Dargwa language


The Dargwa language is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by the Dargin people in the Russian republic Dagestan. It is the literary and main dialect of the dialect continuum constituting the Dargin languages. The four other languages in this dialect continuum are often considered variants of Dargwa. Korjakov concludes that Southwestern Dargwa is closer to Kajtak than it is to North-Central Dargwa.
Dargwa uses a Cyrillic script.
According to the 2002 Census, there are 429,347 speakers of Dargwa proper in Dagestan, 7,188 in neighbouring Kalmykia, 1,620 in Khanty–Mansi AO, 680 in Chechnya, and hundreds more in other parts of Russia. Figures for the Lakh dialect spoken in central Dagestan are 142,523 in Dagestan, 1,504 in Kabardino-Balkaria, 708 in Khanty–Mansi.

Phonology

Consonants

Phonemes in gold are present in the literary standard dialect of Dargwa but absent in some other dialect.
Phonemes in pink are present in some dialect of Dargwa but absent in the literary standard dialect.
The Dargwa language features five vowel sounds .

Orthography

The current Dargwa alphabet is based on Cyrillic as follows:
А аБ бВ вГ гГъ гъГь гьГӀ гӀД дЕ еЁ ёЖ жЗ з
И иЙ йК кКъ къКь кьКӀ кӀЛ лМ мН нО оП пПӀ пӀ
Р рС сТ тТӀ тӀУ уФ фХ хХъ хъХь хьХӀ хӀЦ цЦӀ цӀ
Ч чЧӀ чӀШ шЩ щЪ ъЫ ыЬ ьЭ эЮ юЯ я--

Grammar

Verb

TAM

Assertive (finite) forms