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This article is about the Avar Language, for information on the Avar people please visit Caucasian Avars.

Avar магӀарул мацӀ maʕarul macʼ
Spoken in:	Russia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkey
Region:	Republic of Dagestan
Total speakers:	~600,000
Language family:	North Caucasian (disputed)  Northeast Caucasian   Avar-Andic    Avar
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	av
ISO 639-2:	ava
ISO 639-3:	ava
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

The modern Avar language (self-designation магӀарул мацӀ [maʕarul maʦʼ] "language of the mountains" or Авар мацӀ [awar maʦʼ] "Avar language") belongs to the Avar-Andi-Tsez subgroup of the Alarodian Northeast-Caucasian (or Nakh-Dagestani) language family.

Contents 1 Geographic distribution 1.1 Official status 1.2 Dialects 2 Writing system 3 History 4 Samples 5 See also 6 External links

It is spoken mainly in the eastern and southern parts of the Russian Caucasus republic of Dagestan, and the Balaken,Zakatala north-west region of Azerbaijan. Some population of Avars live in other regions of Russia. There are also small communities of speakers living in the Russian republics of Chechnya and Kalmykia; in Georgia, Kazakhstan, Jordan, and the Marmara Sea region of Turkey. It has more than 650,000 speakers worldwide.

It is one of six literary languages of Dagestan, where it is spoken not only by Avars, but also serves as the language of communication between different groups.

There are two main dialect groups: the northern (Avar literature), which includes Khunzakh, Kazbek, Gunib, Gumbet and others; and the southern (sub dialects), which includes Andalal, Gidatl', Antsukh, Charoda, Tlyarata, Cumada, Cunta and others. Avar has fifteen spoken dialects, which by many linguists are considered separate languages: Avar, Bagulal, Chamalal, Budukh, Botlikh, Andi, Godoberi, Tindi, Karati, Akhvakh, Tsez (also known as Dido), Khvarshi, Ginukh, Hunzib, and Bezhta, each named after its speaking tribe.

The Avar language has been written since the 15th century, in the old Georgian alphabet. From the 17th century onwards it was written in a modified Arabic script known as Ajam, which is still known today. As part of Soviet language planning policies the Ajam was replaced by a Latin alphabet in 1928, which was in turn replaced by the current Cyrillic alphabet in 1938. It is essentially the Russian alphabet plus one additional letter named palochka (Ӏ). As that letter is undisplayable on most computers, it is routinely replaced with capital Latin letter I (palochka has no uppercase form).

The literary language is based on the болмацӀ (bolmacʼ) — bo = "army" or "country", and macʼ = "language" — the common language used between speakers of different dialects and languages. The bolmacʼ in turn was mainly derived from the dialect of Khunzakh, the capital and cultural centre of the Avar region, with some influence from the southern dialects. Nowadays the literary language is influencing the dialects, levelling out their differences.

The most famous figure of modern Avar literature is the late Rasul Gamzatov († November 3, 2003), the People's Poet of Dagestan. Translations of his works into Russian have gained him a wide audience all over the former Soviet Union.

Hello!	ВорчӀами!	Worčʼami!
How do you do?	Щиб хӀal бугеб?	Ššib ħal bugeb?
What is your name?	Дуда цӀа щиб?	Duda cʼa ššib?
How old are you?	Чан сон дур бугеб?	Čan son dur bugeb?
Where are you going?	Киве мун унев вугев?	Kiwe mun unew wugew?
Sorry!	ТӀа лъугьа!	Tʼa łuha!
Where is the little boy going?	Киве гьитӀав вас унев вугев?	Kiwe hitʼaw was unew wugew?
The bottle broke.	Васас шиша бекана.	Wasas šiša bekana.
They are building the road.	Гьез нух гьабулеб буго.	Hez nux habuleb bugo.

Dene-Caucasian languages

• Ethnologue report for Avar
  • Avar course (in French)