The End
Closing Remarks
We have reached the end of the grammar, and almost the end of this paper.
I have at my disposal a long list of sentences which would be useful to the learner of the language as samples of speech, together with folk-songs and ballads. But these, with translation and transcription, would far exceed the present compass; I venture to hope, however, that I shall give them on some future occasion.
It remains for me only to recapitulate what has been set out. In the introduction I asserted that certain sounds are so close to one another that the signs representing them may be grouped together, and that some of them are interesting only insofar as they appear in loans from Persian, Turkic, Arabic and other tongues that have made their way into the language.
I think I may have said too much, for in words that are undoubtedly Avâr my Sheikh found it hard to distinguish ﻃfrom ت, صfrom س, ضfrom د. In any case, غshould stand in place of خ, which is a misprint.
On the Click Sound
I also promised to dwell at greater length on the phenomenon of the famous “click.” I can only repeat that it is peculiar, so far as I know, to Avâr alone, and that among the many languages of the Caucasus I have not been able to find it in Chechen (instead of Tschetschentsch it is much easier to write čečenč), Kazikumukh (i.e. Lak), Abkhaz, Tush (i.e. Bats / Tsova-Tush), or Kürin (i.e. Lezgian).
Avâr, abounding in consonants and clicks, on the other hand lacks the nasals añ, iñ, oñ, uñ found in neighbouring languages, especially Circassian.
On Vowels and Transcription
If I am asked what principle I followed, in dealing with the vowels, in choosing between e and i, o and u, and in using a final u as opposed to v, I answer that I have throughout followed the Russian transcription of M. Adolphe Bergé, which was made in difficult circumstances under the supervision of the learned old sheikh acknowledged in the Introduction.
I think that in this way I have come closest to the accuracy of pronunciation generally observed by those Avârs who write and read — effectively the “learned men” of Daghistan.
As has been noted, even in villages separated by gorges into various dialects, two officers stationed two miles apart could supply us with a pair of vocabularies more or less different from one another, especially in accentuation. No one, therefore, should be surprised if the system of writing used in this work does not fit exactly all the localities where Avâr is spoken.
On Possible Errors
Thanks to the careful attention of our publishing staff, I think only a small number of errors will be found, both in the Oriental text and in the transcription. But where one is dealing with such delicate points and accents, the most painstaking efforts of editor and author cannot save even the last revision from the danger of minute typographical inaccuracies.
The structure of the grammar is the part least likely to satisfy the English reader. My first wish had been to give it a different form. Some of the prepositional cases, for example, might, I supposed, be turned into an ablative; and between the two instrumentals an accusative might find a place. But then I found a marginal note in the manuscript which plainly stated that “in Avâr there is no accusative.”
I may therefore be forgiven for shortcomings which are in any case not new to Russian grammarians. I have also omitted from the Introduction an explanation of the delay with which this paper has been published. For several years official and other duties kept me not only out of England but also far from places where the books necessary for the task before me would have been available. Only this past winter was I able to complete this work.
Acknowledgements
In the translation from the Russian I am indebted to the assistance of M. Riola, Professor of Russian in London. It remains for me to add that I am sending copies of this paper to my friends in St. Petersburg and to M. Adolphe Bergé in Tiflis, with an invitation to criticism which will doubtless increase our knowledge of this remarkable language.