Abaza language
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{{language |name=Abaza |nativename=Абаза Бызшва, Abaza Byzšwa |states=Russia, Turkey |region=Karachay-Cherkess Russian autonomous republic |speakers=~45,000 |familycolor=Caucasian |fam1=Caucasian (disputed) |fam2=North Caucasian (disputed) |fam3=Northwest Caucasian |fam4=Abkhaz-Abazin |nation=Russian autonomous republic of Karachay-Cherkess |iso2=cau|iso3=abq}}
The Abaza language (Абаза Бызшва/Abaza Byzšwa) is a language of the Caucasus mountains in the Russian autonomous republic of Karachay-Cherkessia by the Abazins. It consists of two dialects, the Ashkherewa dialect and the T'ap'anta dialect, which is the literary standard.
Abaza is spoken by approximately 35,000 people in Russia, where it is written using a modified Cyrillic alphabet, as well as another 10,000 in Turkey, where the Roman alphabet is used.
Abaza, like its relatives in the family of Northwest Caucasian languages, is highly agglutinative and has a large consonantal inventory (63 phonemes) coupled with a minimal vowel inventory (two vowels). It is very closely related to Abkhaz, but it preserves a few phonemes which Abkhaz lacks, such as a pharyngeal voiced fricative. Work on Abaza has been carried out by W. S. Allen, Brian O'Herin, and John Colarusso.
External links
de:Abasinische Sprache et:Abasiini keel es:Idioma abaza eo:Abaza lingvo gl:Abaza ko:아바자어 pl:Język abazyński ru:Абазинский язык fi:Abazan kieli sv:Abazinska zh:阿巴札語