Akhvakh language

Consonants

As with Avar, there are competing analyses of the distinction transcribed in the table with the length sign ⟨ː⟩. Length is part of the distinction, but so is articulatory strength, so they have been analyzed as fortis and lenis.^[9] The fortis affricates are long in the fricative part of the contour, e.g. [tsː] (tss), not in the stop part as in geminate affricates in languages such as Japanese and Italian [tːs] (tts). Laver (1994) analyzes e.g. t͡ɬː as a two-segment affricate–fricative sequence /t͡ɬɬ/ (/t𐞛ɬ/ = /t^ɬɬ/).^[10]

Vowels

Akhvakh has a standard five-vowel system /i e a o u/ with distinctive vowel length.^[9]

Agreement classes

Akhvakh has three agreement classes. In the singular, these are human masculine, human feminine, and non-human. In the plural, there are only two—human plural and non-human plural.^[13] Akhvakh verbs agree with the absolutive argument (subject of an intransitive or object of a transitive.)

Consider the following examples, which show the general principles. In the first example, the intransitive verb 'run' shows feminine agreement because its subject, 'girl', is feminine. In the second example, the transitive verb 'cook' shows neuter agreement because its object, 'meat', is neuter.^[14]

Note that in the second example, 'wife' is in the ergative case and appears to be the subject of both the verbs 'cook' and 'eat', but neither verb shows feminine agreement.

Cases

Akhvakh distinguishes between an absolutive (i.e., unmarked) and oblique stem. Case endings are attached to the oblique stem (which may, however, coincide with the absolutive). In the singular, the oblique stem is irregular and lexically determined, and there is free variation.^[13]

Akhvakh has an ergative-absolutive case-marking system. As the following examples (repeated from above) show, the transitive subject has the ergative case, while an intransitive subject has absolutive case. Absolutive case is not overtly marked by a suffix, and the ergative is formed with the suffix -de. However, when it follows a close vowel (in Akhvakh, /i, u/), contraction may occur:^[13]

jaše 'girl' > oblique stem jaše-ɬːi- > ergative jaše-ɬːi-de or jaše-ɬː-e

The noun phrase with absolutive case controls agreement on the verb:

In addition to the ergative and absolutive cases, Akhvakh has eighteen other cases, for a total of twenty cases.^[15] The additional cases are

• dative
• genitive
• comitative
• purposive
• fifteen spatial cases, arrayed in five series of three.^[which?]

The dative case marks indirect the indirect object. The most common suffix is -ƛa, but it is in free variation with -ƛaje. Similarly to the ergative case, it may contract when preceded by a close vowel, e.g., jaše 'girl' > oblique stem: jaše-ɬːi- > dative: jaše-ɬːi-ƛa or jaše-ɬː-a.^[16]

The genitive case expresses possession. Northern Akhvakh has two variants: one with no specific marker, and one with the suffix -ƛːi. The former is used with male and human plural nouns, and the latter is used with female, neuter, and non-human plural nouns. Below is a partial paradigm for šoda "good":^[17]

The comitative case is formed with the suffix -k'ena attached to the oblique stem, and denotes accompaniment e.g., di-k'ena 'with me'.^[18]

The 15 spatial cases are formed by the combination of an 'orientation' marker and a 'spatial case marker' (also called the 'localization' and 'direction' markers, respectively). The orientation marker immediately follows the oblique stem and denotes the orientation of the object, and the spatial marker denotes its type of movement (including no movement).There are 5 orientation markers (labeled OR₁ through OR₅ in Creissler (2009)), and 3 direction markers (locative, allative, and ablative).^[19]