The Lord’s Prayer in Abkhaz: A Comparison of Three Published Versions, by George Hewitt

The Lord's Prayer in Abkhaz

Rodnoy Yazyk Journal of Linguistics No:1 pp. 66-83.
Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute for Bible Translation.

This article compares and analyses three versions of the Lord’s Prayer in the Abkhaz language, spanning the years 1866 to 2015.

Read more …The Lord’s Prayer in Abkhaz: A Comparison of Three Published Versions, by George Hewitt

Word-Formation (An International Handbook of the Languages of Europe) | 192. Abkhaz, by Viacheslav Chirikba

Abkhaz Language

An International Handbook of the Languages of Europe | Volume 5 Word-Formation

From the Series: Handbücher zur Sprach- und Kommunikationswissenschaft / Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science (HSK), 40/5

Edited by: Peter O. Müller, Ingeborg Ohnheiser, Susan Olsen and Franz Rainer De Gruyter Mouton  |  2016

Abkhaz, by Viacheslav Chirikba.

Read more …Word-Formation (An International Handbook of the Languages of Europe) | 192. Abkhaz, by Viacheslav...

Abkhaz Personal Names, by Viacheslav Chirikba

  • Language
Iran & the Caucasus

Iran & the Caucasus Vol. 19, No. 4 (2015), pp. 343-356

Viacheslav A. Chirikba
Abkhazian State University, Sukhum

Abstract
The paper presents a study of the Abkhaz personal names. Traditionally, Abkhazians, a Caucasian people living in the Republic of Abkhazia (many Abkhazians live also in Turkey and in some Middle Eastern countries), used a two-name system, consisting, as a rule, of the surname plus the postposed first name. The Abkhaz personal names are analysed with regard to their origin, structure, semantics, and social status. The onomastic system in general, as well as the tradition of naming among the Abkhazians are outlined as well.

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Was Abkhazian spoken in Abkhazia in Medieval times? By Thomas Wier

  • Language
Map of Greek colonies around the Black Sea, ca. 550 b.c.

Thomas Wier
Assistant Professor of Linguistics at the Free University of Tbilisi.

It is a near certainty that Abkhaz was spoken in Abkhazia going back to remote antiquity.

Unlike other languages spoken on or near the Black Sea like Georgian, Armenian and Greek with long written histories, Abkhaz was never written down until very recently, and so we have almost no direct evidence that it was spoken in Abkhazia before the 17th century with the publication of Turkish travel-writer Evliya Celebi’s Seyahatname ‘Book of Travel’, which mentions a few words of Abkhaz. However, we do have virtual proof of its existence there from an unusual source: ancient Greek pottery.

Read more …Was Abkhazian spoken in Abkhazia in Medieval times? By Thomas Wier

Loans in Abkhaz, by Wim Lucassen

  • Language
Loans in Abkhaz, by Wim Lucassen

Studies in Slavic and General Linguistics
Vol. 1, (1980), pp. 253-263

The aim of this article will be to show how a North West Caucasian language, viz. Abkhaz , treats words of foreign origin / and to establish several layers of loans according to historical background and a different degree of adaptation.

Within the group of NWC langages Abkhaz and Abazinian are closely related, as are Circassian and Kabardian. Ubykh stands somewhere between these two branches, but is not spoken anymore in the Soviet Union. A few repre- sentatives of this language can still be found in Turkey.

Read more …Loans in Abkhaz, by Wim Lucassen

Locative-directional preverbs in the Hattian and Abkhazian-Adyghe languages: a comparative aspect by A.P. Tikhonova

  • Language
Hattic Language and Northwest Caucasian Languages

Aza Petrovna Tikhonova
Candidate of Philology, Associate Professor of English Philology Department, Adyghe State University.

Bulletin of the Adyghe State University. Series 2: Philology and Art History, 4 (187) 2016.

For the first time an attempt is made to single out locative-directional prefixes in the Hattian verbs, reveal their meaning and functions by comparing them with locative-directional prefixes in the Abkhazian-Adyghe languages. While singling out prefixes we took into consideration legitimate sound correspondences of vowels and consonants in the Hattian and Abkhazian-Adyghe languages:voiced-voiceless, palatal-hard, etc. Hattian sentences are given in Latin, their Abkhazian-Adyghe matches in the Cyrillic alphabet and Latin transliteration in square brackets. The materials of the study were bilingual texts «The God of Moon Fallen from the Heaven» and «A Building Ritual». The methodology of the investigation is based on L. Talmy’s cognitive semantics and typology. Orientation relationships are used for analyzing the meaning of Hattian verbal prefixes.

Read more …Locative-directional preverbs in the Hattian and Abkhazian-Adyghe languages: a comparative aspect...

Common West Caucasian: The Relation of Proto-West Caucasian to Hattic by Viacheslav Chirikba

  • Language

The Relation of Proto-West Caucasian to Hattic by Viacheslav Chirikba

In his book "Common West Caucasian" (Leiden, 1996), the author touches upon the problem of the external relations of Common West Caucasian, namely, with the long extinct Hattic language of ancient Asia Minor (early second millennium B.C.).

Already the first explorer of Hattic, E. Forrer (1919: 1033, 1034), established its non-Indo-European character and suggested its relationship with Abkhazo-Adyghean languages. The same idea was proposed nearly at the same time by R. Bleichsteiner (1923).

Read more …Common West Caucasian: The Relation of Proto-West Caucasian to Hattic by Viacheslav Chirikba

The Caucasian language material in Evliya Çelebi's “Travel book” A Revision, by Jost Gippert

  • Language

This is a special internet edition of the article
“The Caucasian language material in Evliya Çelebi’s ‘Travel Book’. A Revision”
by Jost Gippert (1991).

It should not be quoted as such. For quotations, please refer to the original edition in
Caucasian Perspectives, ed. G. Hewitt, Unterschleissheim / München 1992, 8-62.

Read more …The Caucasian language material in Evliya Çelebi's “Travel book” A Revision, by Jost Gippert

Baron Pyotr Karlovich Uslar: Inventor of the First Abkhaz Alphabet, by Stephen D. Shenfield

Peter Uslar

Stephen D. Shenfield | Special to Abkhaz World

Introduction

Prior to the Russian conquest of the Caucasus, Abkhaz and the other languages of the mountain peoples existed only in oral form. They acquired writing systems as a delayed side effect of the conquest. This process was initiated by Baron Pyotr (Peter) Karlovich Uslar1 (1816 – 1875), a military engineer who became a pioneer in European studies of the Caucasus, especially the North Caucasus, and its peoples and languages.

Read more …Baron Pyotr Karlovich Uslar: Inventor of the First Abkhaz Alphabet, by Stephen D. Shenfield

Abkhazo-Adyghean languages and some recommendations how to secure their future, by Viacheslav Chirikba

  • Language
Modern linguistic mapping of Western Caucasus tribal composition 1774-1780

Dr. Viacheslav A. Chirikba
D.I. Gulia Institute for Humanities Research
Sukhum, Republic of Abkhazia

In this paper, I shall discuss the global problem of language endangerment and how it pertains to the Abkhazo-Adyghean languages; I shall also put forward some proposals concerned with securing the future of these languages both in the Caucasus and in the Diaspora.

Read more …Abkhazo-Adyghean languages and some recommendations how to secure their future, by Viacheslav...

An Endangered Language, by Vitali Sharia

  • Language

Ekho Kavkaza -- The Abkhaz language is officially registered in UNESCO’s list of endangered languages. The critical situation observed today has not something that emerged just yesterday or the day before. Among the numerous significant factors that have resulted in the current state of the Abkhaz language we can outline the calamity of the ‘Great Exile’ (makhadzhirstvo) in the 19th century, which turned Abkhazia into a country with a multi-ethnic population where the Russian language slowly but surely acquired the status of the language of interethnic communication; then there was the Georgian demographic and political expansion during the ascendancy of Beria in the mid-20th century, which in part led to Abkhaz-language schools being forced to adopt the Georgian language as the language of tuition. Such were the main but far from all the historical episodes and factors conditioning the current situation.

Read more …An Endangered Language, by Vitali Sharia

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