The Agul language in its Daghestanian context (2008)

Timur Maisak timur.maisak@gmail.com (Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences) The Agul language in its Daghestanian context 1. The area and the speakers Lezgic branch within the Nakh-Daghestanian, or East Caucasian, family. Other Lezgic languages are LEZGIAN, TABASSARAN, TSAKHUR, RUTUL, BUDUGH, KRYZ, ARCHI and UDI. According to the official 2002 census, there are 28297 ethnic Aguls in Russia (11065 in urban and 17232 in rural areas). There are 29399 Agul speakers in Russia, of these 25447 in Daghestan (ca. 90% of speakers are Aguls, and apart from them Lezgians, Dargins, Tabassarans, i.e. those peoples with which mixed marriages are most common). The original Agul-speaking area is Southern Daghestan. Most part of the speakers live in the Agul and the Kurah districts of Daghestan (Агульский район, Курахский район) in 19 mountain villages; plus there are those who resettled to the lowlands, but not many of them live in compact groups. The dialectal diversity of Agul is considerable: there are seven dialects, namely CENTRAL AGUL, KEREN, HUPPUQ’, GEQUN, TSIRKHE, QUSHAN, and FITE. The three major dialects are spoken in seven (CENTRAL), six (KEREN) and three (QUSHAN) villages respectively, each of other four dialects is spoken only in one village. Phonological, morphological and lexical differences do not impede mutual intelligibility between the dialects; only QUSHAN dialect is hardly understandable by speakers of other varieties (QUSHAN speakers themselves usually have some knowledge of CENTRAL AGUL). All Aguls are almost exclusively firstlanguage speakers; the overwhelming majority of them also speaks Russian. Most speakers of the HUPPUQ’ and the KEREN dialects also have a good command of Lezgian which is the dominant indigenous language of the Kurah district where these dialects are spoken, whereas many Aguls from TSIRKHE speak Dargwa. Written from early 1990s, Cyrillic alphabet close to Lezgian one. There are so far textbooks for 1st and 2nd classes, some poetry collections, the Gospel of Luke. aʁul č’al, or агульский язык in Russian, or AGUL (also spelled AGHUL) is a language of the А а, Б б, В в, Г г, Гъ гъ, Гь гь, ГI гI, Д д, Дж дж, Е е, Ё ё, Ж ж, З з, И и, Й й, К к, Кк кк, Къ къ, Кь кь, КI кI, Л л, М м, Н н, О о, П п, Пп пп, ПI пI, Р р, С с, Т т, Тт тт, ТI тI, У у, Уь уь, Ф ф, Х х, Хъ хъ, Хь хь, ХI хI, Ц ц, ЦI цI, Ч ч, Чч чч, ЧI чI, Ш ш, Щ щ, ъ, I, ы, ь, Э э, Ю ю, Я я 1 2. An overview of basic grammatical features The examples below are drawn from the dialect of ʜupːuq’ (ca. 600 speakers). PHONOLOGY Vowels: i e (ä) Consonants: Occlusive voiced aspirated unaspirated ejective Fricative voiced voiceless ü u (o) a d t tː t’ (rare ones are given in brackets; /o/ mainly occurs in Russian loans) b p pː p’ f c cː c’ ǯ č čː č’ g k kː k’ q qː q’ ʡ1 ʕ ʜ ʔ h z ž ʁ s š x χ (these consonants and / ʕ / can be also labialized, cf. / d˳, č’˳, ʁ˳, ʕ˳ / etc.) Nasals: Liquids: Glides: m l j n r w NOMINAL MORPHOLOGY There is no noun class (also lost in LEZGIAN and UDI). Nouns inflect for number and case, both are marked by suffixes. In the ʜupːuq’ dialect the noun paradigm includes 50 forms (= 2 numbers × 25 cases). Singular is not marked; most productive plural affixes are -ar, -er, -jar (there are also some nouns with non-productive plurals). There seem to be no nouns that cannot have plural. The Absolutive case is not marked. All other cases are derived from an oblique stem, whose formation is often idiosyncratic; most common oblique markers are -i, -a, -e, -ü, -u, -ji, -di, -du, -ura, -ira, -ala, -una. The Ergative is a bare oblique stem. SG (zero) PL (-jar) ABSOLUTIVE gada ‘boy, son’ gada-jar ERGATIVE gada.ji gada-jar.i DATIVE gada.ji-s gada-jar.i-s GENITIVE gada.ji-n gada-jar.i-n COMITATIVE gada.ji-qaj gada-jar.i-qaj Locative case markers consist of two parts: • the first one specifies the localization of an object with respect to a reference point: ANTE ‘before, in front of’ APUD ‘near’ IN ‘inside (a container)’ INTER ‘in a mass or between objects’ SUB/CONT ‘below or in contact’ (in most other dialects -kː SUB and -k CONT are opposed; in ʜupːuq’ they merged in one form) 1 Epiglottal stop, one of the rarest phonemes in the world’s languages. 2 ‘on an upper surface’ ‘behind’ • the second one points at the direction of movement or absence of movement: LATIVE ‘towards’ ELATIVE ‘from’ (used with a prolative/translative value, i.e. ‘through’/‘along’) ESSIVE ‘without motion’, zero marked (may be used with a lative value) SUPER POST Cf. a locative paradigm of the word cil ‘wall’ (oblique stem cil.i-). ESSIVE (zero) LATIVE (-di) ELATIVE (-as) IN -ʔ cil.i-ʔ — cil.i-ʔ-as INTER -ʕ cil.i-ʕ cil.i-ʕ-di cil.i-ʕ-as SUPER -l cil.i-l cil.i-l-di cil.i-l-as SUB/CONT -k cil.i-k cil.i-k-di cil.i-k-as APUD -w, -f cil.i-w cil.i-w-di cil.i-f-as ANTE -h cil.i-h cil.i-h-di cil.i-h-as POST -q cil.i-q cil.i-q-di cil.i-q-as Examples of locative forms used in locative contexts (note a frequent correspondence between locative case markers and verbal prefixes): dad šahar.di-ʔ a-a. father city-IN {IN}be-PRS (1) Father is in the city now. (2) guni bread xitː.a-ʕ water-INTER ʕarx.u-ne. {INTER}get.PF-PFT Bread fell into water. (3) sufra.ji-l kitab alde-a. {SUPER}be-PRS table.cloth -SUPER book There is a book on a table-cloth. (4) reqː.ü-h-as road-ANTE-ELAT hatː-u šünükː! {ANTE}take.out-IMP child Take the child away from the road! (5) cil.i-k wall-SUB/CONT χaliča carpet kix! {SUB/CONT}put(IMP) Hang the carpet on the wall! {the CONT meaning} (6) kitan cat diwan.i-k sofa-SUB/CONT küčuč’.u-ne. {SUB/CONT-LAT}climb.PF-PFT The cat creeped under the sofa. {the SUB meaning} (7) kːarawut.i-q-di hiš.i-ne bed-POST-LAT run.away.PF-PFT ge-wur, DEMG-PL ǯinux.u-ne. hide.PF-PFT They ran away behind the bed and hid there. (8) The DATIVE is used instead of an (absent) In-lative: eχir fajš.u-ne me ha-te idemi derben.di-s, ha-te at.last take.away.PF-PFT DEMM čːučːu-n χul.a-s… ha-DEMT man Derbent-DAT ha-DEMT brother-GEN house-DAT At last we took this man to Derbent, to brother’s house. 3 (9) Examples of locative forms used in non-locative contexts: gada.ji ʜütːe kant’.ala-l-di guni at’.a-a. boy(ERG) sharp knife-SUPER-LAT bread cut.IPF-PRS The boy is cutting bread with a sharp knife. {Instrument} (10) ruš.a-w-di tin sumkːa! girl-APUD-LAT give(IMP) bag Give the bag to the girl! {Prospective temporal possessor} (11) aχpːa awala then before idem-ar.i-f-as, kasib-ar.i-f-as mazdik-ar lix.a-s x.a-duj. man-PL-APUD-ELAT poor-PL-APUD-ELAT mosque-PL build.IPF.IPF-INF become.IPF-PST:NEG And before people, poor people could not built mosques. {Subject of possibility} (12) we your(SG) χul.a-l-as ze χal house bat’ar-f beautiful-N e. COP house-SUPER-ELAT my My house is more beautiful than yours. {Standard of comparison} (13) wa-l-as wuri elq.e-a. laugh.IPF-PRS you(SG)-SUPER-ELAT all Everybody laughs at you. {Object with ‘laugh’-verb} (14) ruš girl xitː.a-q water-POST š.u-ne. go.PF-PST The girl went to bring water. {Purpose of motion} (15) ze my čːučːu-s brother-DAT bengiš-ar.i-q-as bear-PL-POST-ELAT guč’a-dawa. be.afraid-PRS:NEG My brother is not afraid of bears. {Stimulus with ‘fear’-verb} Note that COMITATIVE is a recent grammaticalization of a Post-essive in -q + stative converb qaj ‘being with’ (which also includes a Post locative prefix), cf: dada-qaj < dada-q qa-j father-COMIT father-POST {POST}be-CONV ‘with father’ (16) ruš dad.a-qaj girl father-COMIT ‘being near (behind) father’ mexteb.i-s š.u-ne. school-DAT go.PF-PFT The girl went to school with her father. PRONOUNS There are five personal pronouns: zun ‘I’ xin ‘we (including you)’ čin ‘we (without you)’ wun ‘you (Sg)’ čun ‘you (Pl)’ Note the inclusive/exclusive distinction, and the Absolutive/Ergative syncretism. There are no personal pronouns for the third person, the demonstratives are used for that. The demonstrative system is built on a quaternary opposition: me ‘close to speaker’ ~ le ‘close to addressee’ or ‘far and above’ ~ ge ‘far and below’ ~ te ‘far from both’ When it is nesessary to oppose objects closer to the speaker vs. to the addressee, the me vs. le distinction is used. As the distal deixis is concerned, apart from a non-specified te one can emphasize that the objects is higher or lower (in vertical dimention) that the interlocutors. 4 ADJECTIVES Adjectives — as well as participles, genitives etc. — when nominalized, inflect for number and case, taking a special nominalization marker -f (in Absolutive singular) or -tː- (otherwise). Apart from this the declension is like with nouns; see a partial paradigm of bat’ar ‘beautiful’. SG PL ABSOLUTIVE bat’ar-f bat’ar-tː-ar ERGATIVE bat’ar-tː.i bat’ar-tː-ar.i GENITIVE bat’ar-tː.i-n bat’ar-tː-ar.i-n DATIVE bat’ar-tː.i-s bat’ar-tː-ar.i-s (17) hal kühne-tː-ar.i-n now old-N-PL-GEN eχtːilat-ar, gaf-ar-ar aʜa-tː-ar talk-PL word-PL-PL big-N-PL x.a-a become.IPF-PRS teʜela... probably Now the talks of old people (= of those who are old) are probably too long... VERBAL MORPHOLOGY There is no class agreement (which was lost), neither person agreement (which did not develop, in contrast to TABASSARAN or UDI). Still the paradigm is rather rich. Verbs inflect for aspect, tense and mood. Aspect is marked by vocalic suffixes (-u, -i for perfective or -a, -e for imperfective), and participles and converbs derive rather symmetrically from each of the two aspectual stems. E.g. the root of the verb ‘to read’ is ruχ-, the aspectual stems are ruχ.u- (perfective) and ruχ.a- (imperfective), and the main non-finite forms are as follows: Perfective aspect Imperfective aspect Participle 1 ruχ.u(-f) ruχ.a(-f) Converb ruχ.u-na ruχ.a-j Participle 2 ruχ.u-naje(-f) ruχ.a-je(-f) Participle 3 ruχ.u-nde(-f) ruχ.a-jde(-f) Optative participle — ruχ.a-ǯe(-f) Infinitive — ruχ.a-s Masdar (verbal noun) ruχ.u-b — Negation is marked on these forms by means of a prefix d- // da-. Most TMA forms are analytical and are composed of converbs, participles or an infinitive and one of two auxiliaries — copula e ‘is’ and a locative verb aa ‘is inside’. Negative forms use suppletive negative auxiliaries (copula dawa, a locative verb adawa). Both auxiliaries can have a present or a past tense form, which gives the following core paradigm (see table). By using the question forms of auxiliaries — e-wa ‘is it?’ and a-wa ‘is it inside?’ with a question suffix -wa — yes/no-question forms are derived from the analytical forms given in the table (see also examples below). Note that stative verbs do not have aspectual stems and their paradigm is very reduced. Statives are: • е ‘is’ (copula), • aa ‘is inside’ (and other prefixal derivatives), • amea ‘stay, remain inside’ (and other prefixal derivatives) • ʜaa ‘know’, itːaa ‘be ill; ache’, guč’aa ‘be afraid’, kːandea ‘love, want, need’. 5 Perfective subsystem aff. Converb + present copula ruχ.u-n-e + past copula ruχ.u-n-ij || neg. Perfective past Imperfective subsystem aff. || neg. Present Habitual Past Habitual Present || ruχ.u-n-dawa || ruχ.u-n-duj ruχ.a-j-e ruχ.a-j-i ruχ.a(j)-a ruχ.a-ji ruχ.a-f-e ruχ.a-f-ij || ruχ.a-j-dewa Non-actual past || ruχ.a-j-düj || ruχ.a-dawa 2 Resultative Converb + present ‘is in’ ruχ.u-na(j)-a || ruχ.u-n-adawa Past Resultative + past ‘was in’ ruχ.u-na-ji || ruχ.u-n-aduj Experiential past Participle 1 + present copula ruχ.u-f-e || ruχ.u-f-tːawa Non-actual Experiential + past copula ruχ.u-f-ij || ruχ.u-f-tːuj Resultative/Experiential Participle 2 + present copula ruχ.u-naje-f-e || ruχ.u-naje-f-tːawa Past Resultative/Experiential + past copula ruχ.u-naje-f-ij || ruχ.u-naje-f-tːuj Infinitive + present copula — + past copula Imperfect || ruχ.a-duj || ruχ.a-f-tːawa Present Generic Past Generic || ruχ.a-f-tːuj || ruχ.a-je-f-tːawa || ruχ.a-je-f-tːuj Future ruχ.a-je-f-e Intentional future ruχ.a-je-f-ij ruχ.a-s-e ruχ.a-s-ij Intentional future in the past || ruχ.a-s-tːawa || ruχ.a-s-tːuj Irrealis • • • • Apart from Irrealis, other moods include: IMPERATIVE (e.g. ruχ ‘read!’), usually a bare root PROHIBITIVE (e.g. ma-ruχ-a ‘do not read!’), a negative counterpart of the Imperative, having a special circumfixal marker ma-…-a JUSSIVE (e.g. ruχ.u-raj ‘let him read!’), derived from a perfective stem FUTURE CONDITIONAL (e.g. ruχ.u-či ‘if s/he reads…’), derived from a perfective stem. Also, with the help of Conditional auxiliaries ej-či ‘if it is’ and aj-či ‘if it is inside’ core analytical forms from the table above can derive all sorts of Conditionals. allah, p.u-na-a, Allah (18) ja VOC za-k-as ha-mi-sa-l sa dar x.u-raj... become.PF-JUSS say.PF-RES-PRS I-SUB/CONT-ELAT ha-DEMM-LOC-SUPER one tree Oh, Allah, — she said, — let me (= from me) become a tree right here. (19) ja VOC allah… Allah za-k-as=ra I-SUB/CONT-ELAT=& ha-mi-sa-l sa dar aq’-e… do-IMP ha-DEMM-LOC-SUPER one tree Oh, Allah, and from me also make a tree here… (20) naq’ yesterday uʁ.u-naj-či, rain.PF-RES-COND iǯe good x.a-s-ij. become.IPF-INF-COP:PST If it rained yesterday, it would have been good. 2 The affirmative Imperfect is identical to Past Habitual. 6 DERIVATION Verbal prefixation: a set of locative prefixes and a repetitive prefix. The locative prefixes (like locative cases) consist of two parts — localization markers and direction markers; the latter can be absent. Localization markers Direction markers IN ∅-, a- (< ʔ-, ʔa-) LAT -č-, -čaINTER ʕ-, ʕaELAT -atːAPUD f-, faUP -ʁ-, -ʁaANTE h-, hu-, hiDOWN -a-, -daPOST q-, qa-, qi-, quSUB/CONT k-, ke-, ki-, küSUPER al-, l-, ala-, la(21) za-w sa iǯe kitab book fa-č-arx.u-ne. APUD-LAT-get.PF-PFT I-APUD one good I got one good book. (22) h-atː-ix ANTE-ELAT-put(IMP) ustːul ze table my üdih-as. in.front-ELAT Take away the table from me. (23) kitan cat ustːul.i-l(-di) table-SUPER(-LAT) al-ʁ-uč’.a-a. SUPER-UP-climb.IPF-PRS The cat is climbing on the table. (24) gada.ji ʁ˳ad.i-l-as ixpː al-a-jx.a-a. SUPER-DOWN-put.IPF-PRS boy(ERG) roof-SUPER-ELAT snow The boy is throwing snow from the roof. Repetitive prefix (its variants are q-, qa-, qu- and qi-) looks similar to the POST localization, but they are distinct and can co-occur. It usually expresses repetition or backward movement. qu-ʕ˳as ‘go back’, qu-χas ‘bring back’, qu-hatas ‘send back’ q-aʁas ‘say again’, qa-χutːurfas ‘look again’ qa-ixas ‘put in again’ (< ixas ‘put in’ with the IN prefix) qa-q-ixas ‘put behind again’ (< q-ixas ‘put behind’ with the POST prefix) Complex verbs: nouns, adjectives, bound stems + “light verbs” aq’as ‘do, make’ and xas ‘become’ (more rarely, with ic’as ‘give’, jarʜas ‘beat’, etc.). The syntactic status of the nominal (preverbal) part can be different in different verbs. (25) dad.a gada.ji-s un-aq’.a-a. father(ERG) boy-DAT sound(ABS)-do.IPF-PRS Father is calling the boy. (26) gada.ji boy(ERG) ruš.a-s girl-DAT berʜem dress(ABS) pːeškːeš-q’.u-ne. gift(ABS??)-do.PF-PFT The boy presented a dress to the girl. (27) šünükː-ar.i qːenfet-ar child-PL(ERG) candy-PL(ABS) gunt’-aq’.a-a. <gathering>-do.IPF-PRS Children are gathering candies. 7 (28) čin we:EXCL šad-x.u-ne, glad-become.PF-PFT le DEML iǯe-f good-N e COP p.u-na say.PF-CONV We become glad, that it is such a good thing. SENTENCE PATTERNS Core argument of an intransitive verb (S) = ABSOLUTIVE (29) ze dad maskːaw.di-as χab aldark.u-na-a. my father(ABS) Moscow-{IN}ELAT back return.PF-RES-PRS My father has come back from Moscow. Agent of a transitive verb (A) = ERGATIVE, Patient of a transitive verb (O) = ABSOLUTIVE (30) dad.a guni ʕut’.u-ne. father(ERG) bread(ABS) eat.PF-PFT Father ate bread. Experiencer = DATIVE (with verbs like ag˳as ‘see’, un-xas ‘hear’, ʜaa ‘know’, kːandea ‘love, want, need’ and others): (31) za-s we ruš ag.u-ne. I-DAT your(SG) daughter(ABS) see.PF-PFT I saw your daughter. LUTIVE In some verbs of physical action the DATIVE rather marks the patient, and the optional ABSOargument denotes the instrument: (32) dad.a degi-s (ʁ˳an) jarʜu-ne. father(ERG) donkey-DAT stone(ABS) hit.PF-PFT Father hit the donkey (with a rock). Possessor is expressed by the APUD-ESSIVE (temporary possession) and the POST-ESSIVE (permanent possession): (33) za-w nis=na guni fa-a. I-APUD cheese(ABS)=and bread(ABS) {APUD}be-PRS I have cheese and bread with me. (So, we can take a snack now.) (34) za-q I-POST ʡu two ruš=na daughter(ABS)=and sa gada qa-a. {POST}be-PRS one son(ABS) I have two daughters and one son. NOMINAL PREDICATION (35) aʁul-ar [Agul-PL] daʁustːan.di-ʔ jašamiš-x.a-je [Daghestan-IN χalq’ e. COP <live>-become.IPF-PART2 people] The Aguls are people living in Daghestan. (36) p’ap’ruc du.u-b [cigarette draw.PF-MSD] iǯe [good kar affair] dawa. COP:NEG Smoking is a bad thing (= is not a good thing). Number agreement in the nominal predication: (37) a. ʜač širin-f e. apple tasty-N COP b. ʜač-ar apple-PL širin-tː-ar e. tasty-N-PL COP Apple is tasty. 8 Apples are tasty. VALENCE INCREASE AND DECREASE Causative construction with the auxiliary verb aq’as ‘do, make’ and the Infinitive of the main verb. The Causer is marked by the Ergative, and there are two strategies for encoding of the Causee. The Causee either keeps the case marking assigned by the main predicate, cf.: (38) a. kitan hiš.i-ne. cat(ABS) run.away.PF-PFT The cat ran away. b. baw.a kitan hiš.a-s run.away.IPF-INF] q’.u-ne. do.PF-PFT mother(ERG) [cat(ABS) Mother made the cat run away (e.g. she made a noise and the cat woke up). (39) a. dad.a-s father-DAT wuri all(ABS) un-x.u-ne. sound-become.PF-PFT Father heard everything. b. baw.a dad.a-s wuri un-x.a-s q’u-ne. do.PF-PFT mother(ERG) [father-DAT all(ABS) sound-become.IPF-INF] Mother made father hear everything. (40) a. gada.ji boy(ERG) šurpa soup(ABS) ʕut’.u-ne. eat.PF-PFT The boy ate the soup. b. baw.a gada.ji šurpa ʕut’.a-s eat.IPF-INF] q’.u-ne. do.PF-PFT mother(ERG) [boy(ERG) soup(ABS) Mother made the boy eat the soup (e.g. she threatened not to let him go for a walk). Alternatively, the Causee is encoded by the Apud-essive or the Apud-elative (only for transitive and intransitive verbs, not for sentience verbs): (41) baw.a gada.ji-w // gada.ji-f-as hiš.a-s q’.u-ne. mother(ERG) boy-APUD boy-APUD-ELAT run.away.IPF-INF do.PF-PFT Mother made the boy run away. (42) baw.a gada.ji-w // gada.ji-f-as šurpa ʕut’.a-s q’.u-ne. mother(ERG) boy-APUD boy-APUD-ELAT soup(ABS) eat.IPF-INF do.PF-PFT Mother made the boy eat the soup. (43) baw.a mother(ERG) *dad.a-w // *dad.a-f-as father-APUD father-APUD-ELAT wuri un-x.a-s q’.u-ne. all(ABS) sound-become.IPF-INF do.PF-PFT Mother made father hear everything. The Involuntary Agent Construction: the Involuntary Agent is marked by the Apud-elative. Only available for intransitive verbs denoting a change of state and labile (S=O) verbs. The latter include lexemes like arʕas ‘break (tr, intr)’, atːuzas ‘spill (tr, intr)’, at’usas ‘stop burning (tr, intr)’, daqas ‘open (tr, intr)’, čurqas ‘explode (tr, intr)’, č’urχas ‘tear apart (tr, intr)’, č’ut’as ‘bend (tr, intr)’, k’es ‘kill/die’, rüxes ‘boil, cook (tr, intr)’, uc’as ‘melt (tr, intr)’, ugas ‘burn (tr, intr)’ etc. (44) a. kitab gul.u-ne. b. *gada.ji kitab gul.u-ne. book(ABS) get.lost.PF-PFT boy(ERG) book(ABS) get.lost.PF-PFT The book got lost. c. gada.ji-f-as kitab gul.u-ne. boy-APUD-ELAT book(ABS) get.lost.PF-PFT The boy lost the book. The boy lost the book. 9 (45) a. nekː atːuz.u-ne. b. baw.a nekː atːuz.u-ne. milk(ABS) spill.PF-PFT mother(ERG) milk(ABS) spill.PF-PFT The milk spilt. c. baw.a-f-as mother-APUD-ELAT Mother spilled the milk. nekː atːuz.u-ne. milk(ABS) spill.PF-PFT (It so happened that) Mother accidentally spilled the milk. SUBORDINATION Relative clauses: headed by participles; usually head-final • PERFECTIVE PARTICIPLE (46) me=ra ze k’il.i-l ad.i kar e sara. DEMM=& [my head-SUPER come.PF] affair COP PTCL This one is also an incident that happened to me, y’know. • IMPERFECTIVE PARTICIPLE (47) ze saje gada e, igramudin my other son COP aʁ.a say.IPF] gada son e… COP [Igramudin This is my other son, this is my son who’s name is (= who is called) Igramudin. Complement clauses: headed by converbs, participles, infinitive, masdar • INFINITIVE (48) ruš.a-s uč.i-n jerχe č’ar-ar q’at’-q’.a-s kːande-a. girl-DAT [REFL-GEN long hair-PL piece-do.IPF-INF] want-PRS The girl wants to cut off her long hair. • PERFECTIVE CONVERB (49) wun itːa-a, duχtːir.di-s you(SG) be.ill-PRS [doctor-DAT un-aq’.u-na sound-do.PF-CONV] kːand-e. need-COP You are ill and (you) should call a doctor. • PERFECTIVE PARTICIPLE (50) za-s ʜa-a ge qaj.i-f. I-DAT know-PRS [DEMG RE:come.PF-N] I know that s/he came. • MASDAR (51) šünükː-ar.i aʜa-tː-ar.i-l [child-PL(ERG) big-N-PL-SUPER ubur ear lix.i-b {SUPER}put.PF-MSD] lazim necessary e. COP Children should respect (lit. put an ear to) elders. • “PUNA”-STRATEGY (p.u-na ‘having said’ is a perfective converb of ‘to say’) (52) qaj.i-guna čin ha-mi-štːi qatːq’.u-ne baw-ar.i-s, RE:come.PF-TEMP we:EXCL ha-DEMM-ADV narrate.PF-PFT mother-PL-DAT ha-mi-štːi kar x.u-ne p.u-na. [ha-DEMM-ADV(GEN) affair become.PF-PFT] say.PF-CONV And when we returned, we told our parents that such and such thing happened. Adverbial clauses: mainly headed converbs (general perfective and imperfective converbs as well as special temporal, conditional, causal etc. forms), also by infinitives, participles. 10 • PERFECTIVE CONVERB (53) at’.u-na ʡu-d=ra χil-ar, cut.PF-CONV two-N=& hand-PL at.u-na {IN}let.PF-CONV či sister qaj-ne RE:come:PF-PFT me. DEMM He cut off both sister’s hand, left here there and returned.. • IMPERFECTIVE CONVERB (54) gada kitab ruχ.a-j boy [book read.IPF-CONV] qadark.u-na-a. lie.down.PF-RES-PRS A boy is lying down reading a book. • INFINITIVE (marks purpose, usually with motion verbs) (55) hat.a-a me-wr.i me ruš=ra gada=ra adark.a-s send.IPF-PRS DEMM-PL(ERG) DEMM jac-ar.i-q-tːi. girl=& boy=& look.for.IPF-INF bull-PL-POST-LAT They send these boy and girl to look for the bulls. • SPECIALIZED CONVERB IN -χildi (marks purpose) (56) za-k-as ha-mi-sa-l sa dar x.u-raj… daχu baw da-q-ag˳.a-χildi NEG-RE-see.IPF-PURP] I-SUB/CONT-ELAT ha-DEMM-LOC-SUPER one tree become.PF-JUSS [alien mother Let me become a tree right here… so that I do not see the stepmother again.. QUESTIONS Yes/no-questions: a special set of verbal forms with a question form of an auxiliary (57) hara, nurutːin INTJ k’.i-ne-wa? die.PF-PFT-Q Nurudin Oh, did Nurudin die? (58) gamuš buffalo ʜa-j-e-wa know-CONV-COP-Q wa-s? you(Sg)-DAT Do you know (what is) a buffalo? (50) ʁawur.di understanding(IN) arx.a-s-tːu {IN}get.IPF-INF-COP:NEG:Q te-wur? DEMT-PL Won’t they understand? Wh-questions and focus construction Wh-questions: no special verb marker Cleft sentences: focus part + copula + the rest, headed by a nominalized participle (60) а. fiš qaj-ne? who RE:come:PF-PFT Who came? б. fiš who e COP qaj.i-f? RE:come.PF-N Who (exactly) came? (61) а. fi what lix.a-a build.IPF-PRS ge-wur.i? DEMG-PL(ERG) What are they building? б. fi what e COP ge-wur.i demg-PL(ERG) lix.a-je-f? build.IPF-PART2-N What (exactly) are they building? 11 3. History and current state of research Previous studies: Дирр А. Агульский язык. Тифлис, 1907. (Сборник материалов для описания местностей и племен Кавказа. Вып. 37.) Шаумян Р. М. Грамматический очерк агульского языка. М.; Л., 1941. Магометов А. А. Агульский язык: Исследования и тексты. Тбилиси, 1970. Сулейманов Н. Д. Сравнительно-историческое исследование диалектов агульского языка. Махачкала, 1993. Тарланов 3. К. Агулы: их язык и история. Петрозаводск, 1994. Agul dialects documentation project (in 2004—2006 and 2008—2009 supported by grants from Max Plant Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology) Participants: Dmitry Ganenkov, Timur Maisak, Solmaz Merdanova (Moscow) Goals: 1. collect texts from all seven dialects of Agul (about 40 hours of texts already recorded), 2. transcribe, translate and gloss these audio recordings (at least the best of them), 3. write a grammatical sketch based on the Huppuq’ dialect, 4. collect a Huppuq’ dialect lexicon (as much as possible), 5. collect basic grammatical information from other dialects (phonetics, morphology), 6. collect a comparative dialect lexicon (basic vocabulary including about 1000 words), 7. suggest a proto-Agul grammatical and lexical reconstruction. Some papers by the Moscow project: • Locative cases and locative prefixes: Ганенков Д.С., Мерданова С.Р. Семантика пространственных форм существительных в агульском языке // Исследования по теории грамматики. Вып. 2: Грамматикализация пространственных значений в языках мира. М.: Русские словари, 2002. Майсак Т.А., Мерданова С.Р. Система пространственных превербов в агульском языке // Исследования по теории грамматики. Вып. 2: Грамматикализация пространственных значений в языках мира. М.: Русские словари, 2002. Ганенков Д.С., Майсак Т.А., Мерданова С.Р. Пространственные и непространственные значения локализации APUD «возле ориентира» в агульском языке // Гора языков.. и еще один: К 100летию Евгения Алексеевича Бокарева. М., 2006. • Verbal categories: Майсак Т.А., Мерданова С.Р. Глагольная система хпюкского говора агульского языка. Рукопись, 2002. Майсак Т.А., Мерданова С.Р. Категория эвиденциальности в агульском языке // Кавказоведение. 2002. №1. Майсак Т.А., Мерданова С.Р. Будущее время в агульском языке в типологической перспективе // Вопросы языкознания. 2003. №6. Майсак Т.А., Мерданова С.Р. «Проверятельная форма» в агульском языке: структура, семантика и гипотеза о происхождении // Исследования по теории грамматики. Вып. 3: Ирреалис и ирреальность. М.: Гнозис, 2004. • Causatives, unintentional agent: Ganenkov D., Maisak T., Merdanova S. Non-canonical Agent marking in Agul // Helen de Hoop & Peter de Swart (eds.) Differential Subject Marking. Dordrecht: Springer, 2008. Daniel M., Maisak T., Merdanova S. Causatives in Agul // Proceedings of LENCA-2 (submitted) Даниэль М. А., Майсак Т.А., Мерданова С. Р. Каузативы, декаузативы и лабильность в агульском языке // Исследования по глагольной деривации. М., 2008. 12