M.A. Theses in Linguistics at the University of North Dakota (Abstracts)

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Smith, Jessica 2010
Placing İsmayilli Lezgi among the Lezgi dialects

There is a cluster of three Lezgi villages in the İsmayıllı district of Azerbaijan that is separated by the Caucasus Mountains from the three main Lezgi dialects—Standard (SL), Axti (AL), and Quba (QL) Lezgi. This study places İsmayıllı Lezgi (IL) among the other dialects by comparing many of the varieties’ attributes.

Five approaches are taken in this comparison: 1) comparing the similarities and differences of IL’s phonological inventory to that of SL and AL; 2) contrasting the noun case system of IL versus that of SL; 3) comparing their verbal morphology; 4) looking for lexical similarities between IL and SL/AL/QL wordlists; and 5) describing the results of survey work in intelligibility testing of IL and SL/QL and informal interviewing about IL language attitudes and use.

Finally, these comparisons are evaluated in terms of extensibility of SL literature for IL communities.

Download thesis from http://arts-sciences.und.edu/summer-institute-of-linguistics/theses/_files/docs/2010-smith-jessica.pdf