Rutul or Rutulian is a language spoken by the Rutuls, an ethnic group living in

Dagestan Dagestan ( ; ; ), officially the Republic of Dagestan, is a republic of Russia situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, along the Caspian Sea. It is located north of the Greater Caucasus, and is a part of the North Caucasian Fede ...

(

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

) and some parts of

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan, officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, is a Boundaries between the continents, transcontinental and landlocked country at the boundary of West Asia and Eastern Europe. It is a part of the South Caucasus region and is bounded by ...

. It is spoken by 30,000 people in Dagestan (2010 census) and 17,000 (no date) in Azerbaijan. The word ''Rutul'' derives from the name of a Dagestani village where speakers of this language make up the majority.ETHEO: Rutul Language
/ref> Rutul is

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching, inv ...

in Russia and classified as "definitely endangered" by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

's ''

Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger The UNESCO ''Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger'' was an online publication containing a comprehensive list of the world's endangered languages. It originally replaced the ''Red Book of Endangered Languages'' as a title in print after ...

''.

Classification

Rutul belongs to the Lezgic group of the Northeast Caucasian language family. The Rutuls call their language .

Related languages

Among the languages of the Lezgic group, Tsakhur appears to be the closest relative of Rutul. Other than these two, there are seven more languages in the Lezgic group, namely: Lezgian, Tabasaran, Aghul, Budukh, Kryts, Udi and Archi.

History

Rutul was not a written language until the writing system for it (based on

Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...

) was developed in 1990. A Latin alphabet was developed in 2013 based on the Shin-Shorsu dialect. Speakers are often bilingual or multilingual, having a good command of the Azeri, Lezgian and/or Russian languages. There are 8 dialects and 2 subdialects of Rutul. The literary version of the language remains in the process of development. In the Rutul-populated regions of southern Russia, Rutul is taught in primary schools (grades 1 to 4).

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

Writing

Before the Russian Revolution, the Rutuls used the

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic (Arabic alphabet) and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world (after the Latin script), the second-most widel ...

. In the Arabic script ( Ajami), as a written source, the text of the song in the Ikhrek dialect of the Rutul language of the ashug of the 18th century Kur Rajaba is known. In 1913, created a Cyrillic-based alphabet for Rutul. The modern Rutul alphabet based on the Cyrillic alphabet was introduced in 1990. Arabic was used, among other things, when writing scientific papers. Turkish (Azerbaijani) was also used in everyday life. The founders of the Rutul script and the compilers of the Rutul alphabet based on the Cyrillic alphabet are S.M. Makhmudova,Рутульская и агульская литература
/ref> K.E. Jamalov, G.K. Ibragimov.http://www.riadagestan.ru/news/society/v_makhachkale_sostoitsya_meropriyatie_posvyashchennoe_90_letiyu_izvestnogo_rossiyskogo_filologa_garuna_ibragimova/ В Махачкале состоится мероприятие, посвященное 90-летию известного российского филолога Гаруна Ибрагимова In 1992 prof. Makhmudova S. M. and Jamalov K. E. published an ABC book in Rutul for grade 1 students - “Alifba: 1-classad kitab”. In this edition, in addition to the previously adopted alphabet, the digraph Дз дз was introduced. After that, three more school textbooks of the Rutul language were published: (grades 2 and 4), Recipes by S. M. Makhmudova and by E. Ismailova. In 2012-2013 a textbook on the Rutul language for universities was published: Grammar of the Rutul language, Part 1-2 by S. M. Makhmudova. In 2006, Dzhamalov K. E. and Semedov S. A. released a Rutul-Russian dictionary (Ihrek dialect) In this edition, the letter Ь ь was excluded from the alphabet, but Аь аь was included. In 2019, the Rutul-Russian dictionary by A. S. Alisultanov and T. A. Suleimanova was published. The Rutuls have a rich literature dating back to the 11th century with the name of Zeinab Hinavi, an Albanian poet. The classic of Rutul, Lezgin and Azerbaijani poetry is the eighteenth-century ashug Kur-Rajab. In the 20th and 21st centuries, Rutul literature was developed and developed by Jameseb Salarov, Nurakhmed Ramazanov, Magomed Ulileev, Musa Makhmudov, Ezerchi, Yusif Medzhidov, Sakit Kurbanov, Shafi Ibragimov, Veysal Cherkezov and others. In 2008, the first generalizing work "Rutul literature" was published, which provides information about Rutul writers, poets and ashugs. The writing system for the Rutuls of Azerbaijan was developed in 2013 based on the dialect of the village of Şin. When developing this alphabet, it was proposed to write the pharyngealized vowel with the letter ı;. The authors of the alphabet also proposed a more logically consistent system for denoting velar consonants, but it was rejected as not coinciding with the system adopted in the Azerbaijani alphabet. The Rutul alphabet in Azerbaijan includes the following letters:

Comparison chart

References

External links

Rutul dictionary online
(select simple or advanced browsing) * Appendix:Cyrillic script
Folk Songs and Dances of the Rutuls of AzerbaijanRutul basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database (3 Rutul dialects: Mukhad, Ixrek, Luchek)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rutul Language Lezgian languages Northeast Caucasian languages Languages of Azerbaijan Languages of Russia Endangered Caucasian languages