Bzyb dialect

Bzyb (also spelled Bzyp) is a major dialect of Abkhaz, native to the Bzyb River region of Caucasus.^[1] It was once the literary variety of Abkhaz, but students are now taught in the Abzhuy dialect.^[2]

It differs from standard Abkhaz mainly in terms of phonology. It has 69 consonant phonemes.^[3] It shares the [ɕʷ] and [ʑʷ] sounds with the Sadz dialect, and the [t͡ɕ], [d͡ʑ], [t͡ɕʼ], [ɕ], [ʑ], [χˤ], and [χˤʷ] sounds are unique to Bzyb. Standard Abkhaz (which is based on the Abzhywa dialect) lacks these sounds.

The phoneme [ɥ] ⟨Ҩ ҩ⟩ was originally a labialized pharyngeal fricative [ʕʷ].^[3]

The Bzyb consonant inventory appears to have been the fundamental inventory of Proto-Abkhaz, with the inventories of Abzhywa and Sadz being reduced from this total, rather than the Bzyb series being innovative.^[2]

Bzyb was first written in 1862, when Peter von Uslar introduced a Cyrillic-based orthography for it, partially inspired by Anders Johan Sjögren's 1844 Ossetian alphabet.^[4] The alphabet is as follows:

а	б	ҩ	г	ӷ	д	ꚁ	е
ж	ђ	ꚅ	ꚅ̆	з	ӡ	ꚃ	һ
ꚕ	і	ј	к	қ	л	м	н
о	п	ԥ	ԛ	р	с	т	ҭ
ꚍ	ꚍ̆	у	ф	х	ц		ꚏ
ꚏ̆			ч		ҽ	ҽ̆	ш
ш̆	ꚗ	ꚗ̆	ѵ

With the modern orthography, Viacheslav Chirikba transcribes the phonemes unique to Bzyb, or to Bzyb and Sadz, with digraphs : зь /ʑ/, ӡь /d͡ʑ/, сь /ɕ/, х' /χ/, ць /t͡ɕʰ/, ҵь /t͡ɕʼ/^[3].

• Abkhaz phonology