| Language name: | RUTUL |
| UPSID number: | 2603 |
| Alternate name(s): | |
| Classification: | Northwest Caucasian |
| This language has | 64 segments |
| Its Frequency index is | 0.178422949 (average percentage of segments; 0.1: many very rare segments; 0.39: average; 0.7: many common segments) |
| The language has these sounds: | ph "th kh kWh qh q9h qW9h ? ?9 b "d g gW G G9 GW9 p' "t' k' kW' q' q9' qW9' "tsh "tsWh tSh "dz dZ dZW "ts' "tsW' tS' tSW' x xW X XW X9 XW9 h gF RF RFW RF9 RFW9 "s S "z m "n "r "l BA i "e a u "sW j i_ H qWh GW qW' |
| Comment: | Rutul is spoken in the Upper Samur river basin in the Dagestan ASSR and in adjoining areas of Azerbaijan, USSR. Ibragimov (1978) argues for pharyngealization as a feature of uvular and laryngeal consonants, rather than positing a set of pharyngealized vowels (cf. Dzhejranishvili 1967) which would be contrastive only in the context of uvulars. However his "pharyngealized laryngeals" have been interpreted as primary pharyngeal consonants. Labialized sibilant fricatives and affricates are rare but seem authentic. The missing cases (eg. dzw) may well be gaps in the data rather than absent from the language. |
| Source(s): | Dzhejranishvili, E.F. 1967. Rutul'skij Jazyk. In V.V. Vinogradov et al. (eds.), Jazyki Narodov SSSR 4: Iberijsko-Kavkazskie Jazyki: 580-590. Akademija Nauk, Moscow. Ibragimov, G. Kh. 1978. Rutul'skij Jazyk. Nauka, Moscow. |