Kaitag language

Kaitag
Kaidak, Karakaitak, Karkaidak, Qaidaqlan
хайдакьан кув
A speaker of Kaitag.
Pronunciation[χɑjdɑqʼɑn kʰuβ]
[χajdaq’la]
Native toNorth Caucasus
RegionDagestan
EthnicityKaitags
Native speakers
approx. 30,000 (2020)
Northeast Caucasian
Dialects
  • Upper Kaitag
  • Lower Kaitag
  • Shari (may be a separate language)
Cyrillic script
Language codes
ISO 639-3xdq
Glottologkajt1238
  Kaitag

Kaitag (Kaitag: Хайдакьан кув [χɑjdɑqʼɑn kʰuβ]; also Kaidak, Karakaitak, Karkaidak, Qaidaqlan) is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken in Dagestan, Russia. It has sometimes been considered a divergent dialect of Dargwa due to it being part of the Dargin dialect continuum. The Routledge Ethnographic Handbook (2017) divided Kaitag into two dialects: northern (Magalis-Kaitak) and southern (Karakaitak). Recent results of the Association of the Russian Sociolinguists (2021) further developed it into three dialects: Lower Kaitag, Upper Kaitag and Shari, the latter of which may be a separate but closely related language.