Andi language

Andi
къӀаваннаб мицӀцӀи qwavannab miċċi
Pronunciation	[qχʼavannab mitsːʼi]
Native to	North Caucasus
Region	Southern Dagestan
Ethnicity	11,800 Andi (2010 census)
Native speakers	21,150 (2020 census)
Language family	Northeast Caucasian Avar–Andic Andic Andi
Language codes
ISO 639-3	ani
Glottolog	andi1255
ELP	Andi
Andi
Andi is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010)
Coordinates: 42°43′N 46°17′E

Andi is a Northeast Caucasian language belonging to the Avar–Andic branch spoken by about 5,800 ethnic Andi (2010) in the Botlikh region of Dagestan. The language is spoken in the villages Andi (along the river Andi-Koisu), Gunkha, Gagatl, Ashali, Rikvani, Chanko, Zilo, and Kvanxidatl.

Dialects

There are four main dialects, Munin, Rikvani, Kvanxidatl, and Gagatl, which appear quite divergent. However, the dialects can be said to vary between villages: the "upper-group" contains Andi, Gagatl, Rikvani, and Zilo (where Andi and Zilo are considered their own dialects), whereas the "lower-group" contains Munin and Kvanxidatl. The upper-group lacks the affricate sound кьI.

Phonology

Andi has 43 consonants:

		Labial	Dental/ alveolar		Post- alveolar/ palatal		Velar		Uvular		Pharyngeal/ Glottal
			lenis	fortis	lenis	fortis	lenis	fortis	lenis	fortis
Nasal		m	n
Plosive	voiceless	p	t				k	kː			ʔ
	voiced	b	d				ɡ
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ				kʼ	kːʼ
Affricate	voiceless		tsː		tʃ	tʃː			qχ
	voiced				dʒ
	ejective		tsʼ	tsːʼ	tʃʼ	tʃːʼ			qχʼ	qχːʼ
Fricative	voiceless		s	sː	ʃ	ʃː	x		χ	χː	h
	voiced	v	z		ʒ				ʁ		(ʕ)
Lateral	continuant		ɬ
	affricate		tɬː	tɬːʼ
Trill			r
Approximant			l		j

There are five vowels: /a, e, i, o, u/.

Orthography

Although Andi is usually non written, there are attempts to write the language using Russian Cyrillic script. Speakers generally use Avar or Russian as their literary language(s).

Grammar

Andi has 7 different series of localization: the meaning "inside" changes by number (singular -ла/-а, plural -хъи: гьакъу-ла 'in a home', гьакъоба-хъи 'in houses'). Number categories are expressed through ablaut (имуво воцци в-усон 'The father found the brother', but имуво воццул в-осон 'The father found the brothers'). In the village Andi, there is a difference between the speech of men and women; a man will say, for example, дин meaning 'I', мин meaning 'you', гьекIа 'person', but a woman will say ден 'I', мен 'you', гьекIва 'person'.

Further reading

• Verhees, Samira (2020). "Evidentiality in the Rikvani Dialect of Andi". Iran and the Caucasus. 24 (3): 309–324. doi:10.1163/1573384X-20200305. S2CID 225502952.
• Wixman, Ronald (1984). The Peoples of the USSR: An Ethnographic Handbook. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe. p. 11.
• Церцвадзе Ил. Андийский яз. Тб., 1965 (на груз. яз.);
• Алексеев М. Е. Андийский язык // Языки мира. Кавказские языки. М., 1999.
• Этимология 1539 андийских слов в БД «StarLing database server» Sergei Starostin
• [1] // The Book of Luke in Andi Language.
• [2] // Glottolog.org Language Map