A grammatical description with sample text
© Wolfgang Schulze 2001/2 (University of Munich)
1. The Udi Language
1.1
Location and demographic data
Udi (the
local designation is udin muz ‘Udi(sh) language’) belongs to the Lezgian
(or Southern) branch of the autochthonous East Caucasian language family. Within
the Lezgian branch, Udi occupies a so-called marginal position
reflecting the fact that historically speaking the language separated from the
Lezgian ‘branch’ soon after this branch disintegrated into at least three
‘dialects’ (Early Udi, Early Archi, and Early Samur). There is a (very!) vague
possiblity to relate the ethnonym udi to
the ancient ethnic name Qûtîm
documented in Middle Assyrian sources. Later, the name turned up as Utíoi in Greek, as Utii in Latin, and as Utink`
in Classical Armenian. Today, Udi is spoken in three villages in Transcaucasia as well as in a number of
Diaspora places scattered throughout the Russian Federation, in Armenia, in
Turkmenistan, and in Kazakhstan. Nowadays, the original habitat of the ethnic
Udis in Northern Azerbaijan is confined to the village of Nidzh (Nij), located
on the road from Sheki (in the West) to Qabala (formerly Kutkashen) in the
East. In Nidzh, the ethnic Udis represent a rather compact unity of roughly
4.500 people, 80% of whom reclaim to use Udi in one context or the other. Before
autumn 1989, Vartashen (now Oghuz) was the second Azerbaijani village which
hosted a significant number of ethnic Udis. By virtue of the Armenian
Azerbaijani clashes in 1989, most of the roughly 3.000 Vartashen Udis left
Vatashen/Oghuz. Some families fled to neighboring Nidzh, others left Azerbaijan
and settled in Armenia, in the Russian Federation, in Turkmenistan, or in
Kazakhastan. Today, some 35 ethnic Udi families still live in Oghuz. A third
settlement of ethnic Udis had been founded in Eastern Georgia (east of Kvareli)
in 1922 when a considerable number of basically Vartashen Udis left their
original habitat due to the disastrous economic situation after the Civil War. This
villages, called Okt’omberi (formerly Zinobiani), today hosts some 80 ethnic
Udis (93 in 1989, 83 in 1995), living in a totally ‚Georgian’ environment. Ethnic
Udis are Christians (basically, Orthodox in Oghuz, and Georgian in Nidzh). However, there has been a considerable semi-Islamic adstrate, mixed with
Jewish traditions especially in Vartashen.
In a
total, there are up to 8.100 ethnic Udis today (7,971 Udis in Azerbaijan in
1989). Most of the Udi speakers are bi- or even multilingual. In Okt’omberi, it
is Georgian that plays the role of a language for ‘external’ communication,
whereas Udi is retained by some 50 people in ‘internal’ communication (most of
them are 50 years old and beyond). In Nidzh, the language is much better
preserved than in Georgia: Here, multilingualism forms an integrated part of
everyday communication, being based on Azeri and – till 1989 – on a local
variety of Armenian. Additionally, Southwest Iranian Tati (the language of the
local Jewish communities) is occasionally present among ethnic Udis, too. Russian
is not as important as it used to be in times of Soviet rulership. In Nidzh
(and, till 1989, in Vartashen) Udi is spoken by most elder ethnic Udis (50
years and beyond), whereas the knowledge of the language decreases the younger
people are. Nevertheless, in ‘internal’ communication, a considerable number of
young Udis still use a yet strongly Azeri influenced variety of Udi that can be
described as ‚Young People’s Udi’. The sociolinguistic situation of Udi in
Nidzh has become more stable after the immigration of Udis from Vartashen. Stipulated
by the work of the native Udi Georgi kechaari (from nizh), a graphic tradition
gradually develops. It is derived from the now Latin based tradition of Azeri
(some Cyrillic signs are added). Yet, teaching is neraly completely in Azeri –
although certain classes are given in Udi. The last years saw a growing interest
in the cultural and linguistic heritage of the Udi people due to an increasing
debate on the ethnic layers in Azerbaijan. The Udi people is often thought to
represent the last off-spring of one of the ethnic groups that once constituted
the Early Christian kingdom of Alwan (Caucasian Albania). The foundation of the
‘Scientific Research Center of Caucasian Albania’ in Baku in the year 2000 that
also opts to support the maintenance of the Udi cultural and linguistic
tradition can be regarded as another expression of such a growing interest
[although it is undoubtedly directed by political rather than purely cultural
objectives]. Also, an Udi National Cultural Center (Orayin – ‘The Spring’) has recently been established in Baku that
tries to promote both the preparation of Udi textbooks and the translation of
foreign , mainly Azeri and Western European belletristic literature into Udi. The
Norwegian Humanitarian Enterprise (NHE) has put considerable efforts into the promotion of Orayin’s
activities (including the publication of a (Nizh-)Udi text book by Georgi
Kechaari (2001)).
The
long-standing and strong impact from Azerbaijani cultural and linguistic
traditions has led to a dramatic decrease in the knowledge of the ‘mental’
culture among Udis. Folk traditions are generally adopted from the Azeri
surroundings though occasionally accommodated to the original Udi traditions. It
still is a matter of research to disclose the extent to which specific Udi
traditions with respect to folk tales, fairy tales, heroic or religious myths,
and songs are still present among Udis. Most of the data exploited in the
scientific literature are older than at least 50 years. As a matter of fact,
the large bulk of textual data on Udi stems from the 19th century. Among them,
there are tales, notes on conversation, and - last but not least - the
translation of the Gospels, prepared by Semjon Bezhanov, an Udi teacher from
Vartashen in the years 1890-1898 (assisted by his brother Mikhail Bezhanov, a
local ethnograph). The Gospels have been recently reedited by W. Schulze
(Schulze 2001a).
The
unique position of Udi within the Lezgian branch of East Caucasian has
motivated linguists to work on this language since nearly 150 years, starting
with Schiefner’s famous (nevertheless in parts unreliable) 1863 grammar of Udi.
Though Udi has experienced a rather comprehensive linguist description since
then (including the exceptional work carried out by the Udi linguists Voroshil
Lukasyan and Evgeni Dzhejranishvili), the results can hardly be regarded as an
overall contribution to the preservation and documentation of the language. Western
linguists such A. Harris (e.g. 1992, 1997, 2000, 2002), and W. Schulze (e.g. 1982,
1994, 2001a, 2001b, forthcoming) have helped to refine the linguistic analysis
of Udi and to augment the stock of texts available, yet the number of texts
still is regrettably small. The most urgent task would be to document as much
texts as possible documenting both the actual conversational styles in Nidzh
and Okt’omberi and the general oral tradition and to cumulate the data in a new
comprehensive (etymological) Udi dictionary (the best distionary we have so far
is Gukasyan 1974). A first step into this direction has been done by Jost
Gippert and Manana Tanadshvili (U Francfort) who have started a audiovisual
documentation project on Okt’omberi Udi in September 2002 (as part of the DOBES project funded by the Volkswagen Stiftung). A typologically oriented reference grammar will be availble towards
the end of the year (W. Schulze 2003, in preparation. A Functional Grammar of Udi).
1.2 Genetic affiliation
Udi belongs to the Southern (or Lezgian)group of the East Caucasian language family. It can be regarded as a marginal Lezgian language stemming from a Proto-Lezgian dialect that became separated from the central ‘Samur’ branch quite early (1500 BC ?). It can be assumed that the Proto-Lezgian ‘urheimat’ was located in Northern Azerbaijan (roughly speaking in the region between the Kura and Alazani rivers). Archi, another marginal language, was the first dialect to leave this continuum, lateron followed by what then became the Samur languages (Eastern Samur: Lezgi proper, Tabasaran, and Aghul), Western Samur (Rutul, Tskahur), Southern Samur (now in the Shah-Dagh mountains) (Kryts and Budukh). The speakers of Early Udi obviously stayed in the southern and eastern parts of the Proto-Lezgian urheimat. The so-called ‘tenth’ Lezgian language, namely Khinalug (in the Shah-Dagh mountains) probably emerged from contact of a Proto-Lezgian dialect with another yet unidentified East Caucasian language (or vice versa). Udi shares some important isoglosses with the Western Samur language Tsakhur. There are no significant isoglosses with languages outside the Lezgian branch of East Caucasian (Nakh, Awaro-Andian, Tsezian, Lak, or Dargwa).
1.3 Contact Linguistics of Udi
Udi has obviously experienced a high degree of ‘foreign’ impact. If we neglect some rather obscure look-alikes with PIE roots (such as Udi e?k’ ‘horse’ (PIE *Hek`wos-?) etc.) we can describe at least the following contact layers:
1000 - 500 BC Old (Northwest) Iranian
500 - 300 BC Old Medic /Old Persian
300 - 300 AD Early MiddlePersian (Pehlevi), Early Middle Northwest Iranian
Early Talysh(-like) variant (?)
300 - 800 AD Old Armenian/ Jewish Tati / local Middle NW Iranian languages
800 - 1300 AD Early Azeri /Middle Armenian / Early Modern Persian / Arabic / Georgian(?)
800 - … AD Local Jewish Tāti varieties
1300 - 1800 AD Modern Persian, Modern East Armenian, residues of local Northwest Iranian dialects/ Azeri
1800- ….. Azeri,
Russian, Modern East Armenian, Georgian (in Oktomberi)
The loan layers have influenced both the
grammar and the lexicon of Udi (cf. section 5).
1.4 Udi and the problem of Caucasian Albania
(Alwan)
Udi is famous for the
assumption that it represents the youngest reflex of the language of the
ancient kingdom of Albania (rather Alwan) that existed as a more or less
independent mode in what now is Northern Azerbaijan from the 3rd to
the 9thcentury AD. This Christian kingdom was temporarily subjected
to the rule of the Armenian kingdom which also represented the major cultural
superstrat of Alwan. According to the Armenian ‘History of Alwan’ by Movses
Daskhurantsi, the famous inventor of the Armenian script Mesrob Mashtots
(362-440) is thought to have developed a script for one of the languages of
Alwan. This script seems to be used in the inscription of Mingechaur as well as
in some other minor inscriptions. Some
palimpsests recently discovered at Mt. Sinai (also see Aleksidze& Mahé
1997) show this ‘Albanian’ script, too, which is often related to the Udi
language (see Schulze 1982 and W. Schulze [2001a]: The Language of the
Caucasian Albanian palympsest). However, it should be noted that up to now
we have not arrived at a safe interpretation of even a single of these
documents, be it on the basis of Udi or another Lezgian language. Also see Manana
Tandashvili's contribution for examples of the Alvan script. All we know
for sure ist that some officials in the kingdom of Alvan have used a language
different from Armenian and Georgian which - according to the sources- shared
some phonetic features with those languages that are generally describedas
'Southeast Caucasian'. There are some look-alikes between e.g. some namesof the
months as documented in a medivial manuscript (see Gippert,Jost: Old Armenian and Caucasian
CalendarSystems [III.]: The Albanian Month Names- Annual of
Armenian Linguistics 9 1988, 35-46) and certain Udi terms, but this evidence is
not sufficient to finely declare the Alvan inscriptions as 'Udi' [the language
of the palympsests seem to be more Udi-like than that of the inscriptions].