System of future tense forms In the Dargin 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

In recent decades, due to globalization, the languages of the small peoples of Dagestan have been rapidly disappearing, the younger generation is mainly switching to communication in a common language. Meanwhile, it is well known that the East Caucasian languages have a rich morphological system that includes numerous paradigms of inflectional categories. In particular, the Darginian languages present an extensive system of species-temporal and modal forms.

The field materials collected in different years in Darginian villages, as well as the texts of the artistic works of Darginian writers, served as the material for the study. The objectives of the study are to identify all forms of the future tense functioning in various Darginian languages, to give their morphological characteristics, as well as to determine the functional features of these forms.

To solve these problems, the methods of field linguistics are used, as well as the method of descriptive description. When describing the forms of the future tense, a scheme is used that includes: the main semantic meaning of the form, the method of formation, examples, and the designations of this form in the works of predecessors are also given. The formation of analytical and negative forms is shown, as well as the existing differences in Darginian languages and dialects.

The theoretical basis of the study was the work of domestic and foreign darginologists Uslar P. K., Zhirkov L. I., Abdullaev S. N., Abdullaev Z. G., Kibrik A. E., Magometov A. A., Melchuk I. A., Plungyan V. A., Musaev M.-S. M., Khaidakov S. M., Temirbulatova S. M., Kadibagomedov A. A., Sumbatova N. R., Forker D., Belyaeva O. I.

Dargin languages (the total number of speakers, according to the 2021 census, 625 thousand people) are widespread in the Central part of mountainous Dagestan. They belong to the East Caucasian group of languages. For a long time, numerous Darginian idioms were considered as one Darginian language, although they have significant differences both in the sound system and in the grammatical inventory and lexical composition. In recent decades, Darginian idioms have been quite reasonably given the status of independent languages ^{[1, p. 144]}. Currently, according to the List of Languages of the Peoples of Russia prepared at the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, following the work ^[2], six languages of the Darginsky group are considered as independent: Severnodarginsky, Tsudakhar-Sirkhinsky, Kubachinsky, Kaitagsky, Chiragsky, Megebsky [List of languages of Russia. http://jazykirf.iling-ran.ru/].

The presence of numerous word-formation and inflectional forms makes the morphology of the Darginian languages extremely rich and branched. In particular, the category of time has many forms expressing temporal relations, which vary depending on various factors. In this article, we will consider verb forms that convey the meaning of the future tense.

Time in linguistic science is considered as a grammatical category of a verb, which is a specific linguistic representation of objective time and serves for the temporal (temporal) localization of an event or state referred to in a sentence. It consists in indicating, by means of time forms opposed to each other, the simultaneity, the preceding or following of an event to a moment of speech or another point of reference. [Linguistic encyclopedic dictionary. — M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Editor-in-chief V. N. Yartsev. 1990.]. "The temporal orientation of the situation is reduced to indicating the relative chronology of two situations on the time axis: the described situation P and the situation of the speech act" ^{[3, p. 256]}.

The category of time has been studied to one degree or another in all general grammatical descriptions of the Darginian languages ^[4-15]. There are also special works devoted to this topic ^{[16, 17]}.

Following the work ^[16], 2 criteria are considered as determining in the allocation of time forms: a) the designation of a certain time value by a word form, correlated with the moment of speech, and b) the method of formation inherent only in this form (primary verb base or verboid + special marker) ^{[16, p. 5]}.

The verb form has a pronounced morphological character in the Darginian languages and underlies the formation of tenses. The forms of the future tense are formed, as a rule, from the basis of the imperfect form, but some forms are also formed from the basis of the perfect form.

In the vast majority of Darginian works of the last century, only one form is considered as the future tense, formed from the basis of an imperfect form by means of personal indicators that are differentiated on the basis of transitivity/intransitivity: -is, -id,-y (transitional forms), -us, -ud, -ar/-ur (intransitive forms); burgess "to find": transl.: 1l. burg-is, burg-ehIe 2l. burg-id, burg-id-a-ya 3 l. burg-u; non-transl.: 1 l. burg-us, durg-ehIe; 2 l. burg-ud, durgud-a-ya, 3l. burg-u.

In all northern Dargin languages and dialects and in some southern ones, these forms have two meanings. On the one hand, they express the present common tense (a constantly flowing, ordinary action; the action usually lasts regardless of the moment of speech and has no result; in modern Darginian works it is called the term habitualis ^{[12, 13, 14, 17, 18]}. On the other hand, they have the meaning of the future tense. The meanings differ only contextually: the sentence Zubairli kagurti luk1a in the Akushin dialect, the basis of the Dargin literary language, has two meanings: "Zubair (always) writes letters" and "Zubair (soon) will write letters."

For this reason, most Darginologists consider this form to be a form of the future tense: ("future" ^{[4, p. 77]}; "simple future" [Z.abd.1, p. 111]; "categorical future" ^{[8, p. 190]}; "indicative future" ^{[16, p. 40]}; the future 1 ^{[6, p. 39]}. It is only in the work of A. A. Magometov that it is designated as "real common" ^{[7, p. 190]}.

The available linguistic facts allow us to distinguish four forms of the future tense in the Darginian languages: futurum, progressive, possibilitive and obligative ^{[10, p. 110]}. It should be noted that there are significant differences in the functioning of future tense forms in the Northern and Southern Bulgarian languages.

Futurum means "an action that will take place in the future: burzanda (1l.) "I will catch"" ^{[10, p. 110]}.  This form is formed from the base of an imperfect form, which is decorated with a marker -an; personal indicators are attached to this form -yes, -di. -no: bursanda "will say", bursandi " will say, bursanni "will say". This verbal word form is common only in the southern Dargin languages and dialects – Kubachin, Itsarin, Kaitag, Kunkinsky.

It should be noted that this form in the 3rd person has a special indicator -ni, noted in a number of dialects and dialects. The form formed from the imperfect verb by the addition of the marker -an also serves as the basis for the formation of the common tense participle, which is also decorated with the indicator -an: ucc-an "working". However, these two forms differ in emphasis. In futurum forms, the stress falls on the vowel of the base, and in the common participle – on the vowel of the suffix -an: Birkan-da "I will do" – Birkanda "the doer (I) am". In addition, the 3rd person form of the common participle is formed by the addition of the auxiliary verb tsab.

 As noted in ^[8], the futurum is formed somewhat differently in the Kubachin language: "for the 1st person of both numbers, a short form of the future tense is also used, formed by the suffix -la in transitive verbs and the suffix -ll in intransitive verbs with the same thematic vowel and without an auxiliary verb" ^{[8, p. 197]}: bakyila "I will do" (transl.); ajilla "I will leave" (non-transl.). This form varies by person: 1l. bakyilalda "I will do", 2l. bakyilalde, 3l. bakyilalsav.

The negative forms of futurum are formed by attaching the verb akku, which has a personal conjugation: bartanneikkvid "I will not leave" (icar.), bartanneikkvitti "you will not leave", bartanneekku "will not leave".

In the Northern Darginian languages and dialects, there are several non-standard verbs that form futurum forms that differ from the forms of the present common tense. These are the verbs labkyan "will come", arkyan "will leave", lebka "will bring", lebha "will bring", arch "will take away", arha "will carry". In habitualis, they have the form: vashar "walks (1 gr. class)", arvashar "leaves", biku "leads", biha "brings", arbika "takes away", arbih "carries".

The above allows us to draw some conclusions about the ways of historical changes in the functioning and development of the time forms of Darginian languages, in particular, futurum. Apparently, this form existed even in the Pradargin state. Then the area of its distribution began to gradually narrow. Futurum disappeared in the Northern Darginian languages, as well as in most Tsudakharian-Sirkhin dialects. The function of the future tense in them began to be performed by the habitualis form, which replaced the futurum form. Currently, this form has been preserved only in a few archaic South Bulgarian idioms – Kubachinsky, Kaitagsky, Itsarin, Kunkinsky. It should also be noted that the futurum form has been preserved in a residual form in several "non-standard" verbs of the Northern Darginian languages. 

 A prospect is one of the forms of the future tense, which indicates "a certain connection between the situation in the future and the state of affairs in the present" ^{[19, p. 64]}. In ^[20] it is noted that "the speaker, making a statement about the situation p in the future, relies on knowledge of the situation q, which takes place at the moment of speech and which should entail p if the natural course of events is not disrupted" ^{[20, p. 274]}: b=uc-eu-Li-ra "I am able to catch."

Depending on the type of verbal basis, there are two forms of perspective in the Darginian languages: the perspective of the perfect form and the perspective of the imperfect form. The formation of a perfect perspective occurs by attaching personal indicators and copula to the adverbial sufficiency of the perfect form, which, in turn, is formed from the infinitive of the perfect form: belk1es + li + ra – belk1eslira "I am able to write".

The prospect of an imperfect species is formed from the adverbial sufficiency of an imperfect species by means of the same indicators: 1l. luk1-es-li-ra "I am able to write", 2l. luk1esliri, 3l. luk1esli say.

In Darginian works devoted to the category of time, the perspective has not received its coverage. Z. G. Abdullaev considers this form as "one of the forms of the present imperfect tense, formed from the form of the target mood" ^{[8, p. 109]}.

It should be noted that in the Darginian languages, the perspective form functions exclusively in nominative (with an intransitive verb) or binomial (with a transitive verb) sentence constructions: nu duc1ik1eslira "I am able to run"; x1u ish x1yanchi baresliri "you are able to do this job".

In its semantics, the prospect is close to another form of the future tense – futurum. "The grammaticalization of perspective indicators often leads to the development of a more general meaning of the future tense for them" ^{[2, p. 287]}.

The form of perspective in the past tense (with the meaning "there were all the prerequisites for the action to take place after the moment of speech in the past") is formed by attaching the past-form indicator: bits1esliri "was such that it was able to fill".

The formation of negative forms of perspective occurs through the addition of the negative auxiliary verb ahIen: butzeli ahIen "is not able to catch".

Since the prospect is formed on the basis of the infinitive, in dialects with conjugated infinitive (Itsarin, Chirag) it can have more than 900 forms ^{[10, p. 107]}.

The positivity expresses an action that can easily take place in the future: b-uts-es-si-ra "able to catch" (1l.). In the Darginian literature, this form is noted only in ^[10]. The form of the positivity is formed by joining the person's indicators to the participle: 1l. b=arg-eu-si-ra ("able to find"), 2l. b=arg-eu-si-ri, 3l. b= arg-eu-si sai. It should be noted that the very form of the participle of the obligation is formed from the basis of the infinitive by the addition of the attributionizer -si: butses "catch" + si – boucessi.

There are perfect positives, formed from the base of the verb of the perfect form, and imperfect positives: (belch1essira "able to read" – butch1essira).

 To form a negative form, a negative auxiliary ahIen is attached to the participle of the obligation: belk1essi ahIen "impossible to write". The past tense form of the possibilitiv denotes an action that had an easy opportunity to take place in the past and is formed by means of an indicator of the pre-form.

The obligative (the term was first used in ^[10]), denotes the intended action that should happen in the future: well, zhiag1yal Syag1idhaichi arkusira "Tomorrow I will need to go to the Saidovs." An obligative is formed by joining the present participle of personal indicators: 1l. well, char-ulh-u-si-ra "I will return", I will need to return", 2l. x1u char-ulh-u-si-ri, 3l. it char-ulh-u-si sa=y.

In the works on the Darginian languages, this temporal form of the verb has not received coverage, although some linguists have paid attention to it. Thus, Z. G. Abdullaev refers this form to one of the varieties of the present tense and calls it "the present imperfect participial formation" ^{[8, p. 108]}. M. -S. M. Musaev considers it a form of the future tense: "the meaning of the future indicative can sometimes be expressed in an analytical form consisting of an imperfect participle and a personal forms of the auxiliary verb: valtusira "I am being abandoned, i.e. I will be left. In the modern Darginian language, it is used relatively rarely, usually to express the purpose for which the action is performed" ^{[16, p. 41]}.

The obligative in the Darginian languages also has a past tense form, which is formed by adding an indicator to the present participle -ri. Denotes the expected action that should have occurred after the moment of speech in the past: hu nuni (hIuni, itini) baltsushiri "the field should have been plowed by me (you, them)."

 The negative form of the obligative is formed analytically by adding the auxiliary negative verb ahIen to the participle form: birushi ahIenra "I will not do", "I am not obliged to do". In some South Bulgarian languages and dialects, the present participle form, formed by the suffix -si, is missing, and the forms of the obligative in them are formed from the common participle, formed by the indicator -an: du birkanda: "I will need to do". The stress falls on the vowel of the suffix -an.

Thus, as a result of the conducted research, all the forms of the future tense functioning in the Darginian languages are described, the features of their formation are considered, semantic differences are revealed, as well as the conditions of their functioning. There are four verb forms in Darginian languages that express the meaning of the future tense: futurum, progressive, possibilitive and obligative. It has been revealed that there are significant differences in the functioning of these forms in the Northern and Southern Bulgarian languages.

Some ways of historical changes in the functioning and development of the time forms of the Darginian languages have also been established. Presumably, futurum functioned back in the Pradargin language. Due to the development of the language, the area of distribution of this form began to gradually narrow. In the modern state, futurum has disappeared in the Northern Darginian languages, as well as in most Tsudakhar-Sirkhin dialects; the function of the future tense in them began to be performed by the habitualis form, which replaced the futurum form. Currently, this form has been preserved only in a few archaic South Bulgarian idioms. The futurum form has been preserved in a residual form in several "non-standard" verbs of the Northern Darginian languages. 

The results of the research can be used both in the creation of normative grammars of Darginian languages and in the preparation of comparative historical grammar. The results of the work can also contribute to the study of the problem of the expression of temporal relations in other Dagestan languages. They will also be useful when studying the verb of the Dargin literary language in educational institutions.