Abkhazian language

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The Abkhazian language belongs to the northwest Caucasian family spoken by only the Abazins, Adyghey, Kabardians and Circassians. It is written in a modified Cyrillic alphabet.

Sounds

Like the other Northwest Caucasian languages, Abkhaz is very rich in consonants, but has only a few vowels. Below is the Abkhaz X-SAMPA phoneme chart, for the standard dialect; the Bzyb dialect has even more consonants.

Labials: p p_> b v f w m
Dentals: t t_> d n
Labialized dentals: t_w t_>_w d_w
Alveolar sibilants: ts ts_> dz s z
Labialized alveolar sibilants: ts_w ts_>_w dz_w
Palatalized alveolar sibilants: ts_j ts_>_j dz_j s_j z_j
Postalveolar sibilants: tS tS_> dZ S Z
Labialized postalveolar sibilants: tS_w dZ_w
Lateral: l
Rhotic trill: r
Palatals: k_j k_>_j g_j j
Velars: k k_> g
Uvulars: q_> X R
Palatized uvulars: q_>_j X_j R_j
Labialized uvulars: q_>_w X_w R_w
Pharyngeals: X\\ X\\_w
Labiopalatal semivowel: H (< ?\\_w, a labialized voiced pharyngeal fricative)
Vowels: @ a (with allophones [i] and [e] next to palatals, [o] and [u] next to labials)

External links

[ http://www.ethnologue.com/show_iso639.asp?code=abk Ethnologue entry for Abkhaz]

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