Lezgian language facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Lezgin
лезги чӏал lezgi č’al
Pronunciation	IPA: [lezɡi tʃʼal]
Native to	North Caucasus
Region	Dagestan and Azerbaijan
Ethnicity	Lezgins
Native speakers	630,000  (2020)e25
Language family	Northeast Caucasian Lezgic Samur Eastern Samur Lezgi–Aghul–Tabasaran Lezgin
Official status
Official language in	Russia  Dagestan
Distribution of the Lezgin language in North Caucasus
Lezgian is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger
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Lezgian, also known as Lezgi or Lezgin, is a language from the Northeast Caucasian family. It is spoken by the Lezgins people. Most Lezgins live in southern Dagestan in Russia and northern Azerbaijan.

You can also find smaller groups of Lezgin speakers in countries like Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Turkey. Lezgian is an important written language and an official language in Dagestan. However, UNESCO has listed it as a "vulnerable" language, meaning it needs protection to keep it alive.

Where Lezgian is Spoken

In 2002, about 397,000 people spoke Lezgian in Russia, mostly in Southern Dagestan. By 1999, around 178,400 people spoke it in northeastern Azerbaijan. These areas include Qusar, Quba, and Khachmaz provinces.

Lezgian is also spoken by people who have moved from Azerbaijan and Dagestan to other countries. These include Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Germany. In Turkey, some speakers live in places like Balikesir and Yalova. The total number of Lezgian speakers is about 800,000 worldwide.

Languages Related to Lezgian

Lezgian belongs to a group called the Lezgic language family. Nine languages are part of this family:

• Lezgin
• Tabasaran
• Rutul
• Aghul
• Tsakhur
• Budukh
• Kryts
• Udi
• Archi

Each of these languages is named after the ethnic group that speaks it. Some ways of speaking Lezgian, called dialects, can be quite different from the standard form. For example, the Quba and Akhty dialects spoken in Azerbaijan have their own unique features.

Sounds of Lezgian

Languages have different sounds, like vowels and consonants. Lezgian has a unique set of sounds. It has a smaller number of vowels compared to many languages.

Vowels

Lezgian has five main vowel sounds. These are similar to the 'a', 'e', 'i', 'o', 'u' sounds you might know. Some of these sounds can change slightly depending on where they are in a word.

Consonants

Lezgian is known for having many consonant sounds, about 54 in total! This is a lot more than English. Some of these consonants are made in special ways. For example, some are aspirated, meaning you release a puff of air when you say them. Others are ejective, which means you make the sound by pushing air out quickly from your throat.

Lezgian Alphabets

Over time, Lezgian has been written using different alphabets.

• Before 1928, it used the Arabic alphabet.
• From 1928 to 1938, it switched to the Latin alphabet.
• Since 1938, it has used the Cyrillic alphabet, which is similar to the one used for Russian.

The Lezgian Cyrillic alphabet used today looks like this:

The Latin alphabet used in the past looked like this:

Lezgian Grammar

Lezgian grammar is interesting because it doesn't have grammatical gender (like how some languages call a table "feminine" or a book "masculine"). Instead, it uses many cases. Cases are like different endings added to words to show their role in a sentence.

Grammatical Cases

Lezgian has 18 grammatical cases, but only 12 are commonly used when people speak. Here are a few important ones:

• Absolutive case: This is the basic form of a word. It's used for the subject of some verbs or the direct object of others.
• Ergative case: This case is used for the subject of verbs that show an action being done to something.
• Genitive case: This case shows who something belongs to, like saying "of the father."
• Dative case: This case usually shows the receiver of an action, like saying "to him" or "for her."

There are also many Locative cases. These cases tell you about location, like "on," "in," "from," or "under" something. They add specific endings to words to show these meanings.

Lezgian Numbers

Here are some numbers in Lezgian:

In Lezgian, numbers often come before the noun they describe. Nouns that follow a number are always in their singular form. For example, you would say "two book" instead of "two books."

Lezgian uses a counting system based on 20, similar to how some French numbers work. For instance, "twenty" is къад. To say 24, you would say къанни кьуд, which means "twenty and four." For 37, it's къанни цӏерид, meaning "twenty and seventeen." This system continues for numbers like 60 and 80.

For numbers over 100, you say the number of hundreds first. So, 659 would be ругуд вишни яхцӏурни цӏекӏуьд, meaning "six hundred and forty and nineteen." The same idea applies to numbers over 1000.

See also

In Spanish: Idioma lezgiano para niños