9221845 Trigo Abkhaz, a Northwest Caucasian language spoken in Turkey and the Georgians S.S.R. is typologically anomalous in that it exhibits an extraordinarily complex consonantal inventory. Morphologically, it is an ergative language in which virtually the entire syntactic structure of the clause is capitulated in the verbal complex. It contains several grammatical subsystems that interact with each other in ways that are relevant to theories of sound patterning (morpho-phonology) and sound realization (phonetics). The grammar of Abkhaz has been well described, but descriptive and theoretical work on the above topics has been superficial and of limited access. Moreover, present demographics and political conditions in Georgia and Turkey pose a significant threat to the language of the Abkhaz. The Principal Investigator will work with her consultant of the last two years and with two additional speakers to transcribe, analyze, gloss, and translate new and existing data. In addition, the PI will record and analyze the acoustic properties of the various sounds of the language. The PI will also investigate specific linguistic hypotheses about the grammar of Abkhaz based on the analyzed corpus of data. This will culminate in a volume describing the sound system and morpho-phonology of Abkhaz. ***
