Archi language
| Archi | |
|---|---|
| аршаттен чӏат aršatten čʼat | |
| Native to | Russia |
| Region | Archib, Dagestan |
| Ethnicity | Archi people |
Native speakers | 1,712 (2020 census) |
| Cyrillic script (developed in 2006 based on the Avar alphabet) Arabic script (19th century) | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | aqc |
| Glottolog | arch1244 |
| ELP | Archi |
Map of where Archi is spoken (red area) | |
Archi is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010) | |
Archi /ɑːˈtʃiː/ is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by the Archis in the village of Archib, southern Dagestan, Russia, and the six surrounding smaller villages.
It is unusual for its many phonemes and for its contrast between several voiceless velar lateral fricatives, /𝼄, 𝼄ʷ, 𝼄ː, 𝼄ʷː/, voiceless and ejective velar lateral affricates, /k͡𝼄, k͡𝼄ʷ, k͡𝼄ʼ, k͡𝼄ʷʼ/, and a voiced velar lateral fricative, /ʟ̝/. It is an ergative–absolutive language with four noun classes and has a morphological system with irregularities on all levels. Mathematically, there are 1,502,839 possible forms that can be derived from a single verb root.