi within the Avar-Ando-Dido group, but today the most widely recognized opinion follows that of the Soviet scholar Bokarev
Yevgeny Bokarev
Yevgeny Alekseyevich Bokarev was a Soviet linguist known among other things for his work on the Northeast Caucasian languages and his interlinguistics works; he was a member of the Academy of Esperanto....
, who regards Archi as one of the Lezgian-Samur group of the Dagestan languages. Schulze places it in the Lezgian branch
Lezgic languages
The Lezgic languages are one the seven branches of the Northeast Caucasian language family. Lezgian and Tabasaran are literary languages.-Classification:* Peripheral: Archi – 1200 speakers* Samur ** Eastern Samur*** Udi – 5000 speakers...
with all other Lezgian languages belonging to the Samur group
Samur languages
The Samur languages are the principal component of the Lezgic branch of the Northeast Caucasian languages. Lezgian and Tabasaran are literary languages.-Internal branching:* Eastern Samur** Udi – 5700 speakers...
.
Phonology
Archi has, like its Northeast CaucasianNortheast Caucasian languages
The Northeast Caucasian languages constitute a language family spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, northern Azerbaijan, and in northeastern Georgia, as well as in diaspora populations in Russia, Turkey, and the Middle East...
relatives, a very complicated phonological system, with Archi being an extreme example. It has 26 vowel phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s and, depending on analysis, between 73 and 81 consonant phonemes.
Vowels
Archi has a symmetric six-vowel system (/i e ə a o u/). All except /ə/ can occur in five varieties: short, pharyngealized, high tone, long (with high tone), and pharyngealized with high tone (e.g. /a/, /aˤ/, /á/, /áː/, and /áˤ/). Of all these, only /ə/ and /íˤ/ do not occur word-initially. Examples of non-initial /íˤ/ are /díˤt͡ʃa/ ('to be fat') and /iˤntíˤmmaj/ ('brain').Consonants
Amongst languages without click consonants, Archi has one of the largest consonant inventories, with the recently extinct UbykhUbykh phonology
Ubykh, a North-West Caucasian language, has the largest consonant inventory of all documented languages that do not use clicks, and also has the most disproportional ratio of phonemic consonants to vowels. It also possesses consonants in at least eight, perhaps nine, basic places of articulation...
of the Northwest Caucasian languages
Northwest Caucasian languages
The Northwest Caucasian languages, also called Abkhazo-Adyghean, or sometimes Pontic as opposed to Caspian for the Northeast Caucasian languages, are a group of languages spoken in the Caucasus region, chiefly in Russia , the disputed territory of Abkhazia, and Turkey, with smaller communities...
having a few more. The table below shows all consonants that can be found in the Archi Language Tutorial and the Archi Dictionary.
| Labial Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
Dental | (Post)- alveolar Postalveolar consonant Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
(Pre-)velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Uvular Uvular consonant Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be plosives, fricatives, nasal stops, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and... |
Epi- glottal Epiglottal consonant An epiglottal consonant is a consonant that is articulated with the aryepiglottic folds against the epiglottis. They are occasionally called aryepiglottal consonants.-Epiglottal consonants in the IPA:... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
|||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| lenis | fortis Fortis and lenis In linguistics, fortis and lenis are terms generally used to refer to groups of consonants that are produced with greater and lesser energy, respectively, such as in energy applied, articulation, etc.... |
lenis | fortis | lenis | fortis | lenis | fortis | lenis | fortis | |||||||||||||||||
| pl. | lab. Labialisation 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 involve the lips, they are called rounded.The most common... |
pl. | lab. | pl. | lab. | pl. | lab. | pl. | lab. | pl. | lab. | pl. | lab. | phar. | phar.+lab. | pl. | lab. | phar. | phar.+lab | |||||||
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Plosive | voiced Voice (phonetics) Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate... |
b | d | dʷ | ɡ | gʷ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| voiceless Voiceless In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, this is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word "phonation" implies voicing, and that voicelessness is the lack of... |
p | pː | t | tʷ | tː | k | kʷ | kː | kːʷ | q | qʷ | qˤ | qˤʷ | ʡ | ||||||||||||
| ejective Ejective consonant In phonetics, ejective consonants are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated or tenuis consonants... |
pʼ | tʼ | kʼ | kʷʼ | qʼ | qʷʼ | qˤʼ | qˤʷʼ | qːʼ | qːˤʼ | ||||||||||||||||
| Affricate Affricate consonant Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :... |
voiceless Voiceless In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, this is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word "phonation" implies voicing, and that voicelessness is the lack of... |
t͡s | t͡sʷ | t͡sː | t͡ʃ | t͡ʃʷ | k͡ʟ̝̊ | k͡ʟ̝̊ʷ | ||||||||||||||||||
| ejective Ejective consonant In phonetics, ejective consonants are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated or tenuis consonants... |
t͡sʼ | t͡sʷʼ | t͡sːʼ | t͡ʃʼ | t͡ʃʷʼ | t͡ʃːʼ | k͡ʟ̝̊ʼ | k͡ʟ̝̊ʷʼ | ||||||||||||||||||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
voiceless Voiceless In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, this is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word "phonation" implies voicing, and that voicelessness is the lack of... |
s | sʷ | sː | sːʷ | ʃ | ʃʷ | ʃː | ʃːʷ | ʟ̝̊ | ʟ̝̊ʷ | ʟ̝̊ː | ʟ̝̊ːʷ | χ | χʷ | χˤ | χˤʷ | χː | χːʷ | χːˤ | χːˤʷ | ʜ | h | |||
| voiced Voice (phonetics) Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer to two separate concepts. Voicing can refer to the articulatory process in which the vocal cords vibrate... |
z | zʷ | ʒ | ʒʷ | ʟ̝ | ʁ | ʁʷ | ʁˤ | ʁˤʷ | |||||||||||||||||
| Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular.... |
r | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
w | l | j | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Of the consonants listed above, the ones in orange have no word-initial dictionary entries (even though /pː/, /tː/, and /kː/ are relatively common), the one in green does not appear in the Tutorial but does have a word-internal dictionary entry (in /mot͡sːór/, 'alpine pasture used in summer'), and the ones in blue appear in the Tutorial but have no dictionary entries.
Some of these sounds are very rare. For example, /ʁˤʷ/ has only one dictionary entry word-internally (in /íʁˤʷdut/, 'heavy') and two entries word-initially. Likewise, /ʟ̝/ has only two dictionary entries: /náʟ̝dut/ ('blue; unripe') and /k͡ʟ̝̊ʼéʟ̝dut/ ('crooked, curved').
The fortis
Fortis and lenis
In linguistics, fortis and lenis are terms generally used to refer to groups of consonants that are produced with greater and lesser energy, respectively, such as in energy applied, articulation, etc....
consonants are not simply two instances of the same consonant, though they do appear largely complementary, with the double instances /mm/, /ll/, and /nn/ being the most common and /zz/ less so. That said, /pp/ can still be found in /ʟ̝̊íppu/ ('three'). This is also noted by , who describes the fortis consonants as follows:
"Strong phonemes are characterized by the intensiveness (tension) of the articulation. The intensity of the pronunciation leads to a natural lengthening of the duration of the sound, and that is why strong [consonants] differ from weak ones by greater length. [However,] the adjoining of two single weak sounds does not produce a strong one […] Thus, the gemination of a sound does not by itself create its tension."
The voiceless velar lateral fricative
Voiceless velar lateral fricative
The voiceless velar lateral fricative is a very rare speech sound. As one element of an affricate, it is found for example in Zulu and Xhosa. However, a simple fricative has only been reported from a few languages in the Caucasus and New Guinea....
/ʟ̝̊/, the voiced velar lateral fricative
Voiced velar lateral fricative
The voiced velar lateral fricative is a very rare speech sound that can be found in Archi, a Northeast Caucasian language of Dagestan, in which it is clearly a fricative, although further forward than velars in most languages, and might better be called prevelar...
/ʟ̝/, and the corresponding voiceless
Voiceless velar lateral affricate
The voiceless velar lateral affricate is an uncommon speech sound found as a phoneme in the Caucasus and as an allophone in several languages of eastern and southern Africa....
and ejective affricate
Ejective velar lateral affricate
The velar lateral ejective affricate is a rare type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ....
s /k͡ʟ̝̊/, /k͡ʟ̝̊ʼ/ are extremely unusual speech sounds among the languages of the world, as velar fricatives
Voiceless velar fricative
The voiceless velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. The sound was part of the consonant inventory of Old English and can still be found in some dialects of English, most notably in Scottish English....
are usually central
Central consonant
A central or medial consonant is a consonant sound that is produced when air flows across the center of the mouth over the tongue. The class contrasts with lateral consonants, in which air flows over the sides of the tongue rather than down its center....
rather than lateral. The velar laterals are further forward than velars in most languages and could better be called prevelar, like the Tutorial does.
Orthography
Until recently Archi didn't have a written form, except in studies by specialists who used a Latin scriptLatin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
. In 2006, the Surrey Morphological Group developed a Cyrillic script
Cyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
for Archi based on the variant used for Avar
Avar language
The modern Avar language belongs to the Avar–Andic group of the Northeast Caucasian language family....
, which is used in the Archi-Russian-English Dictionary alongside an IPA
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
transcription.
| Base letter | Derived letters and their pronunciation in IPA | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IPA | IPA | IPA | IPA | IPA | IPA | IPA | IPA | |||||||||
| а | А а | /a/ | АӀ аӀ | /aˤ/ | Á а́ | /á/ | А́а а́а | /áː/ | А́Ӏ а́Ӏ | /áˤ/ | ||||||
| б | Б б | /b/ | ||||||||||||||
| в | В в | /w/ | various others, see below | |||||||||||||
| г | Г г | /g/ | Гв гв | /gʷ/ | Гь гь | /h/ | Гъ гъ | /ʁ/ | Гъв гъв | /ʁʷ/ | ГъӀ гъӀ | /ʁˤ/ | ГъӀв гъӀв | /ʁˤʷ/ | ГӀ гӀ | /ʢ/ |
| д | Д д | /d/ | Дв дв | /dʷ/ | ||||||||||||
| е | Е е | /e/ | ЕӀ еӀ | /eˤ/ | Е́ е́ | /é/ | Е́е е́е | /éː/ | Е́Ӏ е́Ӏ | /éˤ/ | ||||||
| ж | Ж ж | /ʒ/ | Жв жв | /ʒʷ/ | ||||||||||||
| з | З з | /z/ | Зв зв | /zʷ/ | ||||||||||||
| и | И и | /i/ | ИӀ иӀ | /iˤ/ | И́ и́ | /í/ | И́и и́и | /íː/ | и́Ӏ | /íˤ/ | ||||||
| й | Й й | /j/ | ||||||||||||||
| к | К к | /k/ | кк | /kː/ | Кв кв | /kʷ/ | ккв | /kːʷ/ | КӀ кӀ | /kʼ/ | КӀв кӀв | /kʷʼ/ | Къ къ | /qʼ/ | Къв къв | /qʷʼ/ |
| ккъ | /qːʼ/ | КъӀ къӀ | /qˤʼ/ | КкъӀ ккъӀ | /qːˤʼ/ | КъӀв къӀв | /qˤʷʼ/ | Кь кь | /k͡ʟ̝̊ʼ/, /ʟ̝/ | Кьв кьв | /k͡ʟ̝̊ʷʼ/ | |||||
| л | Л л | /l/ | Лъ лъ | /ʟ̝̊/ | Ллъ ллъ | /ʟ̝̊ː/ | Лъв лъв | /ʟ̝̊ʷ/ | Ллъв ллъв | /ʟ̝̊ːʷ/ | ЛӀ лӀ | /k͡ʟ̝̊/ | ЛӀв лӀв | /k͡ʟ̝̊ʷ/ | ||
| м | М м | /m/ | ||||||||||||||
| н | Н н | /n/ | ||||||||||||||
| о | О о | /o/ | ОӀ оӀ | /oˤ/ | О́ о́ | /ó/ | О́о о́о | /óː/ | О́Ӏ о́Ӏ | /óˤ/ | ||||||
| п | П п | /p/ | пп | /pː/ | ПӀ пӀ | /pʼ/ | ||||||||||
| р | Р р | /r/ | ||||||||||||||
| с | С с | /s/ | Сс сс | /sː/ | Св св | /sʷ/ | Ссв ссв | /sːʷ/ | ||||||||
| т | Т т | /t/ | тт | /tː/ | ТӀ тӀ | /tʼ/ | Тв тв | /tʷ/ | ||||||||
| у | У у | /u/ | УӀ уӀ | /uˤ/ | У́ у́ | /ú/ | У́у у́у | /úː/ | У́Ӏ у́Ӏ | /úˤ/ | ||||||
| х | Х х | /χ/ | Хх хх | /χː/ | Хв хв | /χʷ/ | Ххв ххв | /χːʷ/ | ХӀ хӀ | /ʜ/ | ХьӀ хьӀ | /χˤ/ | ХхьӀ ххьӀ | /χːˤ/ | ХьӀв хьӀв | /χˤʷ/ |
| ХхьӀв ххьӀв | /χːˤʷ/ | Хъ хъ | /q/ | Хъв хъв | /qʷ/ | ХъӀ хъӀ | /qˤ/ | ХъӀв хъӀв | /qˤʷ/ | |||||||
| ц | Ц ц | /t͡s/ | Цв цв | /t͡sʷ/ | ЦӀ цӀ | /t͡sʼ/ | ЦӀв цӀв | /t͡sʷʼ/ | Цц цц | /t͡sː/ | ЦцӀ ццӀ | /t͡sːʼ/ | ||||
| ч | Ч ч | /t͡ʃ/ | Чв чв | /t͡ʃʷ/ | ЧӀ чӀ | /t͡ʃʼ/ | ЧӀв чӀв | /t͡ʃʷʼ/ | ЧчӀ ччӀ | /t͡ʃːʼ/ | ||||||
| ш | Ш ш | /ʃ/ | Щ щ | /ʃː/ | Шв шв | /ʃʷ/ | Щв щв | /ʃːʷ/ | ||||||||
| ы | ы | /ə/ | ||||||||||||||
Nouns
Archi nouns inflect for one of 45 casesGrammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
and for number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
(singular or plural). There are four noun class
Noun class
In linguistics, the term noun class refers to a system of categorizing nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of characteristic features of its referent, such as sex, animacy, shape, but counting a given noun among nouns of such or another class is often clearly conventional...
es, which are only evident from verbal agreement.
Noun classes
Archi noun classNoun class
In linguistics, the term noun class refers to a system of categorizing nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of characteristic features of its referent, such as sex, animacy, shape, but counting a given noun among nouns of such or another class is often clearly conventional...
es are only evident from verbal inflection. The table below summarizes these noun classes and their associated verbal morphology.
| Class | Description | Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prefix Prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the root of a word. Particularly in the study of languages,a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed.Examples of prefixes:... |
Infix Infix An infix is an affix inserted inside a word stem . It contrasts with adfix, a rare term for an affix attached to the end of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix.-Indonesian:... |
Prefix Prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the root of a word. Particularly in the study of languages,a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed.Examples of prefixes:... |
||
| I | Male human | w- | -w- | b- |
| II | Female human | d- | -r- | |
| III | All insects, some animates, some inanimates |
b- | -b- | ∅- |
| IV | Abstracts, some animates, some inanimates |
∅- | -∅- | |
Further reading
External links
- Appendix:Cyrillic script
- Archi-Russian-English dictionary
- Archi language tutorial
- Archi Vocabulary List (from the World Loanword Database)
- A sample of the Archi language, 'the Bear Story':