The modern Avar language (self-designation магӀарул мацӀ [maʕarul maʦʼ] "language of the mountains" or Авар мацӀ [awar maʦʼ] "Avar language") belongs to the Avar-Andi-Tsez subgroup of the Alarodian Northeast-Caucasian (or Nakh-Dagestani) language family. The Republic of Dagestan IPA: (Russian: ), older spelling Daghestan, is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic). ... Current distribution of Human Language Families Most languages are known to belong to language families. ... North Caucasian languages is a blanket term for two distinct, but possibly related, phyla of languages spoken in the north Caucasus and in Turkey. ... The Northeast Caucasian languages, also called East Caucasian, Caspian, Nakh-Dagestanian, or Dagestanian, are a family of languages spoken mostly in the Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia regions of Russia, in Northern Azerbaijan, and in Georgia. ... ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family. ... ISO 639-2:1998 Codes for the representation of names of languages — Part 2: Alpha-3 code Twenty-two of the languages have two three-letter codes: a code for bibliographic use (ISO 639-2/B) a code for terminological use (ISO 639-2/T). ... ISO 639-3 is in process of development as an international standard for language codes. ... For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words see here. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone meaning sound, voice) is the study of sounds and the human voice. ... Because of technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... This is a concise version of the International Phonetic Alphabet for English sounds. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...

Geographic distribution

It is spoken mainly in the eastern and southern parts of the Russian Caucasus republic of Dagestan, and the Zakatala region of Azerbaijan. Some population of Avars live in other regions of Russia. There are also small communities of speakers living in the Russian republics of Chechnya and Kalmykia; in Georgia, Kazakhstan, Jordan, and the Marmara Sea region of Turkey. It has more than 650,000 speakers worldwide. The Republic of Dagestan IPA: (Russian: ), older spelling Daghestan, is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic). ... Capital Grozny Area - total - % water Ranked 78th - 15,300 km² - negligible Population - Total - Density Ranked 49th - est. ... The Republic of Kalmykia (Kalmyk: Хальмг Таңһч; Russian: ) is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic). ... The Sea of Marmara (Turkish: Marmara denizi, Modern Greek: Μαρμαρα̃ Θάλασσα or Προποντίδα) (also known as the Sea of Marmora or the Marmara Sea) is an inland sea...

Official status

It is one of six literary languages of Dagestan, where it is spoken not only by Avars, but also serves as the language of communication between different groups.

Dialects

There are two main dialect groups: the northern (Avar literature), which includes Khunzakh, Kazbek, Gunib, Gumbet and others; and the southern (sub dialects), which includes Andalal, Gidatl', Antsukh, Charoda, Tlyarata, Cumada, Cunta and others. Avar has fifteen spoken dialects, which by many linguists are considered separate languages: Avar, Bagulal, Chamalal, Budukh, Botlikh, Andi, Godoberi, Tindi, Karati, Akhvakh, Tsez (also known as Dido), Khvarshi, Ginukh, Hunzib, and Bezhta, each named after its speaking tribe. Gunib Gunib (also spelled as Ghunib), village in Daghestan. ... Godoberi (also Ghodoberi) is an Andi language of the Dagestan family spoken in southern Dagestan, Russia by approximately 3000 people. ... Tindi is a North Caucasian language spoken in the Russian Republic of Dagestan. ... Tsez (also known as Dido; cez in Avar and Tsez; დიდო in Georgian) is a North Caucasian language with about 7000 speakers spoken in the mountaneous Tsunta district of southern and western Dagestan, Russia. ... Hunzib is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by about 2000 people in the south of Dagestan, near the Russian border with Georgia. ... The Bezhta language (also known as Kapucha) belongs to the Tsezic group of the North Caucasian language family. ...

Writing system

The Avar language has been written since the 15th century, in the old Georgian alphabet. From the 17th century onwards it was written in a modified Arabic script known as Ajam, which is still known today. As part of Soviet language planning policies the Ajam was replaced by a Latin alphabet in 1928, which was in turn replaced by the current Cyrillic alphabet in 1938. It is essentially the Russian alphabet plus one additional letter named palochka (Ӏ). As that letter is undisplayable on most computers, it is routinely replaced with capital Latin letter I (palochka has no uppercase form). (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ... Georgian (, kartuli ena) is the official language of Georgia, a country in the Caucasus. ... (16th century - 17th century - 18th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 17th century was that century which lasted from 1601-1700. ... The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing Arabic and various other languages, together with various closely related scripts that typically differ in the presence or absence of a few letters. ... Year 1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar). ... The Cyrillic alphabet (pronounced , also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used for several East and South Slavic languages—Belarusian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Rusyn, Serbian, and Ukrainian—and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... Year 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Palochka or Páločka (majuscule: , minuscule: , Russian: па́лочка, a stick) is a letter added to the Cyrillic alphabet when used in writing several Caucasian languages, such as Abaza, Adyghe, Avar, Chechen, Dargwa, Ingush, Kabardian, Lak, Lezgian and Tabassaran. ...

History

The literary language is based on the болмацӀ (bolmacʼ) — bo = "army" or "country", and macʼ = "language" — the common language used between speakers of different dialects and languages. The bolmacʼ in turn was mainly derived from the dialect of Khunzakh, the capital and cultural centre of the Avar region, with some influence from the southern dialects. Nowadays the literary language is influencing the dialects, levelling out their differences.

The most famous figure of modern Avar literature is the late Rasul Gamzatov († November 3, 2003), the People's Poet of Dagestan. Translations of his works into Russian have gained him a wide audience all over the former Soviet Union. Rasul Gamzatovich Gamzatov (September 8, 1923 - November 3, 2003) was a Russian poet. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Samples

See also

Dene-Caucasian languages The Dené-Caucasian (also called Sino-Dené) language family is a conjectural language superfamily containing the Sino-Tibetan, North Caucasian, Yenisseian, Burushaski, Basque and Na-Dené languages. ...

External links

Avar language edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Ethnologue report for Avar