Chirag language
{{Short description|Northeast Caucasian language or dialect in Dagestan, Russia}}
{{Infobox language
| name = Chirag
| nativename = {{lang|dar|хьаргънилла}}, {{tlit|dar|xarʁnilla kub}}
{{lang|dar|хьугъул мец}},
{{tlit|dar|ĥuġul}}
| states = North Caucasus
| region = Agulsky District, Dagestan
| speakers = 2,000
| date = 2021
| familycolor = Caucasian
| fam1 = Northeast Caucasian
| fam2 = Dargin
| iso3 =
| glotto = chir1284
| glottorefname = Chirag
| mapcaption = {{legend|#d9c270|Chirag}}
| map = Dargwa_map_%28Koryakov%29_2021.png
| ethnicity = 2,300 Chirag Dargins (2019–2024)
| pronunciation = {{IPA|[xarʁnilla kub]}}
{{IPA|[xuʁul]}}
}}
Chirag (Chirag: хьаргънилла, xarʁnilla kub{{cite book |editor1-last=Polinsky |editor1-first=Maria |title=The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |chapter=Languages and Language Names}}) is a language in the Dargin dialect continuum spoken in Dagestan, Russia. It is spoken around the village of Chirag, but some speakers have moved to Kaspiysk. Chirag is often considered a divergent dialect of Dargwa,{{cite book |last1=Friedman |first1=Victor A. |editor1-last=Ball |editor1-first=Martin J. |title=The Routledge Handbook of Sociolinguistics Around the World |date=2009 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon |isbn=9780415422789 |chapter=Sociolinguistics in the Caucasus }} despite not being mutually intelligible with literary Dargwa.{{Cite web |title=Чирагский язык {{!}} Малые языки России |url=https://minlang.iling-ran.ru/lang/chiragskiy |access-date=2024-06-06 |website=minlang.iling-ran.ru}} Ethnologue lists it under the dialects of Dargwa but recognizes that it may be a separate language.[http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=dar Ethnologue report for Dargwa]
Classification
Based on lexical similarity, Chirag is usually classified as a separate language from other varieties of Dargwa.{{cite book |last1=Malyshev |first1=Vladislav |last2=Malysheva |first2=Viktoria |last3=Gutz |first3=Angelina |last4=Novaya |first4=Irina |last5=Panina |first5=Anastasia |last6=Yurkova |first6=Alyona |last7=Clifton |first7=John M. |last8=Tiessen |first8=Calvin |title=The Sociolinguistic Situation of the Dargwa in Dagestan |date=2019 |publisher=SIL International |url=https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/10/52/00/105200368444479096231796821673076932959/silesr2019_011.pdf}} It has 67% lexical similarity with the North-Central group, 77.6% with the South group, and 69% with Kaitag; within the South group, it has 84% lexical similarity with Qunqi Amuq. It was apparently the first language to diverge from Proto-Dargwa.
Phonology
{{Expand section|date=March 2022}}
= Vowels =
Chirag has four vowels: {{IPAslink|i}}, {{IPAslink|e}}, {{IPAslink|u}}, and {{IPAslink|a}},{{cite journal |last1=Berg |first1=Helma van den |title=The East Caucasian language family |journal=Lingua |date=2005 |volume=115 |issue=1–2 |pages=147–190 |doi=10.1016/j.lingua.2003.06.004}} along with two "epiglottalized" vowels, {{IPAslink|iˁ}} and {{IPAslink|aˁ}}. Vowel length also exists for most vowels.
= Prosody =
In Chirag, stressed syllables are specified for tone.{{cite book |last1=Borise |first1=Lena |editor1-last=Polinsky |editor1-first=Maria |title=The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |chapter=Tone and Intonation in Languages of the Caucasus}}
= Morphophonology =
Chirag has some phonological processes that pertain to specific morphological elements. The plural suffix -e attracts stress and induces vowel deletion on the final syllable of disyllabic nouns (e.g., qisqan 'spider', qisqne 'spiders').{{cite book |last1=Ganenkov |first1=Dmitry |last2=Maisak |first2=Timur |editor1-last=Polinsky |editor1-first=Maria |title=The Oxford Handbook of Languages of the Caucasus |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York, NY |chapter=Nakh-Dagestanian Languages}} Verbal prefixes have optional front/back vowel harmony.
= Phonotactics =
The permitted syllable structures are CV, CVC, and CVRT.
Grammar
{{Expand section|date=March 2022}}
Chirag is head-final, has fairly flexible word order and is rich with inflectional morphology.{{cite journal |last1=Rudnev |first1=Pavel |title=Against Upwards Agree |journal=The Linguistic Review |date=2021 |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=65–99 |doi=10.1515/tlr-2021-2059|s2cid=232234094 }} It has ergative–absolutive alignment in its case marking; the subject of a transitive verb is overtly marked with ergative case, and the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb are unmarked:
{{Interlinear|number=(1)|lang=dar
|ʡale šːa w-ačʼ-ib.
|Ali(ABS) home.LOC M.SG-come:PFV-AOR.3
|Ali came home.}}
{{Interlinear|number=(2)|lang=dar
|ʡali-le qa̰r-be d-iʡ-un.
|Ali-ERG apple-PL(ABS) N.PL-steal:PFV-AOR.3
|Ali stole apples.}}There are three noun classes, being male, female, and neuter. In the plural form, however, the male and female classes are identical, thus leading to a two-way human-nonhuman opposition.{{Cite journal |last=Евстигнеева |first=А. П. |title=Согласование в чирагском даргинском |url=https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/soglasovanie-v-chiragskom-darginskom/viewer |journal=Acta Linguistica Petropolitana}}
Lexicon
Usage
There are efforts to enable automated translation of text from English to Chirag.{{Cite web |title=Chirag Engagement Interface |url=https://aditu.tech/indigenousculturepromotion/chirag |access-date=2023-08-15 |website=aditu.tech |language=en}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- ELAR archive of [http://elar.soas.ac.uk/deposit/0339 Chirag Documentation Project]
{{Northeast Caucasian languages}}
{{Languages of the Caucasus}}