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t-online.de>Title: Abkhaz Series Title: Languages of the World/Materials 119 Publication Year: 2003 Publisher: Lincom Europa http://home.t-online.de/home/LINCOM.EUROPA/ Availability: Available Author: Viacheslav A. Chirikba, University of Leiden Hardback: ISBN: 3895851367, Pages: 88pp., Price: USD 40 / EUR 40 / GBP 27 Abstract: Abkhaz is one of the three languages comprising the Abkhazo-Adyghean, or West Caucasian branch of North Caucasian linguistic family (the other branch being Nakh-Daghestanian, or East Caucasian). Abkhaz is spoken by approximately 100,000 people in the former Soviet Union (mainly in the Republic of Abkhazia, Caucasus), and by at least the same number of speakers in Turkey and some Middle east countries (small Abkhaz colonies can be found also in Western Europe and the USA). Abkhaz is notorious for ist huge consonantal inventory (up to 67 consonants in the Bzyp dialect) and by its minmal vocalic system: only 2 vowels. Though Abkhaz was studied by a number of scholars (e.g. P. Uslar in XIX century, or K. Lomtatidze in Georgia and G. Hewitt in Great Britain), many aspects of Abkhaz grammar (especially its syntax) still have to be adequately described. Abkhaz is the only West Caucasian language to possess the category of grammatical classes, manifested in personal pronouns, verb conjugation, numerals and in the category of number. Abkhaz is an ergative language, the ergative construction being represented not by case endings, as in related Circassian and Ubykh (Abkhaz does not have a case system), but by the order of actant markers. The verbal root consists usually of one consonant, preceded by a string of prefixes (class-personal, directional, temporal, negational, causatival, etc.) and followed by few suffixes. Verbs can be stative or dynamic, finite or non-finite. The grammatical sketch of Abkhaz includes information about its phonological system, morphology, and syntax. A short text is provided with grammatical comments. Lingfield(s): Language Description Subject Language(s): Abkhaz (Language Code: ABK) Written In: English (Language Code: ENG)Mail to author|Respond to list|Read more issues|LINGUIST home page|Top of issue