Bezhta language

Bezhta language

language
name=Bezhta
nativename=бежкьалас миц / bežƛʼalas mic
pronunciation= [ˈbeʒt͡ɬʼɑlɑs miʦ]
familycolor=Caucasian
states=Russia
region=Southern Dagestan
speakers=10,000
fam1=North Caucasian "(disputed)"
fam2=Northeast Caucasian
fam3=Tsezic
fam4=East Tsezic
iso1=cau|iso2=cau|iso3=kapThe Bezhta language (Bezhta: бежкьалас миц, "bežƛʼalas mic", also known as Kapucha) belongs to the Tsezic group of the North Caucasian language family. It is a language spoken by about 10,000 people in southern Dagestan, Russia.

Bezhta can be further divided into three dialects — Bezhta Proper, Tljadali and Hoshar-Hota — which are spoken in various villages in the region. Its closest linguistic relatives are Hunzib, Tsez, Khwarshi and Hinukh. It is also related to the Avar language, but the two are not mutually intelligible. Bezhta is an unwritten language, but various attempts have been made to develop an official orthography for the language. The Bezhta people use Avar as literary language. The first book ever printed in Bezhta was the [http://www.christusrex.org/www1/pater/JPN-bezhta.html Gospel of Luke] .

Phonology

Bezhta has a rich consonantal and — unlike its relatives Tsez and Avar — a relatively large vowel inventory (18 distinct vowel phonemes), compared to other languages of the same family.

Morphology

The Bezhta language is a mostly agglutinative one and the vast amount of locative cases makes its case system particularly rich. The verb morphology is relatively simple, though. It is an ergative language.

Numerals

Different from Tsez, Bezhta has a decimal system with the word for twenty being an exception.

* Multiples of 10 higher than 20 are formed by adding the suffix -yig (-йиг) to the multiplier. Hence, the word for 30 is łanayig (лъанайиг).
* Compound numbers are formed by juxtaposition, the smaller numbers following the greater ones. The number 47 is thus expressed as ṏqʼönäyig aƛna (оьнкъоьнаьйиг алIна).

ample of the Bezhta language

This is a passage taken from the Gospel of Luke written in a Cyrillic orthography based on Avar and Chechen, a Latinized transcription and one in IPA.

External links

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=kap Ethnologue report for Bezhta]
* [http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/bezhtas.shtml The Peoples of the Red Book: THE BEZHTAS]
* [http://www.armazi.com/bezhta/ The Bezhta People and Language] (P.J. Hillery)


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