Bzyb (also spelled Bzyp) is a major dialect of Abkhaz language, native to the Bzyb River region of Caucasus. It was once the literary variety of Abkhaz, but students are now taught in the Abzhuy dialect.
Phonology
It differs from standard Abkhaz mainly in terms of
phonology. It has 69 consonant phonemes.
It shares the and sounds with the
Sadz dialect, and the , , , , , , and sounds are unique to Bzyb. Standard Abkhaz (which is based on the
Abzhywa dialect) lacks these sounds.
The phoneme was originally a labialized pharyngeal fricative .
The Bzyb consonant inventory appears to have been the fundamental inventory of Proto-Abkhaz, with the inventories of Abzhywa and Sadz being reduced from this total, rather than the Bzyb series being innovative.
Orthography
Bzyb was first written in 1862, when Peter von Uslar introduced a Cyrillic-based orthography for it, partially inspired by Anders Johan Sjögren's 1844 Ossetian alphabet.
The alphabet is as follows:
а | б | ҩ | г | ӷ | д | ꚁ | е |
ж | ђ | ꚅ | ꚅ̆ | з | ӡ | ꚃ | һ |
ꚕ | і | ј | к | қ | л | м | н |
о | п | ԥ | ԛ | р | с | т | ҭ |
ꚍ | ꚍ̆ | у | ф | х | ц | | ꚏ |
ꚏ̆ | | | ч | | ҽ | ҽ̆ | ш |
ш̆ | ꚗ | ꚗ̆ | ѵ | | | | |
With the modern orthography, Viacheslav Chirikba transcribes the phonemes unique to Bzyb, or to Bzyb and Sadz, with digraphs : зь /ʑ/, ӡь /d͡ʑ/, сь /ɕ/, х' /χ/, ць /t͡ɕʰ/, ҵь /t͡ɕʼ/
.
See also