Botlikh (also spelled Botlix) is an Andic language of the Northeast Caucasian language family spoken by the Botlikhs in the villages of Botlikh (Buikhe), Miarso and Ashino, as well as in Chontaul, Ankho and in Batlakhatli, in southwestern Dagestan, Russia by approximately 5,000 people, according to the 2020 census.
Dialects
Botlikh has two dialects, being Botlikh proper and Miarso. Differences in phonology and morphology are small, and the two are mutually intelligible.
Phonology
Vowels
Botlikh has five basic vowels. Vowels can also be long or nasalized.
Consonants
Orthography
Botlikh is unwritten, and Botlikhs have mostly used Avar as their medium of written communication. When Botlikhs need to write their language, they use the Avar alphabet. The following orthography is used in a Botlikh-Russian dictionary.
References
Further reading
- Alekseev, M.; Azaev, X. (2019). Botlixsko-russkij slovar' (in Russian). Moscow: Academia.
- Dirr, Adolf (1928). Einführung in das Studium der Kaukasischen Sprachen mit einer sprachenkarte (in German). Leipzig: Verlag der Asia Major.
- Gamzatova, G. G. (2000). Jazyki Dagestana. Jazyki Narodov Rossii (in Russian). Machackala: Rossijskaja Akademija Nauk.
- Gudava, Togo E. (1962). ბოთლიხური ენა: გრამატიკული ანალიზი, ტექსტები, ლექსიკონი [The Botlikh language: Grammatical analysis, texts, lexicon] (in Georgian). Tbilisi: Sak'art'velos SSR mec'nierebat'a akademiis gamomc'emloba.
- Gudava, Togo E. (1976). "Iberijsko-kavkazskie jazyki". Jazyki narodov SSSR (in Russian). Vol. IV. Moskva: Nauka. pp. 293–306.
- Moroz, George; Naccarato, Chiara; Verhees, Samira (14–16 October 2019). Variation in two dictionaries of Botlikh (PDF). Документирование языков и диалектов коренных малочисленных народов России. St. Petersburg. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 November 2022.
- Saidova, P. A.; Abusov, M. G. (2012). Botlixsko-russkij slovar' (in Russian). Makhachkala: IJaLI.
External links
- The peoples of the Red Book: Botlikhs
