The Mehweb language: Essays on phonology, morphology and syntax

Berlin : Language Science Press, 2019.

Academic editor: Daniel M., Dobrushina N., Ganenkov D.

This book is an investigation into the grammar of Mehweb (Dargwa, East Caucasian also known as Nakh-Daghestanian) based on several years of team fieldwork. Mehweb is spoken in one village community in Daghestan, Russia, with a population of some 800 people, In many ways, Mehweb is a typical East Caucasian language: it has a rich inventory of consonants; an extensive system of spatial forms in nouns and converbs and volitional forms in verbs; pervasive gender-number agreement; and ergative alignment in case marking and in gender agreement. It is also a typical language of the Dargwa branch, with symmetrical verb inflection in the imperfective and perfective paradigm and extensive use of spatial encoding for experiencers. Although Mehweb is clearly close to the northern varieties of Dargwa, it has been long isolated from the main body of Dargwa varieties by speakers of Avar and Lak. As a result of both independent internal evolution and contact with its neighbours, Mehweb developed some deviant properties, including accusatively aligned egophoric agreement, a split in the feminine class, and the typologically rare grammatical categories of verificative and apprehensive. But most importantly, Mehweb is where our friends live.

Chapters

Mehweb verb morphology

Daniel M., , in: The Mehweb language: Essays on phonology, morphology and syntax.: Berlin: Language Science Press, 2019. P. 73–115.

The paper describes the morphology of the verb in Mehweb, a Dargwa lect of central Daghestan, Russia. The description is partly based on previous research (Magometov 1986, Sumbatova unpublished) and partly on the field data the author has been collecting from 2009 to the present. Mostly, formal morphology of synthetic verb forms and complex verbs ...

Added: April 11, 2018

Phonology of Mehweb

Moroz G., , in: The Mehweb language: Essays on phonology, morphology and syntax.: Berlin: Language Science Press, 2019. Ch. 3 P. 17–37.

In this paper, I describe the phonetic inventory of Mehweb, consonants and vowels, as well as the main productive alternations. Two separate sections treat the rules of syllable placement and gives a preliminary treatment of pharyngealization. In Mehweb, pharyngealization is a feature which extends the basic vowel inventory [i, e, a, u] to include [oˁ] ...

Added: October 26, 2019

Relative clause and resumptive pronouns in Mehweb

Lander Yu., Kozhukhar A., , in: The Mehweb language: Essays on phonology, morphology and syntax.: Berlin: Language Science Press, 2019. Ch. 11 P. 295–314.

East Caucasian relative clause constructions (RCCs) are sometimes viewed as constructed mainly on the basis of semantic and pragmatic information. In this paper, we consider RCCs in Mehweb and argue that, despite the fact that the interpretation of some of them may rely exclusively on semantics, syntactic mechanisms may also come into play in their organization. We present evidence ...

Added: October 26, 2019

The Mehweb “assertive” copula gʷa: a sketch of a portrait

Lander Yu., , in: The Mehweb language: Essays on phonology, morphology and syntax.: Berlin: Language Science Press, 2019. Ch. 12 P. 315–331.

Mehweb Dargwa features a particle gwa, a peculiar element which is basically used for emphasizing the assertion. The paper explores some grammatical characteristics of this particle. It is shown that, in both verbal and non-verbal clauses, gwa serves as a predicative marker forming a complete predication and is an equivalent of a copula (even though, unlike the neutral ...

Added: October 26, 2019

The Language and people of Mehweb

Dobrushina N., , in: The Mehweb language: Essays on phonology, morphology and syntax.: Berlin: Language Science Press, 2019. Ch. 1 P. 1–15.

This paper describes the sociolinguistic situation of Mehweb, a lect of the Dargwa branch of East Caucasian, spoken in the Republic of Daghestan. In the course of several field trips to the village of Mehweb (officially, Megeb), sociolinguistic interviews were conducted in Mehweb and four neighbouring Avar- and Lak-speaking villages. The paper describes the demographic ...

Added: October 28, 2019

Moods of Mehweb

Dobrushina N., , in: The Mehweb language: Essays on phonology, morphology and syntax.: Berlin: Language Science Press, 2019. Ch. 5 P. 118–165.

The paper is a description of moods in Mehweb, a lect of the Dargwa branch of East Caucasian (Nakh-Daghestanian) languages, Republic of Daghestan. The data were collected in the course of several field trips to the village of Mehweb. The forms of non-indicative moods and common constructions where these forms occur are described. Mehweb has ...

Added: October 28, 2019

Nominal morphology of Mehweb

Chechuro I., , in: The Mehweb language: Essays on phonology, morphology and syntax.: Berlin: Language Science Press, 2019. Ch. 3 P. 39–72.

This paper describes the nominal morphology of Mehweb. It deals with the following issues: the nominal paradigm, plural formation, the oblique stem, case formation and use, and irregular locatives. In this paper I analyze both the structure and the semantics of these forms. ...

Added: November 20, 2019

Maps of Mehweb

Koryakov Y., , in: The Mehweb language: Essays on phonology, morphology and syntax.: Berlin: Language Science Press, 2019. Ch. 13 P. 333–334.

This section presents two maps of Mehweb,one showing the spread of the East Caucasian language family, together with Mehweb’s closest relatives and its location with respect to the other languages of the Dargwa branch; the other showing the location of the linguistic family at a larger scale of the mountains of the Caucasus. ...

Added: December 16, 2019

Keywords: morphology, syntax, grammar, East Caucasian languages, phonology, Mehweb, Nakh-Daghestanian languages

Publication based on the results of: Очерки грамматики мегебского языка (2015)