Tucked away in the southernmost tip of Russia is a language that doesn’t resemble Russian in the slightest. This is not unusual for a country of Russia’s size—indeed, all over Russia are indigenous communities that speak their own languages and practice their own cultures. In the North Caucasus region, and particularly Dagestan, this is all the more true, since this is one of the most linguistically diverse parts of the world. One of the bigger indigenous languages spoken here is Lezgian.
Today, Lezgian has around 800,000 native speakers, around half of whom live in Russia’s Republic of Dagestan. It is one of Dagestan’s 14 official languages and one of the republic’s six literary languages, giving it prestige over many of the other languages in Dagestan. However, the language that holds the most prestige is Russian, the lingua franca for interethnic communication in Dagestan and elsewhere in Russia. Due to this Russian influence, Lezgian is classified as a vulnerable language, and efforts must be made to preserve the language. At TranslationServices.com, we’d like to do our part by offering Lezgian translation services.
Now’s a great time to contact us and ask about a free quote for our Lezgian translation services.
Learn more about Lezgian, an important literary language in Dagestan
Lezgian speakers are concentrated in the southern tip of Dagestan, making them the southernmost inhabitants of all of Russia. The Lezgian-speaking area further descends into modern-day Azerbaijan, with around 175,000 people speaking the language in the provinces of Qusar, Quba, Qabala, Oghuz, Ismailli, and Khachmaz. Smaller communities of speakers are located in Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and beyond. Lezgians write their language in a modified Cyrillic alphabet nowadays, but historically, it was written in the Arabic script and briefly in a modified Latin alphabet.
Lezgian belongs to the Northeast Caucasian language family and more specifically the Lezgic branch, so it’s related to neighboring indigenous languages like Aghul, Rutul, Tabasaran, and Tsakhur. Lezgian doesn’t have grammatical gender, making it unusual for a Northeast Caucasian language. It also features 18 grammatical cases, 14 of which are locative cases that build off of other cases, typically the ergative case. Lezgian’s ergative–absolutive alignment means that the subjects of intransitive sentences and the objects of transitive sentences take the same case (absolutive), and the subjects of transitive sentences take a different case (ergative).
Our Lezgian translators are proud of their language, which was historically used as a lingua franca in southern Dagestan. They’re pleased to offer their translation expertise now.
You can choose the type of Lezgian translation services you want.
Our Lezgian translation services come in many different forms, available for all kinds of content as either Lezgian-to-English translation or English-to-Lezgian translation. Our translators are equipped to translate various kinds of documents, including old Lezgian-language documents written in the historical Arabic or Latin scripts or Lezgian literature that requires particular care in its translation to English. We’re also prepared to translate various documents into Lezgian, including questionnaires for research purposes, promotional business content aimed at Lezgian speakers, or entertaining books, games, websites, apps, and more designed to help Lezgian speakers and learners use the language in more ways.
Why not reach out today and tell us what you’re looking for in Lezgian translation services?