Conversational Lezgi I

As you can see my approach here is a bit ecclectic (in plain language: I’m doing a little bit of everything), taking “shots” at Lezgi from various angles – grammar, writing system, dialects… What I feel has been missing so far was essentials of real, useful, daily conversation. True, I have written about a couple of expressions elsewhere on my website, but it would be good to repeat some of that here (adding new stuff, of course). So, today I give you the most basic basics:

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?

Почему не пишу здесь по-русски?

… потому что во-первых, не получается так, как хотелось бы и, во-вторых, не считаю того нужным. А точнее:

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

Lezgi – how to say ‘I want’

Let’s stop talking about how this blog is being reactivated and start actually, um… reactivate it, shall we? I thought it would be a good idea to make a series of posts explaining how does one express in Lezgi some particularly important notions.

I want to start with… the verb to want, why not? Brace yourselves now and here we go:

The verb кIан k’an ‘to want’ is one of small number of so-called defective verbs, which means it lacks some grammatical forms the other verbs have (for instance, it has no past tense or Aorist) and behaves somewhat differently from them. But we will leave the grammar talk for later and focus on practical usage of this verb.

1. Somebody wants something

To say that somebody wants something (eg. an apple) you put that somebody’s name in the dative case (-з / -z ending) and leave the word for the thing being wanted as it is (absolutive case = no ending). Then comes either кIанзава k’anzava or кIанда k’anda (both forms have the same meaning)

Examples:

Заз картуф кIандач
Zaz kartuf k’andach

I(dat).potato(abs).want-not
I don’t want potatoes

Самираз цIийи машин кIанзава

Samiraz c’iji mashin k’anzava.

Samir(dat).new(abs).car(abs).want

Samir wants a new car.

Чи халкъдиз азадвални садвал кIанда

Chi xalqdiz azadvalni sadval k’anda

Our.people(dat).freedom-and.unity.want

Our people want freedom and unity

2. When somebody loves somebody…

Now it may be surprising, but кIан k’an means also ‘to love’. Grammatical structure as above:

Заз вун кIанзава

Zaz vun k’anzava

I(dat).you(abs).love

I love you

Ваз зун кIандани?

Vaz zun k’andani?

You(dat).I(abs).love-quest (-ни is a question marker)

Do you love me?

3. Somebody wants to do something

The structure is as follows: wanter is again in dative and the verb signifying what is wanted, in so-called infinitive (ie. –из /-з  -iz/-z form)

Квез Лезги чIалал рахаз кIанзава

Kvez Lezgi ch’alal raxaz k’anzava

You’all(dat).Lezgi(abs).language(super).talk(inf).want

you want to talk in Lezgi language

Заз ваз куьмек гуз кIанда

Zaz vaz kymek guz k’anda

I(dat).you(dat).help(abs).give(inf).want

I want to help you

4.  Somebody wants somebody else to do something.
Happens all too often, doesn’t it?

In this type of sentences, the structure is: somebody again in the dative; but the wanted verb in the Aorist form (-на / -na ending); and ‘somebody else’ in the case governed by the verb, most often absolutive or ergative.

Дидедиз бала ксуна кIанда

Didediz bala ksuna k’anda

mother(dat).child(abs).sleep(aor).want

Mother wants the child to sleep (ksun = to sleep needs nominative)

Дидедиз балади ктаб кIелна кIанда

Didediz baladi ktab k’elna k’anda

mother(dat).child(erg).book(abs).read(aor).want

Mother wants the child to read a book.

Заз куьне Лезги чIал кIелна кIанда

Zaz kyne Lezgi ch’al k’elna k’anda

I(dat).you’all(erg).Lezgi(abs).language(abs).learn(aor).want

I want you to learn Lezgi language (k’elun = to read needs ergative)

5. It is wanted that someone does something.

Now, what happens if we take the previous construction, but leave only ‘somebody else’ omitting the ‘wanter’. The resulting sentence looks like this:

Куьне Лезги чIал кIелна кIанда

Kyne Lezgi ch’al k’elna k’anda

you’all(erg).Lezgi.language.learn(aor).want

… and this means “You have to learn Lezgi”.

Which you really, really do. Honestly.

Now, if there are any questions or comments, I would absolutely love to hear them before we proceed to more complicated issues (eg. how to say “I loved you” or how to differentiate between “I don’t want you to do X”, and  ”I want you not to do X”). This blog will die again without constructive criticism.

New sources.

Just a short note to tell you all about the excellent web-resources for Lezgi I came across just recently.

islamval.wordpress.com – is a blog dedicated to spreading knowledge about Islam and one of the rare examples of a website publishing entirely in Lezgi

Lezgikim – is a personal website of Majrudin Babaxanov a Lezgi poet and translator. Great resource indeed! Includes lots (and I mean lots) of yummy downloadable books and articles, including the best Lezgi dictionaries I’ve ever seen.

By the way, ким /kim/ is a very nice word. It’s a part of the village where people (usually older men) gather to share news and gossip.

New beginning

As you can see, the blog’s address has changed (as a part of my strategy of putting all my blogs in one place), but its contents have not.

Expect new additions soon(ish), as I’ve just found not only a wealth of very useful materials, but more importantly the willpower to move further on.

Lezgi dialects. Why bother?

Elsewhere on this blog, I’ve been trying to deal with the Standard Literary Lezgi, the kind of normative language used in school instruction and in official publications (and also in books, newspapers etc.).  However, as with any other language, Standard Literary Lezgi is not the only form of Lezgi in existence and worthy of preservation.

All around the Lezgi speech area, people use different varieties of Lezgi in their daily life. Sometimes those varieties differ considerably from the Standard language, and sometimes their speakers are not well-acquainted with the Standard at all. This variety is a good thing, as each dialect may teach us a thing or two about the Lezgi language in general (eg. by preserving words or grammatical structures lost in standard Lezgi, or by evolving in interesting directions or…). It is, thus, quite enlightening to take a look at the dialects as well.

The problem is that as even resources for Standard Literary Lezgi can be quite hard to come by, there’s serious shortage of information regarding the dialects. In my opinion, it is especially the Lezgi dialects spoken in Azerbaijan that are underresearched. One of my goals for the future would be to make an attempt at addressing this situation. In other words I am willing (and going to) to publish on this blog or elsewhere all the information on Lezgi dialects that I can gather (a request directed at Lezgi speakers: please, help me if you can, by telling me about your native version of Lezgi).

I’ll start soon(ish) by giving a bit of our attention to Lezgi as spoken in Yargun (a Lezgi-speaking village in Northern Azerbaijan; the official name of the village is actually Xazry). I’ll be using the information kindly provided by Ayten Babaliyeva, a Lezgi linguist now studying and working in France (merci beaucoup!). Yargun Lezgi is both her native dialect and the subject of her thesis. All I do  is basically translating her work from French and putting extracts from it on the web.

Until next time, then.

Verbs weak and strong

I’m going to talk about Lezgi verbs in the next couple of entries, so let’s start from the basics.

Lezgi verbs can be divided into two groups: so-called “strong” and “weak” verbs. The latter are much more numerous and in fact new weak verbs can be formed any time (weak verbs are thus an open class). What is the difference between them and what consequences does it have?

For starters, the strong verbs have a thematic vowel while the weak verbs don’t. Thematic vowel is stressed and forms the three verb stems (called Masdar, Imperfective and Aorist; each of them may have a different vowel) from which all the other verbal forms are made. As the weak verbs have no thematic vowel they are stressed on the stem itself, which stays the same in Masdar, Imperfective and Aorist forms.

Examples (pay close attention; SV – strong verb; WV – weak verb):

kisun (WV) ‘fall asleep’

base: kis
Masdar: kisun (base + Masdar ending for WV: -un) 
Imperfective: kisiz (base + Imperf ending for WV: -iz)
Aorist: kisna (base + Aorist ending for WV: -na)

fin (SV) ‘go’

base: f
Masdar: fin (base + vowel: -i + Masdar ending for SV: -n) 
Imperfective: fiz (base + vowel: -i + Imperf ending for SV: -z)
Aorist: fena (base + vowel: e + Aorist ending for SV: -na)

raxun (SV) ‘talk’

base: rax
Masdar: raxun (base + vowel: -u + Masdar ending for SV: -n) 
Imperfective: raxaz (base + vowel: -a + Imperf ending for SV: -z)
Aorist: raxana (base + vowel: -a + Aorist ending for SV: -na)

As you can see, the thematic vowels differ both between verbs and between stems of one strong verb.  In fact, they’re unpredictable, you have to learn them by heart for every strong verb (they are affected by vowel harmony, which limits the choices, but we’ll talk about it later). Fortunately, as we’ve said, there’s only limited number of strong verbs.