Dargin languages

The Dargin languages consist of a dialect continuum of over 60 Northeast Caucasian languages or dialects spoken by the Dargin people in southcentral Dagestan. Kajtak, Kubachi, Itsari, Mehweb and Chirag are often considered dialects of the same Dargin/Dargwa language. Ethnologue lists these under a common Dargin language, but also states that these may be separate languages from Dargwa proper. Reasons for classifying the southern group of dialects from the northern group is that speakers of the southern dialects have been reported as treating the literary Aqusha dialect as a foreign language. Due to the linguistic fragmentation of the Dargin languages, speakers use Russian as a lingua franca.