Jost Gippert (University of Hamburg)

As a member of the Lezgic branch of the (North-)East Caucasian family, the language of the Udis, a minority people mostly living in Northern Azerbaijan, is peculiar in several respects: it is not only the Lezgic language with the western-most localisation but also the one that can be proven to be the closest relative (if not direct descendant) of the only East Caucasian language with a written record from Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, namely, the Albanian language of the Caucasus. The name of the Udis (self-designation udiyux) is likely to reflect the name of the antique province of Ōtēnē, Armenian Utikʽ, which suggests a migration of the ancestors of the Udis towards the north across the Kura river [Gippert et al. 2008, II-95–96].

The first specimens of the Udi language were published in 1814 in a short account by the orientalist Julius von Klaproth, who listed a set of twelve words plus one sentence noted in Latin script; the material was collected in the village of Vartashen (today Oğuz in the eponymous district of Azerbaijan, 41°4′23″ N, 47°27′53″ E), which was one of the two major settlements of Udis until the early 1990s when most of its inhabitants fled to Armenia, Russia or other states that emerged from the dissolving Soviet Union [Schulze/Schulze 2016, 511–514; Schulze/Gippert 2023, 234–235]. The Vartashen variety of Udi was also the basis for the first investigations into the language and text specimens provided, among others, by the linguist Anton Schiefner (1854 and 1863). An outstanding example of Vartashen Udi was the Russian-based translation of the four Gospels published (in Cyrillic script) by Mikhail and Semyon Bezhanov in 1902. The second notable variety of Udi is the dialect spoken in the village of Nij, ca. 25 km south-east of Vartashen (in the Qabala district of Azerbaijan, 40°55′48″ N, 47°39′12″ E). In more recent times, this variety has developed to be the main carrier of attempts to provide the Udi language with a written standard (in Latin script based upon its Azeri adaptation); a new Bible translation into Nij Udi is at present being worked out (see https://www.udibibliya.com/en/welcome/).

During the long period of illiterateness after the abandonment of the Albanian script, the Udi language must have undergone considerable influences from the dominant language of the region in question, Azeri, as well as, to a certain extent, Russian. This is especially true of its lexicon: not only names of tools, materials etc. but also terms denoting abstract concepts were usually borrowed from these languages (including Arabic and Persian terms concerning the Islamic faith in their Azeri disguise), while Albanian mostly used Middle Iranian and, in the Christian sphere, Georgian, Armenian and Greek terms for such concepts (see >> Albanian language). Only very few of the specific Christian terms of Albanian have survived into modern Udi, among them the words for “Easter” (Udi axsibay/axc̣ima ~ Albanian axsiba-/axc̣iba-, from Old Georgian aġvseba- ‘id.’, and Udi paraski / ṗarasḳi ~ Albanian ṗarasḳe from Georgian ṗarasḳev-i, in its turn reflecting Greek παρασκευή [Gippert/Schulze 2023, 219]. In grammar, however, Udi has preserved the most striking peculiarities of Albanian, which include the abandonment of nominal class agreement and the introduction of person marking, the use of “floating” clitics, some irregular conjugation and declension patters for frequent verbs and nouns, the development of “referentialised” forms of adjectives and case forms, and the use of datives to indicate both subjects (of verbs of perception and uncontrolled action) and direct objects [Schulze/Gippert 2023, 251–256]. In contrast to this, the sound system of modern Udi has undergone notable changes, consisting in the emergence of pharyngealised vowels (instead of sequences of a pharyngeal consonant plus a plain vowel) and in the loss of palatalised consonants [Gippert et al. 2008, II-12–13; Schulze/Gippert 2023, 249].

Bibliography

Bezhanov, S. & M. (Семенъ & Михаилъ Бежановъ), Господа нашего Іисуса Христа Святое Евангеліе отъ Матѳея, Марка, Луки и Іоанна на русскомъи удинскомъ языкахъ [The Holy Gospels of Our Lord Jesus Christ by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the Russian and Udi Languages]. Tiflis: Caucasian Educational District 1902 (= Сборникъ матеріаловъ для описанія мѣстностей и племенъ Кавказа [Collection of materials for the description of the localities and tribes of the Caucasus] 30 (1902).

https://books.google.de/books?id=2S5sBgAAQBAJ; https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:СМОМПК_1902_30.pdf.

Gippert, J. – Schulze, W., “The Language of the Caucasian Albanians”, in J. Gippert – J. Dum-Tragut (eds), Caucasian Albania – An International Handbook, Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter 2023, p. 167–229. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110794687-004.

Gippert, J., Schulze, W., Aleksidze, Z., Mahé, J.-P., The Caucasian Albanian Palimpsests of Mt. Sinai, vol. 1 (Monumenta Palaeographica Medii Aevi. Series Ibero-Caucasica 1), Turnhout: Brepols 2008.

Klaproth, J. v. Beschreibung der russischen Provinzen zwischen dem Kaspischen und schwarzen Meere. Berlin: Maurer 1814. https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10782876.

Schiefner, A., “Etwas über die Udiner, ein Volk des Caucasus”, (Erman’s) Archiv für wissenschaftliche Kunde von Russland 13 (1854), 649-652. https://gdz.sub.uni-goettingen.de/id/PPN332924793_0013.

Schiefner, A., Versuch über die Sprache der Uden (Mémoires de l’Académie Impériale des Sciences de St.-Pétersbourg, VII e série VI/8), St Petersburg: Academy of Sciences 1863. https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10522445.

Schulze, I. & W., A Handbook of the Minorities of Armenia. A Sociocultural and Sociolinguistic Survey, Hamburg: Dr. Kovač 2016.

Schulze, W. – Gippert, J., “Caucasian Albanian and Modern Udi”, in J. Gippert – J. Dum-Tragut (eds), Caucasian Albania – An International Handbook, Berlin – Boston: de Gruyter 2023, p. 231-260. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110794687-005.