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Abaza
абаза бызшва
Native to
North Caucasus
Region
Karachay-Cherkessia
Ethnicity
Abazins
Native speakers
49,800 (2010–2014)[1]
Language family
Northwest Caucasian
Abazgi
Abaza
Writing system
Cyrillic, Latin
Official status
Official language in
Russia
Karachay-Cherkessia
Language codes
ISO 639-3
abq
Glottolog
abaz1241
ELP
Abaza
Abaza is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
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Abaza (абаза бызшва, abaza byzshwa; Adyghe: абазэбзэ) is a Northwest Caucasian language spoken by Abazins in Russia. The language has gone through several different orthographies based primarily on Latin and Cyrillic letters. Its consonant-to-vowel ratio is remarkably high; making it quite similar to many other languages from the same parent chain. The language evolved in popularity[clarification needed] in the mid to late 1800s, but has become an endangered language.[2]
Abaza is spoken by approximately 35,000 people in Russia, where it is written in a Cyrillic alphabet, as well as another 10,000 in Turkey, where the Latin script is used.
It consists of two dialects, the Ashkherewa dialect and the T'ap'anta dialect, which is the literary standard. The language also consists of five subdialects known as Psyzh-Krasnovostok, Abazakt, Apsua, Kubin-Elburgan and Kuvin.[3]
Abaza, like its relatives in the family of Northwest Caucasian languages, is a highly agglutinative language. For example, the verb in the English sentence "He couldn't make them give it back to her" contains four arguments (a term used in valency grammar): he, them, it, to her. Abaza marks arguments morphologically, and incorporates all four arguments as pronominal prefixes on the verb.[4]
It has a large consonantal inventory (63 phonemes) coupled with a minimal vowel inventory (two vowels). It is very closely related to Abkhaz,[5] but it preserves a few phonemes which Abkhaz lacks, such as a voiced pharyngeal fricative. Work on Abaza has been carried out by W. S. Allen, Brian O'Herin, and John Colarusso.
^Abaza at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016)
^Allen, W. S. (1956). "The Structure and System in the Abaza Verbal Complex". Transactions of the Philological Society. 55: 127–176. doi:10.1111/j.1467-968X.1956.tb00566.x.
^"The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire". www.eki.ee. Retrieved 2017-02-10.
^Dixon, R.M.W. (2000). "A Typology of Causatives: Form, Syntax, and Meaning". In Dixon, R.M.W. & Aikhenvald, Alexendra Y. Changing Valency: Case Studies in Transitivity. Cambridge University Press. p 57
^Hoiberg, Dale H., ed. (2010). "Abkhaz". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. I: A-ak Bayes (15th ed.). Chicago, Illinois: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. pp. 33. ISBN 978-1-59339-837-8.
Abaza (абаза бызшва, abaza byzshwa; Adyghe: абазэбзэ) is a Northwest Caucasian language spoken by Abazins in Russia. The language has gone through several...
The Abaza Family (Abazalanguage: абаза, Arabic: الأسرة الأباظية, عائلة أباظة, or آل أباظة, Egyptian Arabic: عيلة أباظة, Coptic: ⲁⲃⲁⲍⲁ, aliases: the House...
Caucasian languages that contains the Abaza and Abkhaz languages. "Abazgi" was once the preferred designation, but has now been replaced by "Abkhaz–Abaza". The...
Abaza people, an ethnic group of the Caucasus Abazalanguage, a Northwest Caucasian languageAbaza family, an Egyptian family Abaza (surname) Abaza goat...
branch of the Abaza, lived between the Besleney and Kabardian princedoms on the upper Kuban. Abaza people historically speak the Abazalanguage, a Northwest...
Northwest Caucasian language most closely related to Abaza. It is spoken mostly by the Abkhaz people. It is one of the official languages of Abkhazia, where...
the Abkhaz language from 1928 to 1938, in the Abazalanguage, in the Kabardian language, in the Shiddin language and in the Udi language. Reversed ge...
official language, and an unknown number of speakers in Turkey. It has been a literary language from the beginning of the 20th century. Abkhaz and Abaza may...
people were already a minority in their own homeland, like the Buryat ASSR. Language and culture flourished and ultimately institutionalized ethnicity in the...
was also formerly used in the writing of the Abaza, the Abkhaz, the Adyghe and the Kabardian languages in the 1920s and 1930s. It is not to be confused...
Ingushetia uses the digit 1 instead of the palochka. In the alphabets of Abaza, Avar, Chechen, Dargwa, Ingush, Lak, Lezgian, Tabassaran, and Tsakhur, it...
official languages, which are used in different regions of Russia. These languages include; Ossetic, Ukrainian, Buryat, Kalmyk, Chechen, Ingush, Abaza, Adyghe...
in the writing of the Abaza and the Kabardian languages in the 1920s and was proposed for the writing of the Sotho-Tswana language in 1929. A. N. Tucker...
some as a dialect of Adyghe or of an overarching Circassian language. Ubykh, Abkhaz and Abaza are somewhat more distantly related to Adyghe. Shapsug dialect...
approximant or fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this...
their corresponding fricatives, although the aspirates are preserved in Abaza. The plain uvular ejective is one of the most common consonants in Ubykh...
Rushdy Saiid Bughdadi Abaza (Egyptian Arabic: رشدي سعيد بغدادي أباظة) (3 August 1926 – 27 July 1980) was an Egyptian film and television actor. He was...
Kabardian, it is Шэрджэс къалэ (Şărdjăs qală) or Черке́сск (Čerkessk); in Abaza, it is Черкес къала (Čerkes q̇ala) or Черкесск (Čerkessk); in Nogai, it...
fricative is a type of consonantal sound that is used in various spoken languages. It is not found in most varieties of Modern English but existed in Old...
pharyngeal fricative is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this...
voiceless velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It was part of the consonant inventory of Old English and can still be...
Abaza Mehmed Pasha (Turkish: Abaza Mehmed Paşa, Abkhaz: Меҳмеҭ Росҭом-иԥа Лакырба, ма Кыржәаа); 1576 – August 23, 1634) was a statesman and military commander...
uvular plosive or stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. It is pronounced like a voiceless velar plosive [k], except that the...
An endangered language is a language that is at risk of falling out of use, generally because it has few surviving speakers. If it loses all of its native...
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