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. The Republic of Dagestan (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. ... 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. ... The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) is a system of phonetic notation devised by linguists to accurately and uniquely represent each of the wide variety of sounds (phones or phonemes) used in spoken human language. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone = sound/voice) is the study of sounds (voice). ... Technical note: Due to 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. ... This article is about the Avar Language, for information on the Avar people please see Caucasian Avars. ... 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 Republic of Dagestan (Russian: ), older spelling Daghestan, is a federal subject of the Russian Federation (a republic). ...

The name derives from the Tsez word for eagle.

Tsez is an oral language. Avar and Russian are used as literary languages locally, even in schools. However, attempts have been made to develop a stable orthography for the Tsez languages as well as its relatives, mainly for recording purposes of traditional folklore; thus, a Cyrillic script based on that of Avar is used. Knowledge of Avar is usually better among men than among women. The lexicon shows many traces of the influences Avar, Georgian, Arabic and Russian have made over the time, mainly through loanwords and — as with Russian — even syntactically and stylistically. The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters) is an alphabet used to write six natural Slavic languages (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... Arabic (; , less formally, ) is the largest member of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family (classification: South Central Semitic) and is closely related to Hebrew and Aramaic. ...

Dialects

Tsez can be devided into the following dialects, always given with their Tsez names in parantheses:

• Tsebari (ceboru)
• Asakh (asaq)
• Mokok (newo)
• Kidero (kidiro)
• Sagada (soƛʼo)

Phonology

(a chart will follow)

• Tsez shows a phoneme inventory of 37 consonants and 6 vowels.
• The glottal stop (ʔ) is not phonemic but occurs automatically before nonpharyngealized vowels in word-initial position.
• A vowel is dropped before another vowel, so there are never two vowels occuring together. However, a final -u labializes the preceding consonant, if followed by a vowel.
• Consonant cluster are often broken up by inserting the vowel e. After y, the inserted vowel is i.

In human language, a phoneme is a set of phones (speech sounds or sign elements) that are cognitively equivalent. ... See also consonance in music. ... Note: This page contains phonetic information presented in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) using Unicode. ... The glottal stop or voiceless glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in many spoken languages. ... Labialisation is a secondary articulatory feature of phonemes in a language, most usually used to refer to consonants. ...

Morphology

Nouns are inflected for number (singular, plural) and case (absolutive, ergative, genitive I & II, lative, instrumental, equative I & II and a number of locative cases listed below). Of the two genitives, the first is used as attribute to an absolutive head noun and the second to an oblique one. The locative cases in Tsez are numerous, as it distinguishes 3 categories: distance, orientation and kind of motion. Counting the locative and non-locative cases together, they sum up to 64. Furthermore, Tsez distinguishes 4 noun classes in the singular and 2 in the plural. A noun, or noun substantive, is a part of speech (a word or phrase) which can co-occur with (in)definite articles and attributive adjectives, and function as the head of a noun phrase. ... Inflection or inflexion refers to a modification or marking of a word (or more precisely lexeme) so that it reflects grammatical (i. ... Number, in linguistics, is a grammatical category used to express the quantity of objects referred to by a noun. ... The word singular may refer to one of several concepts. ... Look up Plural on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Plural is a grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the referent in the real world. ... In linguistics, declension is a feature of inflected languages: generally, the alteration of a noun to indicate its grammatical role. ... In ergative-absolutive languages, the absolutive is the grammatical case used to mark both the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb. ... In ergative-absolutive languages, the ergative case identifies the subject of a transitive verb. ... The genitive case is a grammatical case that indicates a relationship, primarily one of possession, between the noun in the genitive case and another noun. ... Lative is a case which indicates motion to a location. ... In linguistics, the instrumental case indicates that a noun is the instrument or means by which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. ... Locative is a case which indicates a location. ... In linguistics, grammatical genders, also called noun classes, are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words; every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be very few which belong to several classes at once. ...

Orthography

The alphabet proposed by Yevgeni Alekseyevich Bokarëv is:
А, Ӓ, Ạ, Б, В, Г, Гъ, Гь, ГӀ, Д, Е, Е̃, Е̄, Ж, З, И, И̣, Й, К, Къ, Кь, КӀ, Л, Лъ, ЛӀ, М, Н, О, О̣, П, ПӀ, Р, С, Т, ТӀ, У, У̣, Х, Хъ, ХӀ, Ц, ЦӀ, Ч, ЧӀ, Ш, Ъ, Э, Э̣, Э̄

The following is a chart with several proposed orthographies for the language:

• A syllable-final pharyngealization of the consonant is transcribed in Cyrillic with Cʼ (where C stands for a consonant) and with VCˁ in the Latin transcription (the V hereby stands for a vowel). Some dictionaries write this as VӀC though, which makes the sequence CVӀC ambiguous (see below).
• A syllable-initial pharyngealization of the consonant is transcribed in Cyrillic with CVӀ (the palochka follows the vowel, since the pharyngealization actually affects it more than the preceding consonant) and with CˁV in the Latin transcription.
• Labialized consonants are written as Cв in the Cyrillic and as Cʷ in the Latin transcription, respectively.
• In the Asakh dialect, lengthened vowels are automatically neutralized to ā. Other dialects (e.g. Mokok) also have a low front vowel, usually transcribed as ä, some also have a long mid back rounded vowel, transcribed as ō.

The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first letters) is an alphabet used to write six natural Slavic languages (Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Bernard Comrie (1947-05-23 - ) is a professor at and the director of the Max Planck Institute for evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. ... IPA may refer to: The International Phonetic Alphabet or India Pale Ale ... Pharyngealisation is a secondary feature of phonemes in a language. ... Palochka (Ӏ) (ru: 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. ... Labialisation is a secondary articulatory feature of phonemes in a language, most usually used to refer to consonants. ... Vowels Near-close Close-mid Mid Open-mid Near-open Open Where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel. ...

Numerals

Numerals come in two different forms: in the absolutive case and as an oblique stem (always ending in -a) to which other case endings are attached when the numerals are used nonattributively.

• The numeral for 100 has an alternative form bišom used before the suffix -no in compound numerals.
• The numeral for 1000, ˁazar, seems to be loan to Persian هزار (hezār, thousand).
• There are two ways of forming the numbers 11 through 19, but only the first way also exists in oblique form. The second form with the suffix -ocʼi cannot be declined.
• Above 20, the numeral system of Tsez becomes vigesimal (base-20), the relevant products of 20 being: qʼˁanoqu (40), łˁonoqu (60) and uynoqu (80). For the oblique forms, the suffix -ra is added.
• Higher hundreds and thousands are expressed simply by juxtaposition, the multiplyer preceeding the larger number.
• Compound numerals such as 47 are formed by attaching the suffix -no (and) to the higher number and placing the lower one right after it. The example number 47 would be qʼˁanoquno ˁoƛno in Tsez. A number like 72 would have to be translated as "sixty-twelve" (łˁonoquno qʼˁayocʼi or łˁonoquno ocʼcʼino qʼˁano).

Persian (known variously as: فارسی Fârsi or پارسی Pârsi, local name in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, Tajik, a Central Asian dialect, or Dari, another local name in Tajikistan and Afghanistan) is a language spoken in Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Southern Russia, neighboring countries, and elsewhere. ...

Sample of the Tsez language

This is a Tsez tale written in the Asakh dialect using a Latin-based orthography.

Kʼetʼus Hunar
Zewnoƛax zewčʼeyƛax bˁeƛon bocʼin zirun qayno. Sidaquł šigoħno sadaqorno boyno ħukmu: yaqułtow begira bocʼi ħonƛʼār miƛʼeł xizāz xizyo rišʷa yoł. Bˁeƛā begirno qay łˁāł xizāz, bocʼin zirun regirno ħonƛʼār miƛʼeł xizāz. Ɣudod, žedi raynosi beƛʼez reqenyoxor, ziru boqno uhi-ehƛada buq boƛāxzāzarno boqno. Zirus uhi-ehi teqxoy, ɣʷaybi kʼoƛin elār, bocʼi buq bātuzāzarno boqno bikʼin reqenyoƛer, besurno ƛʼarayaw miƛʼi. Miƛʼin bisno bocʼin zirun xizor rutin qʼayƛʼār. Rizirno cʼidoƛʼor ƛoħon begirno łāƛʼor qay. Kikxogon zewno bočʼikʼxo kʼetʼu. Qayir zewāčʼey rikʷayxo; nešuruxay nełor rikʷayxo zewčʼey. Kʼetʼu, ełor baynosi qay, boqno kʼekʼbikʼa. Kʼekʼbikʼni teqnosi, qay łikin rixerčʼeytow boxin xizor. Bˁeƛā esirno: "Šidā boxā rayirčʼey łin?" Elo didiyƛa žekʼu yoł-ƛin eƛin qayā. Aħugon rikʼin łāxor zirun qayno. Žedi raynosi kikxor žedā esirno kʼetuq: "Mi šebi?" Di žekʼu yoł-ƛin eƛin kʼetʼā. Šebi že debez ħiroƛʼ esirxo zirā. Tupi ƛin eƛix kʼetʼā. Dicce rˁuƛʼno zirun qayno, amma biyxoy kʼetʼu yāłru, xizyo łˁonon zenzi rikʼin raħira reƛ. Bˁeƛo buqełno bičin ažoz kʼodrexāzay, rołikʼno aħyabin kecno, kʼetʼu tataniłxo zewno cʼidox. Bˁeƛā kʼekʼrikʼerxo zewno aħyabi. Že rikʷayxoy, kʼetʼuz rokʼƛʼor rayno, že elo aw ƛin, hudu betʼtʼun kʼoƛin elor. Dicce bˁuƛʼzāq bˁeƛqo regin ixiytʼatow qˁaƛubin, boxin ciqxār. Bocʼezno qayizno, ziruzno rokʼƛʼor rayno baysi bāsu ixiytow ħaywan šebin, nełoq že riqičʼey kʼiriłno roxin. Cʼikʼiy reƛ miƛes ƛexun kʼetʼur. ʕoƛiran ɣˁudeł kʼetʼu bišno, racʼno baɣʷace dawla bocʼesno zirusno.

The Cat's Feat
Once upon a time there were a pig, a wolf, a fox and a hare. One day they gathered together and decided that today they would send the wolf into the mountains for a sheep and they would eat. The pig sent the hare for water and sent the wolf and the fox into the mountain for a ram. At night, when they came to the flock of sheep, the fox began to moan from the eastern side. Since they heard the fox's moaning, the dogs ran in that direction and the wolf went towards the flock from the west and found a fat ram. Having taken the ram, the wolf and the fox returned to the camp. They put the pan on the fire and sent the hare for water. At the spring the cat was freezing. The hare couldn't see; at night the hare couldn't see. When the hare arrived there, the cat began to move. When he heard the movement, the hare ran back without taking any water. The pig asked: "Why did you run away without bringing water?" The hare said that there was some man there. Again the fox and the hare went to the water. When they came to the spring, they asked the cat: "What are you?" — "I am a man", said the cat. "What is that on your shoulder?", asks the fox. "A rifle", says the cat. The fox and the hare were very frightened, but since they knew it was a cat, afterwards the three of them went together to cook meat. The pig hid behind a bunch of trees and, pushing out its ears, slept, and the cat was warming itself by the fire. The pig was moving its ears. Since the cat saw it, it thought it was a mouse and in a rush jumped there. The pig was very frightened and, emitting loud shouts, ran away to the forest. The wolf, the hare and the fox thought that a great animal or something was coming and, one running faster than the other, they ran away. All the ram's meat was left to the cat. For seven days the cat ate, ate until it was full the spoils of the wolf and the fox.

External Links

• Ethnologue report on Tsez (Dido)