Abaza language

Abaza
Abaza
абаза бызшва
Native to	North Caucasus
Region	Karachay-Cherkessia
Ethnicity	Abazins
Native speakers	49,800 (2010–2014)
Language family	Northwest Caucasian Abazgi Abaza; ;
Writing system	Cyrillic, Latin
Official status
Official language in	Russia Karachay-Cherkessia;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	abq
Glottolog	abaz1241
ELP	Abaza
	Abaza is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
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Abaza (абаза бызшва, abaza byzshwa; Adyghe: абазэбзэ) is a Northwest Caucasian language spoken by Abazins in Russia. The language has gone through several different orthographies based primarily on Latin and Cyrillic letters. Its consonant-to-vowel ratio is remarkably high; making it quite similar to many other languages from the same parent chain. The language evolved in popularity^{[clarification needed]} in the mid to late 1800s, but has become an endangered language.^[2]

Abaza is spoken by approximately 35,000 people in Russia, where it is written in a Cyrillic alphabet, as well as another 10,000 in Turkey, where the Latin script is used. It consists of two dialects, the Ashkherewa dialect and the T'ap'anta dialect, which is the literary standard. The language also consists of five subdialects known as Psyzh-Krasnovostok, Abazakt, Apsua, Kubin-Elburgan and Kuvin.^[3]

Abaza, like its relatives in the family of Northwest Caucasian languages, is a highly agglutinative language. For example, the verb in the English sentence "He couldn't make them give it back to her" contains four arguments (a term used in valency grammar): he, them, it, to her. Abaza marks arguments morphologically, and incorporates all four arguments as pronominal prefixes on the verb.^[4]

It has a large consonantal inventory (63 phonemes) coupled with a minimal vowel inventory (two vowels). It is very closely related to Abkhaz,^[5] but it preserves a few phonemes which Abkhaz lacks, such as a voiced pharyngeal fricative. Work on Abaza has been carried out by W. S. Allen, Brian O'Herin, and John Colarusso.

^ Abaza at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
^ Allen, W. S. (1956). "The Structure and System in the Abaza Verbal Complex". Transactions of the Philological Society. 55: 127–176. doi:10.1111/j.1467-968X.1956.tb00566.x.
^ "The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire". www.eki.ee. Retrieved 2017-02-10.
^ Dixon, R.M.W. (2000). "A Typology of Causatives: Form, Syntax, and Meaning". In Dixon, R.M.W. & Aikhenvald, Alexendra Y. Changing Valency: Case Studies in Transitivity. Cambridge University Press. p 57
^ Hoiberg, Dale H., ed. (2010). "Abkhaz". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. I: A-ak Bayes (15th ed.). Chicago, Illinois: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. pp. 33. ISBN 978-1-59339-837-8.

[e19-1] Abaza at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)

[2] Allen, W. S. (1956). "The Structure and System in the Abaza Verbal Complex". Transactions of the Philological Society. 55: 127–176. doi:10.1111/j.1467-968X.1956.tb00566.x.

[red_book-3] "The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire". www.eki.ee. Retrieved 2017-02-10.

[4] Dixon, R.M.W. (2000). "A Typology of Causatives: Form, Syntax, and Meaning". In Dixon, R.M.W. & Aikhenvald, Alexendra Y. Changing Valency: Case Studies in Transitivity. Cambridge University Press. p 57

[EB-5] Hoiberg, Dale H., ed. (2010). "Abkhaz". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. I: A-ak Bayes (15th ed.). Chicago, Illinois: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. pp. 33. ISBN 978-1-59339-837-8.

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