Tsudaqar (also Tsudakhar, Cudaxar) is a
Dargin language
Dargwa (, ''dargan mez'') is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by the Dargin people in the Russian republic Dagestan. This article discusses the literary dialect of the dialect continuum constituting the Dargin languages. It is based on th ...
, quite different from the literary variety,
spoken by over 33,000 people in the
Levashinsky and
Akushinsky District
Akushinsky District (; Dargwa: ) is an administrativeLaw #16 and municipalLaw #6 district (raion), one of the forty-one in the Republic of Dagestan, Russia. It is located in the southern central part of the republic. The area of the district is ...
s,
Novy Kostek in
Khasavyurtovsky District
Khasavyurtovsky District (; ; , ''Xasavürt yaq''; , ''Xasi-Evlan khioşt'') is an administrativeLaw #16 and municipalLaw #6 district (raion), one of the administrative divisions of the Republic of Dagestan, forty-one in the Republic of Dagestan, ...
, and
Novokare in
Babayurtovsky District,
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 ...
. The village of
Tsudakhar was the traditional center. It is considered to be
threatened
A threatened species is any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which is vulnerable to extinction in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of ''critical depensatio ...
with extinction, being transmitted to children, but not by all families.
In modern times, work is underway to
revitalize Tsudaqar and create an alphabet for the language.
Revival
In response to the declining health and use of the language, speakers have revived the usage of the language, as well as studying and preserving it. An orthography for the language was also devised. Lessons for learning Tsudaqar are available online, and there is a YouTube channel ' which promotes Tsudaqar culture, history and life.
Phonology
Tsudaqar has lost the affricates and . The system of phonemic
fortis and lenis
In linguistics, ''fortis'' ( ; Latin for 'strong') and ''lenis'' (, ; Latin for 'weak'), sometimes identified with 'tense' and 'lax', are pronunciations of consonants with relatively greater and lesser energy, respectively. English has fortis ...
has been retained, similar to the system used in
Avar–Andic and
Lak.
Orthography
The letters о, ф, ы, ё, ь are only found in loanwords.
ӱ never occurs word-initially and is only found after a consonant.
References
External links
Tsudaqar dictionaryDictionary of Tsudaqar{{Languages of the Caucasus
Northeast Caucasian languages