Khwarshi language

Khwarshi
Khwarshi–Inkhoqwari
аᴴкьи́зас мыц[1]
kedaes hikwa
Pronunciation[ãt͡ɬʼizas mɨt͡s]
[kedaes hikwa]
Native toNorth Caucasus
RegionSouthwestern Dagestan[2][3]
EthnicityKhwarshi people
Native speakers
3,300 (2020 census)[4]
8,500 (2005-2009)[5]
Northeast Caucasian
Dialects
Language codes
ISO 639-3khv
Glottologkhva1239
ELPKhvarshi
  Khwarshi
Khvarshi is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010)
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Khwarshi (also spelled Xvarshi, Khvarshi) is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken in the Tsumadinsky-, Kizilyurtovsky- and Khasavyurtovsky districts of Dagestan by the Khwarshi people. The exact number of speakers is not known, but the linguist Zaira Khalilova, who has carried out fieldwork in the period from 2005 to 2009, gives the figure 8,500.[5] Other sources give much lower figures, such as Ethnologue with the figure 1,870[2] and the latest population census of Russia with the figure 3,296.[4] The low figures are because many Khwarshi have registered themselves as being Avar speakers,[5] because Avar is their literary language.

There are six dialects of the Khwarshi language based on their geographical distribution. The dialects are: Upper and Lower Inkhokwari, Kwantlada, Santlada, Khwayni and Khwarshi Proper, originating in their respective villages in the Tsumadinsky district. Due to emigration, Kwantlada-, Upper and Lower Inkhokwari–speaking communities also exist in Oktyabrskoe,[clarification needed] Santlada-speaking communities exist in Pervomayskoe and Khwarshi Proper–speaking communities exist in Mutsalaul.

  1. ^ "Электронная версия словаря хваршинского языка". lingconlab.github.io. Retrieved 2024-08-31.
  2. ^ a b "Ethnologue entry for Khwarshi". Ethnologue.com. Retrieved 2012-07-21.
  3. ^ "Ethnologue map of European Russia, Khwarshi is in the inset with references number 21". Ethnologue.com. Retrieved 2012-07-21.
  4. ^ a b Том 5. «Национальный состав и владение языками». Таблица 7. Население наиболее многочисленных национальностей по родному языку
  5. ^ a b c Khalilova 2009, p. 3.
  6. ^ Schulze, Wolfgang (2009), The Languages of the Caucasus (PDF), archived from the original on 2012-03-05