Tsez language Totally Explained

Everything about Tsez Language totally explained

Tsez, also known as Dido (цезйас мец cezyas mec or цез мец cez mec in Tsez) is a Northeast Caucasian language with about 15,354 speakers (2002) spoken by the Tsez, a Muslim people in the mountainous Tsunta district of southern and western Dagestan in Russia. The name is said to derive from the Tsez word for "eagle", which is most likely a folk etymology. The name Dido is derived from the Georgian word დიდი (didi), meaning "big".
Tsez lacks a literary tradition and is poorly represented in written form. Avar and Russian are used as literary languages locally, even in schools. However, attempts have been made to develop a stable orthography for the Tsez language as well as its relatives, mainly for the purpose of recording traditional folklore; thus, a Cyrillic script based on that of Avar is often used. Fluency of Avar is usually higher among men than women, and the younger people tend to be more fluent in Russian than in Tsez, which is probably due to the lack of education in and about the language. Tsez isn't taught in school and instead Avar is taught for the first five years, and Russian afterwards. The vocabulary shows many traces of influences of Avar, Georgian, Arabic and Russian, mainly through loanwords and, in the case of Russian, even in grammar and style. There are also loanwords of Turkic origin. These factors will eventually lead to the decline of use of the Tsez language, as it's more and more replaced by Avar and Russian, partly due to loss of traditional culture among the people and the adoption of a Western clothing, technology and architecture.
Tsez grammar was first analyzed by the Georgian linguist Davit Imnaishvili in 1963. Currently, a collection of Tsez folklore texts (written in the Mokok dialect) is in production.

Dialects

Tsez can be divided into the following dialects, given with their Tsez names in parentheses:

Asakh (Asaq)
- Tsebari (Ceboru)
Mokok (Newo)
Kidero (Kidiro)
- Shaytl (Ešiƛʼ)
Shapikh (Šopix)
Sagada (Soƛʼo or Sahada)

The Tsebari subdialect of Asakh is the used for the examples in this article. The Sagada dialect is notable for its difference from the others. Hinukh and Khwarshi were also once regarded as dialects of the Tsez language, but are now commonly regarded as distinct languages of the same family.

Phonology

Each phoneme is listed with its IPA [brackets], Latin, and Cyrillic representations.

Consonants

	Bilabial	Dental	Lateral	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Stop	[p] [b] [pʼ] p b pʼ п б пI	[t] [d] [tʼ] t d tʼ т д тI			[k] [ɡ] [kʼ] k g kʼ к г кI	[qʼ] qʼ къ
Fricative		[s] [z] s z с з	[ɬ] ł лъ	[ʃ] [ʒ] š ž ш ж		[χ] [ʁ] x ɣ х гъ	[ħ] [ʕ] ħ ʕ хI гI	[h] h гь
Affricate		[t͡s] [t͡sʼ] c cʼ ц цI	[t͡ɬ] [t͡ɬʼ] ƛ ƛʼ лI кь	[t͡ʃ] [t͡ʃʼ] č čʼ ч чI		[q͡χ] q хъ
Nasal	[m] m м	[n] n н
Liquid		[r] r р	[l] l л
Semivowel	[w] w в			[j] y й

Tsez shows an inventory of 33 consonants.

The glottal stop ([ʔ]) isn't phonemic but occurs automatically before non-pharyngealized vowels in word-initial position.

Consonant clusters are often broken up by inserting the epenthetic vowel [e]. After [j], the inserted vowel is [i].

Word-initial consonants can be pharyngealized and are marked as such in the proposed orthography by a small [ˁ] following the consonant; in the Cyrillic spelling a palochka ("Ӏ" or "I") is used after the vowel that follows the consonant.

A syllable-final pharyngealization of the consonant is transcribed in Cyrillic with Cʼ (where C stands for a consonant) and with VCˁ in the Latin transcription (the V stands for a vowel). Some dictionaries write this as VIC though, which makes the sequence CVIC ambiguous (see below).
A syllable-initial pharyngealization of the consonant is transcribed in Cyrillic with CVI (the palochka follows the vowel, since the pharyngealization actually affects it more than the preceding consonant) and with CˁV in the Latin transcription.
The pharyngealization itself is reported to be epiglottal.

Labialized consonants are written as Cв in the Cyrillic and as Cʷ in the Latin transcription, respectively. Any consonant besides p, pʼ, b, m, w, n, l, y and ʕ can be labialized.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	[i] i и		[u] u у
Mid	[e̞] e е/э		[o̞] o о
Low		[a] ([aː]) a (ā) а (ā)

The Tsebari dialect has only one long vowel ā.

A vowel is dropped before another vowel, so there are never two consecutive vowels. However, a final -u labializes the preceding consonant, if followed by a vowel.

Word-initial e is spelled э in Cyrillic.

In the proposed Cyrillic orthography, ya, yo, yu can also be written as я, ё, ю.

In the Asakh dialect, lengthened vowels are automatically neutralized to ā. Other dialects (for example Mokok) also have a low front vowel ([æ]), usually transcribed as ä in Latin and аь in Cyrillic, some also have a long mid back rounded vowel ([o]), transcribed as ō.

Phonotactics

The syllable structure is generally CV(C). There are no vowel clusters. It is an agglutinative language with a complex morphology. Suffixes are either C, V, CV, VC or C+CV (where the first consonant belongs to the preceding syllable), depending on the structure of the stem. An example is the superessive suffix -ƛʼ(o), which attached to the word besuro (fish) forms besuro-ƛʼ (on the fish) and together with is (bull) forms is-ƛʼo in order to maintain the syllable restriction.

Morphology

Nouns

Nouns are inflected for number and case, and have noun classes assigned to them.

Number

Nouns can either be singular or plural. The plural is formed by adding -bi to the stem in the absolutive case: besuro (fish [sg.]) → besuro-bi (fish [pl.]). For all other cases, the suffix is -za; thus, "of the fish [pl.]" becomes besuro-za-s.

Case

There are eight syntactical, and a much larger number of locative, cases, which distinguish three categories: location, orientation, and direction. Thus, counting the locative and non-locative cases together, there are a total of 64.
Tsez is an ergative-absolutive language, which means that it makes no distinction between the subject of an intransitive sentence and the object of a transitive one— both are in the unmarked absolutive case; the subject of the transitive sentence is in the ergative case.
According to Ramazan Rajabov, the oblique stem of only 42% of the nouns is different from the absolutive stem. Some nouns change their internal structure (for example, a vowel), while others add one of about 20 so-called "thematic suffixes" to their end, to which the other case suffixes are attached. The word for "language" or "tongue", for instance, is mec but its oblique stem is mecr-, hence the plural is mecrebi, the ergative mecrā and so on. Rajabov says that the choice of the correct thematic suffix is sometimes difficult even for native speakers. It is likely that their origin lies in an application of two different plural forms, in a similar way as in English the word "children" actually has two archaic plural endings: -(e)r and -en. In Tsez it's sometimes even possible to use both the archaic and the regular and more productive -bi plural for a word.

Syntactic case suffixes

	singular	plural
Absolutive	-∅	-bi
Ergative	-ā	-z-ā
Genitive 1	-(e)s	-za-s
Genitive 2	-(e)z	-za-z
Dative	-(e)r	-za-r
Instrumental	-(e)d	-za-d
Equative 1	-ce	-za-ce
Equative 2	-qʼāy	-za-qʼāy

Of the two genitive cases, the first is used as attribute to an absolutive head noun and the second to an oblique one. That means, that the Genitive 1 is used for phrases like žekʼu-s is (the man's bull), and the Genitive 2 is used for žekʼu-z is-er (for the man's bull).
The Equative 1 is used to make comparisons, like besuro-ce (like a fish) and can also be attached to other cases.
Rajabov suggests 3 more syntactical cases, namely possessive 1 (-łay), possessive 2 (-xu) and abessive (-tay). However, their status is debatable, as they seem to show both inflectional as well as derivational tendencies.

Locative case suffixes

	Essive	Lative	Ablative	Allative¹	meaning
In—	-ā -āz	-ā-r -āz-a-r	-āy -āz-ay	-āɣor -āz-a	= in (a hollow object)
Cont—	-ł -ł-āz	-ł-er -ł-āz-a-r	-ł-āy -ł-āz-ay	-ł-xor -ł-āz-a	= in (a mass), among
Super—	-ƛʼ(o) -ƛʼ-āz	-ƛʼo-r -ƛʼ-āz-a-r	-ƛʼ-āy -ƛʼ-āz-ay	-ƛʼ-āɣor, -ƛʼ-ār -ƛʼ-āz-a	= on (horizontal)
Sub—	-ƛ -ƛ-āz	-ƛ-er -ƛ-āz-a-r	-ƛ-āy -ƛ-āz-ay	-ƛ-xor -ƛ-āz-a	= under
Ad—	-x(o) -x-āz	-xo-r -x-āz-a-r	-x-āy -x-āz-ay	-x-āɣor, -x-ā-r -x-āz-a	= at
Apud—	-de -d-āz	-de-r -d-āz-a-r	-d-āy -d-āz-ay	-d-āɣor, -d-ā-r -d-āz-a	= near
Poss—	-q(o) -q-āz	-qo-r -q-āz-a-r	-q-āy -q-āz-ay	-q-āɣor, -q-ā-r -q-āz-a	= on (vertical)
meaning	= at (position)	= to (destination)	= from (origin)	= towards (direction)

The allative case is also called 'versative'. In the distal paradigm, it's used in the sense of "behind" or "beyond" and is then called 'posterior'. Of the forms, the upper one shows the non-distal (for example, close), the lower one the distal (for example, far) form of the suffix. In the non-distal there are sometimes two equal forms for the allative case. The epenthetic vowel o in parentheses is used after noun stems ending in a consonant; thus, "next to the bull" is is-xo, while "next to the fish" is besuro-x.

Noun classes

Tsez distinguishes 4 noun classes in the singular and 2 in the plural. They are prefixes that are attached to verbs, adjectives, adverbs, several postpositions like -oƛƛʼo ("between") or -iłe ("like") and the emphatic particle -uy to show agreement with the noun. Agreement is only possible on vowel-initial words or words that begin with a pharyngealized vowel, but there are also a few words beginning with a vowel that don't take these prefixes.

Class	Singular	Plural	Attribution
I	∅-	b-	for male persons only
II	y-	r-	for female persons and inanimate objects (for example "book")
III	b-		for animals and inanimate objects (for example "sun")
IV	r-		for inanimate objects only (for example "water")

As inanimate objects cover the classes II, III and IV, it's not transparent into which class an inanimate object belongs. However, there are certain tendencies based on the semantic field of the nouns. Nouns that are able to move (like sun, moon, star, lightning, car, train) usually belong to class III, while products that traditionally have to do with the work of women (like clothes or berries and also milk) often belong to class II. Clothes made from leather are — as the word for leather itself — usually assigned to class III, due to their relation to animals. Class IV originally included abstract words, collective and mass nouns, such as water, salt, sky or wind. Materials also often seem to trigger noun classes: "chair" and "wood" are both class IV nouns. Also shape seems to have an influence (flat things are associated with class II, round things with class III and long things with class IV). In the same manner, proper names are assigned the classes of the nouns they denote. Thus, Patʼi ("Fatima") is assigned class II, because it's a female name, and Asaq (a Tsez village) belongs to class III, because "village" (ʕaƛʼ) is also in this group. Likewise, new loan words are assigned the noun class of a semantically similar existing Tsez word. It may be worth noting that experiments have shown that Tsez speakers don't assign any noun classes to new words for objects they don't know or where they don't know what they look like.
Certain derivational endings also require a specific noun class, see the section about derivation below.
Verbs and adverbs always agree with the absolutive argument of the phrase, regardless of the clause's transitivity.
If more than one absolutive argument is linked by the conjunction -n(o) ("and") and one of them is of the first noun class, then class I plural triggers the agreement for the clause; otherwise, it's class II/III/IV plural. Compare:
�

Numerals

Numerals come in two different forms: in the absolutive case and as an oblique stem (always ending in -a) to which other case endings are attached when the numerals are used nonattributively. The oblique form is also used when it refers to a non-absolutive noun, as in sida ˁaƛār ("to one/a village"). When counting objects, the counted objects always stay in the singular form.

	Absolutive	Oblique
1	sis	sida
2	qʼˁano	qʼˁuna
3	łˁono	łˁora
4	uyno	uyra
5	łeno	łera
6	iłno	iłłira
7	ʕoƛno	ʕoƛƛora
8	biƛno	biƛƛira
9	očʼčʼino	očʼčʼira
10	ocʼcʼino	ocʼcʼira
11	ocʼcʼino sis / siyocʼi	ocʼcʼira sida
12	ocʼcʼino qʼˁano / qʼˁayocʼi	ocʼcʼira qʼˁuna
13	ocʼcʼino łˁono / łˁoyocʼi	ocʼcʼira łˁora
14	ocʼcʼino uyno / uwocʼi	ocʼcʼira uyra
15	ocʼcʼino łeno / łewocʼi	ocʼcʼira łera
16	ocʼcʼino iłno / iłocʼi	ocʼcʼira iłłira
17	ocʼcʼino ʕoƛno / ʕoƛocʼi	ocʼcʼira ʕoƛƛora
18	ocʼcʼino biƛno / biƛocʼi	ocʼcʼira biƛƛira
19	ocʼcʼino očʼčʼino / ečʼocʼi	ocʼcʼira očʼčʼira
20	quno	qura
100	bišon	bišonra
1,000	ʕazar	ʕazarra

There are two ways of forming the numbers 11 through 19, but only the first way also exists in oblique form. The second form with the suffix -ocʼi can't be declined.

Above 20, numbers are formed on the basis of multiples of 20: qʼˁanoqu (40), łˁonoqu (60) and uynoqu (80). For the oblique forms, the suffix -ra is added for all items.

The numeral for 100 has an alternative form bišom used before the suffix -no in compound numerals.

The numeral for 1000, ʕazar, seems to be a loan from Persian هزار (hezār, thousand), probably via Avar.

Higher hundreds and thousands are expressed simply by juxtaposition, the multiplier preceding the larger number.

Compound numerals are formed by attaching the suffix -no (and) to the higher number and placing the lower one right after it. For example, 47 would be qʼˁanoquno ʕoƛno in Tsez. A number like 72 would be expressed as "sixty-twelve" (łˁonoquno qʼˁayocʼi or łˁonoquno ocʼcʼino qʼˁano). Cardinal numbers (as in English "one, two, three") precede the nouns, which then do not stand in their plural forms but in the singular instead; for example: uyno is ("four oxen").
Ordinal numbers (as in English "first, second, third") are constructed by combining the cardinal numbers with the word āƛiru. Hence, qʼˁano āƛiru ɣudi means "the second day".
Adverbial numbers (as in English "once, twice, thrice") are constructed by replacing the suffix -no by -x, thus "twice" becomes the adverb qʼˁa-x in Tsez. Expressions like "(for) the second time" are formed using the adverbial number suffix -x and ordinal forming marker āƛiru, thus resulting in the form qʼˁax āƛiru.

Sample of the Tsez language

This is a Tsez tale written in the Asakh dialect using a Latin-based orthography.

Latin orthography

Kʼetʼus Hunar
Zewnoƛax zewčʼeyƛax bˁeƛon bocʼin zirun qayno. Sidaquł šigoħno sadaqorno boyno ħukmu: yaqułtow begira bocʼi ħonƛʼār miƛʼeł xizāz xizyo rišʷa yoł. Bˁeƛā begirno qay łˁāł xizāz, bocʼin zirun regirno ħonƛʼār miƛʼeł xizāz. Ɣudod, žedi raynosi beƛʼez reqenyoxor, ziru boqno uhi-ehƛada buq boƛāxzāzarno boqno. Zirus uhi-ehi teqxoy, ɣʷaybi kʼoƛin elār, bocʼi buq bātuzāzarno boqno bikʼin reqenyoƛer, besurno ƛʼarayaw miƛʼi. Miƛʼin bisno bocʼin zirun xizor rutin qʼayƛʼār. Rizirno cʼidoƛʼor ƛoħon begirno łāƛʼor qay. Kikxogon zewno bočʼikʼxo kʼetʼu. Qayir zewāčʼey rikʷayxo; nešuruxay nełor rikʷayxo zewčʼey. Kʼetʼu, ełor baynosi qay, boqno kʼekʼbikʼa. Kʼekʼbikʼni teqnosi, qay łikin rixerčʼeytow boxin xizor. Bˁeƛā esirno: "Šidā boxā rayirčʼey łin?" Elo didiyƛa žekʼu yoł-ƛin eƛin qayā. Aħugon rikʼin łāxor zirun qayno. Žedi raynosi kikxor žedā esirno kʼetuq: "Mi šebi?" Di žekʼu yoł-ƛin eƛin kʼetʼā. Šebi že debez ħiroƛʼ esirxo zirā. Tupi ƛin eƛix kʼetʼā. Dicce rˁuƛʼno zirun qayno, amma biyxoy kʼetʼu yāłru, xizyo łˁonon zenzi rikʼin raħira reƛ. Bˁeƛo buqełno bičin ažoz kʼodrexāzay, rołikʼno aħyabin kecno, kʼetʼu tataniłxo zewno cʼidox. Bˁeƛā kʼekʼrikʼerxo zewno aħyabi. Že rikʷayxoy, kʼetʼuz rokʼƛʼor rayno, že elo aw ƛin, hudu betʼtʼun kʼoƛin elor. Dicce bˁuƛʼzāq bˁeƛqo regin ixiytʼatow qˁaƛubin, boxin ciqxār. Bocʼezno qayizno, ziruzno rokʼƛʼor rayno baysi bāsu ixiytow ħaywan šebin, nełoq že riqičʼey kʼiriłno roxin. Cʼikʼiy reƛ miƛes ƛexun kʼetʼur. ʕoƛiran ɣˁudeł kʼetʼu bišno, racʼno baɣʷace dawla bocʼesno zirusno.

Translation

The Cat's Feat
Once upon a time there were a pig, a wolf, a fox and a hare. One day they gathered together and decided that today they'd send the wolf into the mountains for a sheep and they'd eat. The pig sent the hare for water and sent the wolf and the fox into the mountain for a ram. At night, when they came to the flock of sheep, the fox began to moan from the eastern side. Since they heard the fox's moaning, the dogs ran in that direction and the wolf went towards the flock from the west and found a fat ram. Having taken the ram, the wolf and the fox returned to the camp. They put the pan on the fire and sent the hare for water. At the spring the cat was freezing. The hare couldn't see; at night the hare couldn't see. When the hare arrived there, the cat began to move. When he heard the movement, the hare ran back without taking any water. The pig asked: "Why did you run away without bringing water?" The hare said that there was some man there. Again the fox and the hare went to the water. When they came to the spring, they asked the cat: "What are you?" — "I am a man", said the cat. "What is that on your shoulder?", asks the fox. "A rifle", says the cat. The fox and the hare were very frightened, but since they knew it was a cat, afterwards the three of them went together to cook meat. The pig hid behind a bunch of trees and, pushing out its ears, slept, and the cat was warming itself by the fire. The pig was moving its ears. Since the cat saw it, it thought it was a mouse and in a rush jumped there. The pig was very frightened and, emitting loud shouts, ran away to the forest. The wolf, the hare and the fox thought that a great animal or something was coming and, one running faster than the other, they ran away. All the ram's meat was left to the cat. For seven days the cat ate, ate until it was full the spoils of the wolf and the fox.

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