- Avar language
language
name=Avar
nativename=Авар мацunicode|Ӏ
Awar macʼ
familycolor=Caucasian
states=Russia ,Azerbaijan ,Kazakhstan , Georgia andTurkey
region=Republic ofDagestan
speakers=~600,000
fam1=North Caucasian "(disputed)"
fam2=Northeast Caucasian
fam3=Avar-Andic
iso1=av|iso2=ava|iso3=avaThe modern Avar language (self-designation магunicode|Ӏарул мацunicode|Ӏ IPA| [maʕarul maʦʼ] "language of the mountains" or Авар мацunicode|Ӏ IPA| [awar maʦʼ] "Avar language") belongs to the Avar-Andi-Tsez subgroup of the Alarodian Northeast-Caucasian (or Nakh-Dagestani) language family.
Geographic distribution
It is spoken mainly in the eastern and southern parts of the Russian Caucasus republic of
Dagestan , and the Balaken, Zakatala north-west region ofAzerbaijan . Some population of Avars live in other regions of Russia. There are also small communities of speakers living in the Russian republics ofChechnya andKalmykia ; in Georgia,Kazakhstan ,Jordan , and theMarmara Sea region ofTurkey . It has more than 1,400,000 speakers worldwide.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), Khwarshi, Hinukh, Hunzib and Bezhta, each named after its speaking tribe.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 currentCyrillic alphabet in 1938. It is essentially the Russian alphabet plus one additional letter named "palochka " (unicode|Ӏ). As that letter is undisplayable on most computers, it is routinely replaced with capital Latin letter "I".Orthography
History
The literary language is based on the болмацunicode|Ӏ (bolmacunicode|ʼ) — "bo" = "army" or "country", and "macunicode|ʼ" = "language" — the common language used between speakers of different dialects and languages. The bolmacunicode|ʼ 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
Rasul Gamzatov (diedNovember 3 ,2003 ), the People's Poet of Dagestan. Translations of his works into Russian have gained him a wide audience all over the formerSoviet Union .amples
ee also
*
Dene-Caucasian languages External links
* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ava Ethnologue report for Avar]
* [http://www.omniglot.com/writing/avar.htm Avar alphabet, language and pronunciation]
* [http://gilles.authier.free.fr/avar.htm Avar course (in French)]
* [http://www.rferl.org/listen/ondemand/bd/ca/ Rferl North Caucasus Radio (also includes Chechen and Adyghe)]
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