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Viacheslav A. Chirikba: Abkhaz

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Abkhaz is one of the three languages comprising the Abkhazo­ Adyghean, or West Caucasian branch of North Caucasian linguistic bkhaz family (the other branch being Nakh-Daghestanian, or East Caucasian). Abkhaz is spoken by approximately 100,000 people in the former Soviet Union (mainly in the Republic of Abkhazia, Caucasus), and by at least the same number of speakers in Turkey and some Middle east countries (small Abkhaz colonies can be found also In Western Europe and the USA). Abkhaz is notorious for ist huge consonantal inventory (up to 67 consonants in the Bzyp dialect) and by its minmal vocalic system: only 2 vowels. Though Abkhaz was studied by a number of scholars (e.g. P. Uslar in XIX century, or K. Lomtatidze Viacheslav A. Chirikba in Georgia and G Hewitt in Great Britain), many aspects of Abkhaz grammar (especially its syntax) still have to be adequately described. Abkhaz is the only West Caucasian language to possess the category of grammatical classes, manifested in personal pronouns, verb conjugation, numerals and in the category of number. Abkhaz is an ergative language, the ergative construction being represented not by case endings, as in related Circasslan and Ubykh (Abkhaz does not have a case system), but by the order of actant markers. The verbal root consists usually of one consonant, preceded by a string of prefixes (class-personal, directional, temporal, negational, causatival, etc.) and followed by few suffixes. Verbs can be stative or dynamic, finite or non-finite. The grammatical sketch of Abkhaz includes Information about its phonological system, morphology, and syntax. A short text Is provided with grammatical comments. ISB~ 3 8958 1 U LINCOM EUROPA academic publications Languages of the World/Materials Abkhaz Viacheslav A. Chirikba Languages of the World/Materials 119 2003 LINCOM EUROPA LW/M 119 3 Abkhaz Contents Published by LINCOM GmbH 20030 Abbreviations 5 0. Socio- and Geolinguistic Situation 6 0010 Location 6 Oo2o Political and sociolinguistic status 7 003 0 Number of speakers All correspondence concerning Languages of the 7 0.40 History 8 World/Materials should be addressed to: 005 0 Early glosses and recordings of Abkhaz 9 Oo6 o Genetic background 10 Oo7o Dialects 11 LINCOM GmbH Oo8o Historical stages of Abkhaz 13 Freibadstro 3 Oo9o Contact situation 14 001O D-81543 Muenchen o Writing system 14 Ool1 o Abkhaz literature 16 Ool2o A short history of Abkhaz studies 17 LINCOMOEUROPA@t-onlineode 1. Phonology 18 http://homeot-onlineode/home/LINCOMOEUROPA 1.1. Consonants 18 wwwolincom-europaocom 1.20 Vowels 20 1030 The structure of the root morpheme 21 1.40 Stress 21 lo5 o Morphophonemics 22 2. Morphology 22 201. Nouns 22 2020 Adjectives 29 2030 Pronouns 32 2.40 Numerals 34 2050 Postpositions 35 2060 Particles 36 207 0 Interjections 36 2080 Descriptives 36 Die Deutsche Bibliothek- CIP Cataloguing-in-Publication-Data 2090 Verbs 37 3. Verbals 55 A catalogue record for this publication is available from Die Deutsche Bibliothek (http://wwwoddbode) 4. Adverbs 55 5. Quantifiers 56 6. Syntax 57 6010 Structure of the NP 57 6020 Structure of the AdP 59 Printed in E.C. 603 0 Clause structure 59 6.40 Word order 60 Printed on chlorine-free paper 6050 Major sentence types 61 6o6o Negation 67 6o7o Verb serialization 68 6o8o Imperatives 68 6090 Direct, Indirect and Reported Speech 69 LW/M 119 4 Abkhaz LW/M 119 5 Abkhaz 6.1 0. Interrogation 70 Abbreviations 6.11. Coreference 7l A - Agent L - loanword 7. Discourse related phenomena 72 Abx - Abkhaz LOC - locative 7.1. Focus markers 72 ABS- absolutive M - masculine 7.2. Topic 73 ADDR - addressee MASD - masdar ADV - adverb Meg - Megrelian 8. Lexicon 73 AM - agreement marker NEG - negative 8.1. Loan words 73 AOR - Aorist NFIN- non-finite 8.2. Neologisms 74 ART- article NH - non-human ASP -Aspect NVOL- non-volitional 9. Text 75 BENF- benefactive 0 - (transitive) Object bot. - botanic OBL - Obligative References and bibliography 78 BSh - Bagrat Shinkuba 1 P - bilabial stop Dictionaries 83 Bz - Bzyp Abkhaz PCONV - past converb Early Abkhaz textbooks (In chronological order) 84 C - consonant PERF- Perfect Early literature in Abkhaz (in chronological order) 84 CAUS -causative PIDF - Past Indefinite Folklore texts 85 (P)Circ - (Proto-)Circassian PL, pl. - Plural The table of correspondences between the current Abkhaz alphabet, COM- Comitative PLUPRF - Pluperfect Caucasological and IPA transcriptions 86 COND - Conditional POSS - Possessive Illustrations 87 CONY - Converb POT - Potential Map of Abkbazia 92 DETR - Detrimental PRES - Present 2 DG - Dmitry Gulia PPART- Past Participle DIR- directional PREY - preverb no - Direct Object PURP - purposive DUR- durative QU- Interrogative DYN - dynamic QUOT- quotative EMPH - emphatic R - resonant EXC - Excessive RECI - Reciprocal EXP - Experiencer REL - relative EXT - extension RELA - relational FIN - finite RFL- reflexive F - feminine Rus - Russian FPREV- free preverb s- (intransitive) Subject FUT - Future SO (sg.)- singular Geo - Georgian SPREV - stem preverb H- human STAT - stative IDF - indefinite article SUBJ - Subjunctive IDF.SG- indefmite singular suf. - suffix IMPER - Imperative T - dental stop IMPRF - Imperfect Tap - Tapanta Abaza INFER- inferential Tu - Turkish INTRJ- interjection V - vowel 10 - Indirect Object voc - vocative ITER - Iterative #-absolute end or beginning of the word 0 - labialization ' - glottalization I - palatalization 'Literary texts by the writer Bagrat Shinkuba. 00 2Henceforth DG will refer to the following edition: Dmit'ri Gulia. Ialk'aau. Aq a: Ala~ara , 1973 . LW/M 119 6 Abkhaz LW/M 119 7 Abkhaz emigration wave to Russia and elsewhere was caused by the Georgian-Abkhaz war of 1992- 3 0. SOCIO- AND GEOLINGUISTIC SITUATION. 93. 0.1. Location. 0.2. Political and Sociolinguistic Status. Abkhaz is the official language in the Republic of Abkhazia (ApsnJ Ah 0antkliJTa), it is taught 0.1.1. Abkbazia. in schools and at the state-run university in the capital city Sukhum. In schools, Abkhaz is the Abkhazia, the homeland of Abkhazians, is situated on the Caucasian Black Sea coast between language of instruction until the 4th grade, after which the teaching shifts to the Russian 4 the rivers lngur (Abx JagrJ [egra]) on the southeast, bordering on the Megrelian and language, Abkhaz remaining only one of the subjects. At the university level, some of the Svanetian regions of Georgia, and Psou (< Abx ?saW) on the northwest, bordering on the disciplines are taught in Abkhaz. A large amount ofliterature (books, newspapers, magazines) Krasnodar region of Russia. Abkhazia covers a territory of 8,700 sq. k:m, the greater part of was produced in Abkhaz in the Soviet times, but the number of titles has dropped which is occupied by mountains and hills, coming down close to the sea. The warm waters of considerably during the post-Soviet period. There are Abkhaz radio and TV broadcasting, as the Black Sea wash the Abkhazian coast, which is 200 k:m long. The climate at the coastline is well as theatre productions and folklore groups. humid subtropical, whereas some mountain peaks are covered with perennial snow. The majority of Abkhazians in Abkhazia are bilingual, the second language being The capital of Abkhazia is Sukhum (Abx Aq'•a), which in 1989 had a population of predominantly Russian. According to the last Soviet census of 1989, 78.8 per cent of 121 ,000; after the Georgian-Abkhaz war of 1992-93, this number has been significantly Abkhazians were fluent in Russian. A part of the South Abkhazians is also conversant in reduced. The seven administrative regions from the southeast to the northwest are Gal, Megrelian, whereas knowledge of Georgian is quite limited. Besides Abkhaz, other main Tqwarchal, Ochamchyra, Gulrypsh, Sukhum, Gudauta, and Gagra. languages spoken in Abkhazia are Russian, Armenian, Megrelian, Georgian, Svan, and 5 The Abkhazians call themselves tipswa (pl. ipswaa) and their home country ApsnJ, Greek. The schooling system provides education in Abkhaz, Russian, Armenian and 'the land of the Apsians'. The major ethnographic groups are Bzyp (or Gudauta) and Georgian. Abzhywa (or Ochamchyra) Abkhazians. A small group ofSamyrzaqan Abkhazians, living in Before the Georgian-Abkhaz war, the Abkhazians constituted 17.8 per cent of their the southernmost Gal district, who speak a form of Abzhywa, has undergone a strong republic's ethnic breakdown, being the second largest minority after the Kartvelians (i.e. Megrelian cultural and linguistic influence. The other ethnographic groups - the mountainous Megrelians, Georgians and Svans), who comprised 45 .7 per cent. The other ethnic groups in tribes ofTsabal, Guma, Ahcbypsy, Pskhwy and Aibga, as well as the western Sadz group, are Abkhazia are Armenians and Russians (before the war, 14.6 and 14.3 per cent, respectively), today not represented in Abkhazia, being exiled to Ottoman Turkey in the middle of the 19th as well as a small Pontic Greek community (before the war, some 5 per cent of the population century. total). Despite the considerable ethnic mix (mainly in urban areas}, the number of mixed The traditional occupations of Abkhazians are agriculture (mainly maize, which marriages in Abkhazia is relatively low, all ethnic groups preferring members of their own replaced the more traditional millet, beans, kohlrabi, etc.), animal husbandry (including community as marriage partners. Statistically, the largest number of mixed marriages of apiculture) and hunting, as well as various crafts. The national economy is based on Abkhazians before the recent war was with Kartvelians (mainly Megrelians). subtropical agriculture (tobacco, tea, citrus and other subtropical plants}, light industry, During and after the war of 1992-93, many Abkhazians, as well as many Russians, 6 mining and tourism. Of importance are also forestry and fishery. Armenians and Greeks , moved to Russia and other countries, whereas the majority of Georgians left for Georgia. The current population can roughly be estimated at 300.000, the 0.1.2. Diaspora.
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