I will try to write more and I promise to respond to all your comments (all are transferred, so don’t worry).

General information

Lezgi stress is dynamic, that is the stressed syllable is pronounced a bit longer and louder than the other parts of the word. Stress usually falls on the second syllable of the root, but many Arabic and Turkish loanwords are stressed on the last syllable and Russian loanwords often retain their original stress. Some case-forming and word-forming suffixes are always stressed, some others are not. There are also some other exceptions. See below for details (sorry for not including Cyrillic at this stage – I will update the post later). I will mark stress by putting the stressed vowels in capitals.

Stress in verbs

Quite simple – the second syllable of the root is usually stressed: aqwAz (second a stressed) – stop! alcIf – settle!; bashlAmisha – begin!; inAndirmisha – make sb. believe!

Verbs with -ar are an exception in that the first syllable is stressed: gAdarun – throw; xkAdarun – jump.

Stress in nouns, adjectives and the rest

Also on second syllable: aq’Ul ‘inteligence’; chetIn ‘difficult’; jashAjish ‘life’; xyshrEkan ‘spider’; qalAbulux ‘panic’.

Loans ending in -i or -at are stressed on the last syllable: haqiqI;’real’; tarixI ‘historical’; zijarAt ‘pilgrimage’; hukumAt ‘government’; teshkilAt ‘organization’

The same goes for many other Oriental (Turkish, Persian, Arabic) loanwords: barabAr ‘equal’; zhehennEm ‘hell’; inqilAb ‘revolution’ alishwerIsh ‘commerce’

But some other (less than 50 words in all) Oriental words are stressed on the first syllable: Asul ‘fundamental’ shEher ‘town’ fAhum ‘reason’; bAde ‘grandmother’; c’Ajlapan ‘lightning’; dIshehli ‘woman’…

Adverbs, particles, interjections

Many adverbs,particles and interjections are stressed on the first syllable as well: Amma ‘but’; bElki ‘perhaps’; gIla ‘now’; hAtta ‘even’; xEjlin ‘a lot’; Inshallah ‘God willing’; Alla ‘wow (surprise)’; Amin ‘amen’; Aferin ‘well done’

Suffixes

Usually, when a suffix (eg. plural forming -ar /-er) is added to a one-syllable word, that suffix is stressed.

Suffixes -lu; -suz; -dar; -kar; and prefix bej- (with three exceptions) are always  stressed

Most suffixes creating various verbal forms are not stressed eg.: -zawa; -nawa; -iz (infinitive); -un (masdar); -da (future) -mir (prohibitve)… also not stressed are -ni ‘and’; -ni ‘? (question marker)’; -t’a ‘if’; -wal (abstract nouns); -dakaz and -diz (adverb forming suffixes); -chi and -xana

I will start with listing (as always with the help of Haspelmath’s grammar) all main forms of the verb fin ‘to go’. Later on I will add explanations and examples to this list, for now let’s just marvel at how many different forms are there. Sorry for all the big grammar words, I’ll try to explain them later.

Masdar: fin ‘going; to go’; tefin ‘not going; not to go’
Optative: firaj ‘may it/you go’ tefiraj ‘may it/you not go’
Imperative: alad ‘go!’

Infinitive: fiz ‘to go’; tefiz ‘not to go’
Imperfective: fizva ‘is going’; fizvach ‘is not going’; fizvaj ‘the going one’; tefizvaj ‘the not going one’
Past Imperfective: fizvaj ‘was going’; fizvachir ‘was not going’
Continuative Imperfective: fizma ‘still going’; fizmach ‘not going anymore’; fizmaj ‘the still going one’; tefizmaj
Past Cont. Imperfective: fizmaj ‘was still going’; fizmachir ‘was not going anymore’
Future: fida ‘will go; usually goes’; fidach ‘will not go; usually doesn’t go’; fidaj ‘the one who will go’; tefidaj ‘the one who won’t go’
Past Future: fidaj ‘was going to go; would go’; fidachir ‘wasn’t going to go; wouldn’t go’
Hortative: fin ‘let us/me go’; tefin ‘let us/me not go’
Prohibitive: fimir ‘don’t go!’
Posterior converb: fidaldi ‘until he goes, before he goes’
Graduative converb: firdavaj ‘as was going’
Immediate-Anterior converb: fizmaz ‘as soon as he goes’

Aorist: fena ‘went’; fenach ‘didn’t go’; feji ‘the one who went’; tefej ‘the one who didn’t go’
Past Aorist: fenaj ‘had gone’; fenachir ‘hadn’t gone’
Perfect: fenva ‘has gone’; fenvach ‘hasn’t gone’; fenvaj ‘one who has gone’; tefenva ‘one who hasn’t gone’
Past Perfect: fenvaj ‘had been gone’; fenvachir ‘hadn’t been gone’
Cont. Perfect: fenma ‘is still gone’; fenmach ‘isn’t gone anymore’; fenmaj; tefenma
Past Cont. Perfect: fenmaj ‘was still gone’; fenmachir ‘wasn’t gone anymore’
Aorist converb: fena; tefena
Immediate-Anterior converb: fenmazdi ‘as soon as he went’; tefenmazdi ‘he didn’t manage to go yet when’

Converbs are verbal forms used in complex sentences and demanded by the sentence structure and other verbs being used. Apart from the ones mentioned above there are also some endings which create other converb forms:

Temporal: -la ‘when doing sth’
Immediate-Anterior: -valdi ‘as soon as’
Conditional: -t’a ‘if’
Interrogative: -ni ‘?; forms question when added to the verb form’
Purpose/Manner: -val ‘ so that’
Causal: – vilaej ‘because of’

Рушаз гада акуна. The girl saw the boy.
Гададиз руш акунач. The boy didn’t saw the girl.

What’s so strange about them? The fact that they seem to be constructed “backwards”. The noun representing the person who sees has an ending while the noun representing the person who is seen stands in its dictionary form.

That’s because a certain set of verbs, mainly related to perception,  but also to feelings, behave in Lezgi in a peculiar way. You may think of Lezgi way of saying “the boy saw the girl” as something along the lines of “to the boy the girl was seen”. More adequately, you can compare this with syntax of the verb “to like” in many languages (cf. Italian mi piace and Russian мне нравится).

Incidentally, the Lezgi verb ‘to like’ – кIан (you’ve met it before, it means also ‘to love’ and ‘to want’) uses the same arrangement, so Рушаз гада кIанзава means “the girl loves the boy” and not the other way around.

Another useful verb behaving this way is ‘to know (a fact)’ – чида. ‘I don’t know’ is in Lezgi Заз чидач

An incomplete list of other verbs using this construction:

жугъун ‘to find’; ава (only in the meaning ‘to have’); бегенмиш хьун ‘to like’; бизар хьун ‘to be fed up with’; такIан хьун ‘to hate’; шад хьун ‘to be happy’; гьайиф хьун ‘to be hurt’

In some cases the construction is more complicated as none of the nouns/pronouns in the sentence stand in the dictionary form:

киче хьун ‘to be afraid’ Ваз захъай киче жемир! ‘don’t be afraid of me’
регъуь хьун ‘to be ashamed’ Ваз захъай регъуь жемир! ‘don’t be ashamed of me’
бейкеф хьун ‘to be angry’ Ваз закай бейкеф жемир! ‘don’t be angry at me’

There’s a group of verbs formed with the aid of verb атун ‘to come’ using this construction.
хъел атун ‘to be angry’ – адаз хъел атанва ‘he is angry’ lit. ‘anger has come to him’
шел атун ‘to feel like crying’
гьайиф атун ‘to be sorry; to regret’
хъвер атун ‘to be happy; to feel like laughing’
хуш атун ‘to be glad about something; to like something’

Lastly, this construction is used in verbs made from adjectives like гишин ‘hungry’ or мекьи ‘cold’

адаз гишинзава ‘he is hungry’
мекьизавани ваз? ‘are you cold?’

Even though the picture of Lezgi – Iranian relations is not all rosy, given that the rise of the militantly Shi’a Safavid dynasty started a 300-year period of periodic warfare between the Sunni mountaineers and the Shi’a Iranian state, a lot of the cultural heritage remains shared. Iranian poets are cherished (and translated into Lezgi!) by the Lezgis even today, the folktales show many paralells, the same games are played, the same stories are told and lastly, there’s a good number of Iranian words which made their way into Lezgi and, by large, are not even perceived as foreign by native speakers.

As my master’s thesis touched upon this subject (ie. Iranian loanwords in Lezgi) and as the matter is not well-known may be of some interest to Lezgi readership, I will dedicate a couple of post to those words. For now, some general points:

• There’s at least a thousand identifiably Iranian words in current usage.
• Most of the loans can be traced back to Persian, but some display characteristics suggestive of a different source language – in many cases dialects of Tati spoken in the area.
• While some words came directly from Persian, the majority was borrowed through Azerbaijani (ie. Azerbaijanis borrowed from Persians and Lezgis borrowed from Azerbaijani).
• Sometimes there are interesting changes of meaning, in many cases a given word has one meaning in Persian and a slightly different one in Azerbaijani and Lezgi. This supports the argument of a said word being borrowed via Azerbaijani and not directly.
• While some loanwords must have been borrowed many centuries ago, the bulk of them, in my opinion, was introduced into Lezgi relatively recently, when interactions with Azerbaijanis increased.

Let’s end with a couple of examples: азад ‘free’ (from Persian آزاد azad); гардан ‘neck’ (Persian گردن gardan); жанавур ‘wolf’ (in Persian جاناور ‘janavar’ means ‘monster’); асант ‘easy’ (Persian: آسان asan; Tati: (h)asant); гзаф ‘many, much, a lot’ (Persian گزاف gazaf ‘too many); чка ‘place’ (earlier form чика; Persian: جایگاه jaigah, Tati: jiga).

Now, the main news is that ANKI lets you share your collections (“decks”) of words & translations with other people, which is precisely what I did with my Lezgi deck. To get it, first download and install ANKI program, then open it, click “Download” and search for “lezgi-english” in the list of the available shared decks. All in all there’s around 1600 words in my deck, but I will be updating and expanding it.

Ваз лезги чизвани? – Do you know Lezgi?
Лезги чIал заз чидач – I don’t know Lezgi
Заз лезги чIал пис чида – I know Lezgi poorly (lit. bad)
Заз лезги чIал хъсан чида – I know Lezgi well
Зи хайи (// дидед) чIал  лезги  чIал я – Lezgi is my native (mother) language

Лезги чIалал зун гъавурда акьазвач – I don’t understand Lezgi (lit. on Lezgi language)
Вун зи гъавурда акьазвани? – Do you understand me?
Гъавурда акьуна – I understood
Гъавурда акьунач – I didn’t understand
Зун ви гъавурда дуьз акьунани? – Did I understand you correctly?
Тикрар хъия – Repeat (please) lit. repetition-do again
За дуьз лугьузвани? – Am I saying it correctly?

Заз лезги чIалал рахаз чириз кIанзава – I want to learn to speak Lezgi
Захъ галаз лезги чIалал рахух – Speak with me in Lezgi
Им лезгидалди кхьихь – Write it down in Lezgi
Идаз лезгидалди гьикI лугьуда? – How do they call it in Lezgi?
Лезги чIалал им гьикI я (жеда)? – Lit. what is it (will be) in Lezgi? ie. How is it called in Lezgi?
Ада вуч лугьузва? – What is he/she saying?
И гафунин мана вуч я? – What does this word mean? (lit. what is this word’s meaning?)

Notes:
1. лезги чIалал ‘on Lezgi language ie. in Lezgi’ and лезгидалди ‘from the top of Lezgi ie. the Lezgi way’ are interchangeable and have the same meaning. For other languages, just substitute a language name as appropriate (урус чIалал – in Russian;  фарс чIалал – in Persian; поляк чIалал – in Polish etc.)

2. The translations may seem quite direct and even blunt to the average English speakers. In particular, the lack of the word ‘please’ in requests may raise some eyebrows. But its omission is not a mistake. The traditional Lezgi culture, like many other Caucasian cultures, is very egalitarian and not keen on formalities. That is all men are equal to each other and speak directly and up to the point. For instance, in Lezgi, there is no form of polite addrees (like the French “Vous” or German “Sie”).

This is not to say that the Lezgi culture doesn’t value politeness… On the contrary, politeness, respect and good manners  are extremely important, it’s only that they are displayed in general behaviour and not necessarily in using flowery (often meaningless) words.

An illustrative anecdote read at a Caucasian forum:

Q: “How do you say ‘please’ as in ‘could you please bring me a cup of tea’ ?”
A: “In our culture and society, there’s a strict hierarchy. Everybody knows who should bring tea for whom. We don’t need words for that.”

Greetings

Саламалейкум
Хийирар – These two greetings are appropriate for any time of day. First of them may carry a bit of religious undertone, but it is more popular than the second.
Пакаман хийир
Сабагъ хийир – Two ways to say “Good morning”. First of them is purer Lezgi.
Алейксалам
Абатхийир - Ways to answer the greetings above
Салам - More casual (but still polite) greeting

Хвашгелди – Welcome

Farewells

Сагърай - A much-used word, can mean “thank you” as well as “goodbye”. Literally, means “be healthy”.
Сагъ-саламат хьуй (хьурай)! - “Be healthy and sound” another farewell greeting.
Гьелелиг - “So long”, a more casual farewell.
Хъсан рехъ хьуй (хьурай)! – “Have a good way (home)”, said to the person departing
Геже хийирар – “Good night”
Хийирар Аллагьди гуй! – “Let God give wellness” – answer to the above
Some other things you may want to say:
Чун акван хъийида – We’ll see each other again
Чун рикIелай алудмир – Don’t forget about us (lit. don’t take us down from your heart, a very poetic Lezgi idiom).
X-з саламар це – Pass my regards to X

Requests

Вавай … хабар кьадай ихтияр авани? – Can I ask you….?
Багъишламиша, квез ….чидачни? - Excuse me, do you (lit. don’t you) know….?
Багъишламиша, ихтияр аватIа … – Excuse me, if it is possible…
Вахъ са тIалабун ава заз - I have a request for you
ГъвечIи тIалабун – (I have a) small request
Четин туштIа …. – If it’s not difficult…
ЖедатIа, … / Эгер жедатIа, … – If it’s possible…

Thanks

Чухсагъул / Баркалла / Сагърай – Ways to say ‘thank you’
Вазни сагърай – Thank you, too.
Лап рикIин сидкъидай чухсагъул – I’m thanking you from the deep of my heart
Фикир гунай чухсагъул – Thank you for your attention
Куьмек гунай чухсагъул – Thank you for your help
Пишкеш гунай чухсагъул – Thank you for your gift
Теклиф авунай чухсагъул – Thank you for the invitation

Apologies

Багъишламиша – Excuse me / Forgive me
ТIалабда, зун багъишламишун – I beg (ask) you to forgive me
Багъишламиша, зи тахсир я – I’m sorry, it’s my fault
Инжиклу авунай багъишламиша – I’m sorry to disturb you
Багъишламиша, ваз  хъел гъиз кIанзавачир – I’m sorry, I didn’t want to upset you
Хъел къвемир! – Don’t be angry!
Зи тахсир ина авач – It wasn’t my fault!

Any questions? Comments? Requests for the next instalment?

1. Признаться стыдно, но надо. Дамы и господа, мой русский никак не на высоте и писать на таком уровне как следовало бы кое-как образованному человеку просто не могу. Искренно извиняюсь.

2. Наличие в рунете хороших материалов по лезгинскому (и другим дагестанским языкам) а также возможности прямого общения с его (их) носителями, подавляющие большинство которых владеет русским языком так, как я никогда не буду, – всё это делает все мои усилия и попытки лишными. Я просто ничего не могу добавить к тому, что уже сказано, написано, настоящими знатоками и носителями живого языка.

Думаю однако, что этот блог и другие мои странички, могут прийти в пользу тем, у кого интерес к лезгинскому языку есть, а знания русского и знакомства с цирилицей- пока нет. К примеру – лезгинам проживающим вне границ исторического Лезгистана (в Турции, США и др. странах). Именно на них рассчитан этот ресурс. Конечно, это не значит, что только и исключительно на них. Может быть и русскоязычны лица найдут здесь что-то интересное.

Если у Вас есть какие-либо предложения, вопросы, комментарии или советы – большая просьба не таить их, а писать