[NORTH CAUCASIAN LANGUAGES] Archinskiy iazyk: Grammaticheskiy ocherk, teksti, sbornik archinskich slov s russkim k nemu ukazatelem [i.e., Archi language: Grammatical essay, texts, collection of Archi words with a Russian index to it]

DIRR, ADOLF (1867-1930)

N.p., Tiflis [Tbilisi], 1908.

COMPLETE TITLE: [NORTH CAUCASIAN LANGUAGES] Арчинский язык: грамматический очерк, тексты, сборник арчинских слов с русским к нему указателем / Archinskiy iazyk: Grammaticheskiy ocherk, teksti, sbornik archinskich slov s russkim k nemu ukazatelem [i.e., Archi language: Grammatical essay, texts, collection of Archi words with a Russian index to it].

Modern yellowish full morocco. Roy. 8vo. (24 xx 16 cm). In Russian. [vii], 227 p. Last pages are mixed when it’s bound. Occasional foxing on pages. Otherwise, a very good and complete copy.

First edition of this exceedingly rare and apparently earliest comprehensive work on the Archi language written by a German linguist, curator at the Museum of Ethnology in Munich, and member of the German Caucasus Force under General Kress von Kressenstein in Georgia.

This book includes probably the earliest description of the Archi language which is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by the Archis in the village of Archi, southern Dagestan, Russia, and the six surrounding smaller villages. The book originally written in Russian and published in Tbilisi (Tiflis), starts with the alphabet and pronunciation of the language. And then it consists of many subheads under the "Morphology" subject.

In addition to the texts and index covering most of the book, perhaps the most important feature of the book is an attempt at an Archi dictionary called "Words collected from the Archi language" (pp. 124-202), one of the first examples of its field.

Archi is a Nakh-Daghestanian (North-East Caucasian) language of the Lezgic group. It is spoken by about 1200 people living in six settlements situated within walking distance of each other in the highlands of Daghestan in the Russian Federation. The settlements are situated in valleys along the river Khatara (four settlements) and its tributaries (two settlements). All Archi settlements are at over 2000 meters above the sea level. Traditionally, Archi people breed sheep; until recently they also grew crops (barley, spelled, and wheat), but this has been in decline since all the land Archi owns is on steep slopes and hard to work on. The language is characterized by a remarkable morphological system, with extremely large paradigms, and irregularities on all levels. (SMG online).

As of January 2024, OCLC shows four copies worldwide (1232458475), one of them is in Harvard University Library as a North American institute.