The distribution of the palatalization processes in the Dargwa languages

Mutalov Rasul Osmanovich Doctor of Philology Professor, Chief Scientific Associate, Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences 125009, Russia, Moscow, lane. Bolshoy Kislovsky, 1/1 mutalovr@mail.ru Other publications by this author

The Darginian languages belong to the Nakh-Dagestan language family and are spoken in five districts of the Central part of mountainous Dagestan – Akushinsky. Levashinsky, Dahadayevsky, Sergokalinsky and Kaitagsky. Dargins also live in other districts and cities of the republic and the country; the total number of speakers, according to the 2021 census, is 625 thousand people.

Traditionally, Darginian idioms were considered as dialects of the same language, although Kubachinsky and Kaitagsky were considered separate languages in the classifications of the 30s of the last century. Meanwhile, Darginian idioms have many distinctive features both in phonetics and grammar, as well as in lexical composition. Therefore, in recent decades they have been considered independent languages forming the Darginian language group. Based on the lexicostatistical method, in one of the latest classifications Yu.B. Koryakov identifies 15 languages of the Darginsky group. ^{[4, p. 144]}.

Using an integrated approach combining the features of lexicostatistics and grammar, we were able to identify six languages of the Darginsky group: Northern Darginsky (dialects: Akushinsky, Urakhinsky, Mekeginsky, Gubden, Mureginsky, Kadarsky, Muginsky, Muirinsky, Gapshiminsky), Megebsky; Tsudakhar-Sirkhinsky (dialects: Tsudakharsky, Usishinsky, Butrinsky, Tantynsky, Sirkhinsky, Hudutsky, Amukhsky, Kunkinsky, Sanzhinsky, Itsarinsky, Amuzgi-Shirinsky, etc.), Kaitagsky (dialects: Verkhnekaytag, Nizhnekaytag, Sharinsky, Chakhri-Sanakarin), Kubachinsky (dialects: Kubachinsky, Ashtyn, Sulevkentsky), Chiragsky ^{[7, p. 20]}. This classification is used as the basis for distinguishing the Darginian languages and the List of Languages of Russia.

Palatalization in linguistics is considered as the lifting of the middle part of the back of the tongue to the hard palate and the advance of the entire tongue forward, accompanying the labial, anterolingual or posterolingual articulation of a consonant: another g – another g, ru to a – lie to it. Mo g u – mo eat. Palatalized consonants are usually perceived as higher by ear than non-palatalized consonants. In historical phonetics, palatalization is considered as a qualitative sound change, as a result of which a hard consonant becomes soft before the vowels of the front row. Thus, in the Proto-Slavic language, there are three palatalizations of back-lingual consonants.

In some Darginian studies, palatalization is considered as an alternation of consonants, which occurs in a number of Darginian dialects. In the classic work "Grammar of the Darginsky language (phonetics and morphology)" S.N. Abdulaaev writes: "Consonant alternation is observed only in the dialects of the Tsudakhar group. As for other dialects, there is no such alternation here" ^{[1, p. 54]}. Further, he gives examples of such alternations: kabikai "fallen" – kabichib "fell"; wak1ai "come" – vac1e "come"; barkkai "found" – barccib "found". It is noted in ^[3] that "the process of moving forward the place of formation of the anterior consonantal spirants and spirantoids before the palatal vowels i, e and diphthongs vi, ve is characteristic of dialects of the Tsudakhar type, as well as for dialects transitioning from Tsudakhar to dialects of the Akushinsky and Urakhinsky types ^{[3, p. 245]}.

When describing the process of palatalization, Sh.G. Gaprindashvili suggests distinguishing two sounds in Tsudakhar dialects - the bowed g and the spirantoid g: "The g sound of Urakhin dialects in Tsudakhar corresponds to both geminate kk and g, which usually gives spirant g before palatal vowels and diphthongs. The presence of two different sounds as a correspondence Urakhinsky says that in Tsudakharsky it would be necessary to distinguish, before the gemination process, two different variants of the anterior concave g: one of them, judging by the gemination results, was a bow-explosive, and the other was a spirantoid, like Urakhinsky g, which is still preserved in this dialect. Only a spirant-like sound, articulated in the anterior part of the soft palate, could move forward as a result of palatalization and pass into the alveolar spirant" ^{[3, p. 246]}

In most Dargish languages, the process of palatalization has become widespread. As a rule, the posterior consonants are softened in the position before the vowels of the front row and, e ^{[1, p. 54]}. Palatalized in various Darginian languages can be the consonants k, kk, k1 and spirants g, x, xy. In the position before the vowels i, e, they turn into anterolanguage sounds: g – zh, xh – sh, xh – shh, k – h, kk – hh, k1 – h1: kay g arai "sit down" (icar.) – kay g i "sit down", kabi k arai "fall" – kabi h ib "fell", bar kk uy "find" – bar hh ib "found", ba k1 arai "grow" – ba h1 ib "grown", ba x arai "walk" – va x I "go", vi x x arai "fall asleep" – vi ib "fell asleep".

These sounds are also palatalized in the position before the causative index -ah/-yah: ba ky "lubricate" – ba h-ah-yy "make lubricate", bal k1 yanai "twist" – bal h1-yah-yy "twist". In the Kaitag language, the indicator of the causative is -ah/-yah; in this speech, "in the causative forms, the forward movement of the place of formation of the back-linguals occurs regardless of the phonetic position, i.e. not only before i, e, but also before a, u, cf.: ivkhara "to open" – ivshahara "to make open", ivshuhu "will make you open"; barkhara "to attach" – barshahara "to make you attach", birshukha "will make you attach"; vakhkhara "to walk" – vashshahara "to make you walk"; kabihkhara "to put" – kabishshahara "to make you put", kabirshukha "will make you put" ^{[10, p. 43]}.

There is a difference in the palatalization of spirants and consonants: the posterior-lingual spirants g, x, xh pass into the anterolingual spirants w, w, sh, and the consonants k, kk, k1 pass into the affricates h, hh, h1. "The process of moving forward the place of articulation of the anterolateral spirants differs significantly from the process of affrication and moving forward the place of articulation of the middle verbal string-explosive. In the first case, the nature of the sound does not change, the spirant remains a spirant, only the place of formation of the latter changes: the anterior nasal spirant becomes alveolar. In the second case, during the transition k – h, kk – hh, k1 – h1, not only the place of articulation of the initial sounds changes, but also the nature of the latter: the bowed-explosive instantaneous give affricates" ^{[3, p. 249]}. The author explains this by the fact that "affrication here is due to the physiological impossibility of articulating full-fledged explosive sounds in the anterior alveoli" ^{[3, p. 249]}.

A researcher of the phonetics of the Darginian languages, Sh.G.Gaprindashvili, believes that palatalization occurs only in those Darginian dialects where geminated sounds are represented (dialects of the Tsudakhar type) ^{[3, p. 255]}. Meanwhile, the spread of the palatalization process in the Darginian-speaking area presents a rather motley picture.

The process of palatalization is typical for the Tsudakhara-Sirkha, Kubachi, Kaitag, Chirag languages and a number of dialects of the Northern Darginian language – Akushinsky, Muirinsky, Urakhinsky. The degree of palatalization of the posterior consonants varies in different Darginian languages and dialects. In this regard, they can be divided into 3 groups: a) idioms with pronounced palatalization: they palatalize and labialized sounds; b) idioms with standard palatalization; c) idioms with partial palatalization.

Idioms with pronounced palatalization include primarily dialects and dialects of the Kaitag language. The process of palatalization in them has become the most widespread. "Khaidak (Kaitag) refers to the dialects of the Dargin language with a strongly pronounced process of moving forward of the back-linguals: in it, labialized consonants pass into labialized consonants of a more forward formation" ^{[10, pp. 42-43]}.

Palatalization of labialized spirants in Kaitag: gw – zhv, khv – shv, khkhv – shshv: ergvara "to drill" – erzvahara "to force to drill"; kergvara "to sift" – kerzhvahara "to force to sift"; bevgvan "to blow" – bevzhvahan "to make to blow"; berkhvara "to paint" – bershvahara "to make to paint"; ikhvara "to shoot" – ishvahara "to make to shoot"; kabikhvara "to kill" – kabishvahara "to make to kill" ^{[10, p. 43]}.

Labialized posterior lingual articular-explosive in Kaitag, as noted in ^[11], "in causative forms before the vowel a, they turn into labialized affricates: kv – chv, kIv – CHIV, kkv – chv:berkvana "to eat" – berchvakhana (caus.); belkvana "to erase" – belchvakhana (caus.); ik I vara "to speak" – ich I vahara (causal); belk I vana "to write" – belch I ahana (causal); bikkvara "to burn" – bicchvahara (causal); belkvana "to cross paths" – belchvahana (causal)" ^{[11, p. 18]}.

As A.A. Magometov notes, "palatalization is strongly pronounced in those dialects of the Dargin language where not only non-labialized but also labialized back-lingual vowels are palatalized before palatal vowels. This condition is typical for the Khaidak, Tsudakhar dialects, and a number of dialects of the Sirkha and Muirin dialects" ^{[6, p. 253]}.

Palatalization is also widespread in the Sharin dialect of the Kaitag language: xh– sh (barkhara "to attach" – barshiv "attached"), xh - shh (ivkhara "to open" – ivshiv "opened"), Ms., gal "boy" - gilet (mn.ch.), (kigara "sit down" – kizhiv "sat down"), k –h (ukana "eat" – teach "eat"), kk – hh, (beckara "give" – becciv "gave"), k I – h I: urk1i "heart" – rumble. ^{[8, p. 635]}.

The main part of Darginian languages and dialects, in which the process of softening consonants functions, can be attributed to idioms with standard palatalization. In them, the labialized posterior lingual sounds before the vowels i, e are not palatalized. These are Kubachinsky and Chiragsky languages, as well as dialects of Muirinsky and Tsudakhar-Sirkhinsky languages, in particular, Sanzhinsky ^[12] and Tantynsky ^[9].

"Labialized back-linguals before the vowels of the front row in Kubachinsky are not palatalized. The moment of labialization w in a labialized consonant plays the role of a consonant that prevents the softening of the back-linguals before the vowels of the front row" ^{[5, p. 55]}.

In idioms with partial palatalization, the posterior consonants are softened in some cases, while in other cases they are not. These include the Akushinsky and Urakhinsky dialects. The presence of the palatalization process in them is evidenced by the fact that the material of these dialects is compared with the material of the dialects of the Mekegin type, in which palatalization is absent: k ebaib "saw" (mekeg.) – h ebaib (akush.); utali k e "on the chair" – utali h i. But a comparison with the material of the Tsudakhar dialect shows that the back–lingual consonants in the position before the palatal vowels do not always turn into the front–lingual ones: va h1 ib "came" (tsud.) - va k1 ib (akush.), web h1 ib "died" - web k1 ib.

In the Urakhi dialect, the process of palatalization was replaced by spiranization: to ebais "to see" (mekeg.) – to ebais (akush.) – to ibais (urach.).

In the Tsugnin dialect of the Tsudakhar-Sirkha language, "in the presence of the palatalization process of the deaf anterior consonants, there is no transition of g... The reason for the lack of forward movement of the place of formation of g in Tsugnin cannot be that this consonant is not a spirantoid, but a bowed one, because in this case we should have received the affricate j from g" ^{[3, p . 247]}. "The limited process of palatalization-affrication in the speech of the village of Tsugni is also indicated by the fact that, in addition to the absence of the transition of Ms., there is also no process of moving forward and affricating the deaf anterior consonantal consonants before the vowel e and the diphthongs ve and vi. This process is present only before the vowel and" ^{[3, p. 248]}.

Idioms with partial palatalization occupy an intermediate state between idioms with palatalization and idioms without palatalization.

Palatalization is not found in the Northern Darginian dialects of the Mekegin type – Mekegin, Kadar ^[2], Gubden, Mureg, Mugin, as well as in the Megebian language ^[12]. The consonant sounds of various dialects traditionally belonging to the Muirin and Urakhin dialects – Harbuk, Deibuk, Mugrin, and Meusishin - are also not subjected to this process. Moreover, palatalization is uncharacteristic for a number of dialects of the Tsudakharo-Sirkha language – Shirin-Amuzgin and Butrin.

As an explanation for the fact that palatalization processes are identified in some Darginian dialects and are absent in others, the following interpretation could be proposed.

The original habitat of the Dargins, in our opinion, was located approximately in the upper reaches of the Ulluchai River. There was one ancient Bulgarian language with its own phonetic system and grammar. Later, the first major migrations of Dargins to the east and northeast took place, in particular, to the Mekegin caves and gorges. Perhaps this migration took place gradually, with intermediate settlements in the areas of Harbuk, Daybuk, Mugri, etc.

The differences between the dialects began to deepen. Along with new grammatical forms, various phonetic processes and phenomena began to arise and spread. In particular, the process of palatalization arose, which became widespread in most Darginian dialects, but it did not affect the dialects of the Mekegin type, whose speakers already lived far from the majority of Darginians.

The process of palatalization began to spread in southern and southwestern idioms – Tsudakharian-Sirkha, Kubachi, Chirag, and to the greatest extent in Kaitag. Palatalization has also penetrated into some Northern Darginian dialects that border on Southern Darginian – Akushinsky, Muirinsky, Urakhinsky. However, this process has not been widespread in several archaic dialects and dialects of the Tsudakharian-Sirkha language. As a result, we have a motley picture of the spread of the palatalization process in Darginian languages and dialects.

Thus, the article examines the processes of palatalization in Darginian languages. All functioning cases of softening of the posterior consonants in the position before the vowels i, e in various Darginian idoms have been studied. As a result of the conducted research, idioms have been identified in which the palatalization process is represented, as well as languages and dialects in which the posterior consonants do not undergo the palatalization process. The process of palatalization is typical for southern languages and dialects and some dialects of the Northern Darginian language.

According to the degree of palatalization of the posterior consonants, languages and dialects with pronounced palatalization (Kaitag), idioms with standard palatalization (Kubachinsky, Tsudakhar-Sirkhinsky, Chiragsky) and idioms with partial palatalization (Akushinsky, Urakhinsky, Tsugninsky) are distinguished. This process is unusual for the Northern Darginian dialects – Mekeginsky, Kadarsky, Gubden, Mureginsky, Muginsky, as well as for the Megebian language. There is no palatalization in some dialects of Muirinsky and Urakhinsky dialects – Harbuksky, Deibuksky, Mugrinsky, Meusishinsky. Palatalization is also absent in a number of dialects of the Tsudakharo-Sirkha language – Shirin-Amuzginsky, Butrinsky. The article suggests a hypothesis according to which palatalization began to spread in southern and southwestern Darginian idioms after speakers of Mekegin-type dialects migrated to the northeast and lived far from other Darginians.