高加索语简介

阿布哈兹语属于阿尔泰语系的突厥语族高加索语支里的西北高加索语的成员，有语言人口十多万人。当中有十万人住在格鲁吉亚，而这十万人当中，又有八万人住在阿布哈兹自治共和国。

分类的争议 阿布哈兹语属于西北高加索语的其中一个成员，顾名思义，源于高加索地区的西北方。西北高加索语跟东北高加索语关系密切，所以有语言学家建议把两者合并为北高加索语系。现时我们把北高加索语跟 南高加索语一起组成高加索语支，但这两种语言其实除了在地理位置上相近以外，两者的关联并不大。

而阿布哈兹语经常都与阿巴扎语一起并称为阿布哈兹-阿巴札语，不过两者的书面语有颇大的分别。即使两种语言的文化非常近似，但他们的音素差异极大。因此，语言学家倾向把两种语言划分为不同的语言。 地理分布 阿布哈兹语的语言人口主要位于格鲁吉亚及土耳其。

发音

Like the other Northwest Caucasian languages, Abkhaz is very rich in consonants, with 58, but has only a few vowels (either two or three, depending upon the analysis). Below is the IPA phoneme chart for the standard dialect (Abzhuy); the Bzyp dialect has nine additional consonants, and the Sadz dialect has a few less.

Labials: p pʼ b v f w m
Dentals: t tʼ d n
Labialized dentals: tʷ tʼʷ dʷ
Alveolar sibilants: ts tsʼ dz s z
Labialized alveolar sibilants: tsʷ tsʼʷ dzʷ
Palatalized alveolar sibilants: tsʲ tsʼʲ dzʲ sʲ zʲ
Postalveolar sibilants: tʃ tʃʼ dʒ ʃ ʒ
Labialized postalveolar sibilants: tʃʷ dʒʷ
Lateral: l
Rhotic trill: r
Palatals: kʲ kʼʲ gʲ j
Velars: k kʼ g
Uvulars: qʼ χ ʁ
Palatized uvulars: qʼʲ χʲ ʁʲ
Labialized uvulars: qʼʷ χʷ ʁʷ
Pharyngeals: ħ ħʷ
Labiopalatal semivowel: ɥ (< ʕʷ, a labialized voiced pharyngeal fricative)
Vowels: ə a (with allophones and [e] next to palatals, [o] and [u] next to labials)

元音
Abkhaz has only two distinctive vowels: an open vowel /a/ and a close vowel /ı, ǝ/. Depending on the environment both of the vowels can be realized as [e,i,o,u].

语言类型
Abkhaz is typologically classified as an agglutinative language. Like all other Northwest Caucasian languages, Abkhaz has an extremely complex verbal system coupled with a very simple noun system; Abkhaz distinguishes just two cases, the nominative and the adverbial.

书写系统

Abkhaz has had its own adaptation of the Cyrillic alphabet, the Abkhaz alphabet, since 1862. The first alphabet was a 37 character Cyrillic alphabet invented by Baron Peter von Uslar. In 1909 a 55 letter Cyrillic alphabet was used. A 75-letter Latin script devised by a Georgian linguist Nikolai (Niko) Marr lasted from 1926 to 1928, when another Latin script was used. The Georgian script was imposed in 1937, but after the death of Stalin, an Abkhaz desire to remain separate from Georgians led to the development of the current Cyrillic alphabet in 1954 by Dimitri Gulya who was, ironically, an ethnic Georgian (Mingrealian).

历史沿革
The earliest extant written records of the Abkhazian language are in the Arabic alphabet, recorded by the Turkish traveller Evliya Celebi in the 17th century. Abkhaz has only been used as a literary language for about 100 years. During the Stalinist Russian years Abkhaz was banned as a literary language..