#удин муз

[phonaesthemes]

Udi

Endangered Languages Challenge 2/7

What’s the language called?

Udi, удин муз, Udin muz

What linguistic family does it belong to?

Udi is a Lezgic language, and it’s related to Lezgian, Aghul, Kryts, Tabasaran, Budukh, Rutul, and Tsakhur.

Where is it spoken?

 In Azerbaijan, it’s spoken in Qabala rayon (specifically in a town called Nij) and in Oghuz rayon, and speakers are also found in North Caucasus in Russia. It is also spoken by ethnic Udis living in the villages of Debetavan, Bagratashen, Ptghavan, and Haghtanak in  Armenia and in Zinobiani in Georgia.

What’s the situation for the community of speakers?

There are estimated to be about 10,000 Udi people, but fewer speakers of the language. UNESCO classifies the Udi language as “severely endangered”. 

Udi people live in various places in Azerbaijan, Russia, Armenia, Georgia, and elsewhere, but there are few concentrated communities of Udi speakers, which poses a challenge for transmission of the language. 

The sociolinguistic situation is further complicated by strife between Armenia and Azerbaijan; the countries went to war in the late 80s, and many Udis either fled or were forced out of the regions where they had been living previously. In some cases, they ended up bolstering the Udi-speaking populations in other areas, but many others ended up in diaspora. 

In predominantly-Udi town of Nij in Azerbaijan, the language is taught to children in elementary schools since the 90s and there are books available in the language (at least, according to one source; others I found indicate otherwise.) However, Udi children living elsewhere are educated in the majority languages of whatever region they happen to live. The younger the Udi person, the less likely they are to speak the language.

In the town of Zinobiani in Georgia, one of the schools houses a museum dedicated to the Udi language. 

Udi is still the language of daily life for many in the community, but for official or employment purposes, many must be bi- or multilingual in a majority language such as Azeri, Russian, Armenian, or Georgian. 

In Nij at least, at least one study indicates that speakers view their language positively: “Over two-thirds of respondents indicated they use Udi in the work-place. Udi is the language of the home and the village. Respondents unanimously said that mothers should speak Udi to their children and that children should learn Udi before Russian or Azerbaijani.” 

Does it have any official or legal status?

It’s not an official language of any of the countries in which it’s spoken. Azerbaijan recognizes and has taken some interest in maintaining/protecting Udi culture because of its role in the country’s history, and educational and language-learning materials have been created for the Udi language.

Sources and resources:

A team from the Russian Academy of Science documented their trips to Udi villages - (Russian Language, but there are lots of pictures) Articles on Udi, available for download - (Russian language) Udi people - Wikipedia Udi language - Wikipedia Udi language - Omniglot Caucauscapades - A team documents their trip to the Georgian Udi village of Zinobiani Svan/Udi/Sova-Tush - http://dobes.mpi.nl/projects/svan/language/ -DOBES Towards a History of Udi - Wolfgang Schulze  Colonialism, nationalism and language vitality in Azerbaijan