The Besleney (Circassian: Bes?ynyj IPA: [basn?j]; Russian: Besleneevcy), also known as Beslenei or Baslaney, are one of the twelve tribes (sub-ethnic groups) of the Circassian (Adyghe) people.[] By character, culture and language, the Besleney are closest to Kabardians.[1] The noble families of the Besleney were Kanoko and Shaloho, ancestors of Kabardian Prince Beslan, (the son of legendary Prince Inal),[] who established his own tribe of the same name.
Population
The majority of the Besleney live in the valley of Bolshaya and Malaya Laba Rivers and on the bank of Urup in the Russian Republics of Karachay-Cherkessia, Krasnodar Krai and Adygea.[2] They also extend to the valleys of Chetem, Fars, Psefir, Kuban (Western Circassia).
Language
The Besleney people speak the Besleney sub-dialect (Adyghe: ) of the Kabardian Adyghe dialect (East Circassian). However, because the Besleney tribe lived at the center of Circassia, the Besleney dialect also shares a large number of features with dialects of the West Adyghe dialect. Like the Adyghe Shapsug sub-dialect, there exist a palatalized voiced velar plosive [], a palatalized voiceless velar plosive [k?] and a palatalized velar ejective [k?'], which were merged to [d], [t] and [t'] in other Circassian dialects.[3] The Besleney dialect also has an alveolar lateral ejective affricate [t'], which corresponds to an alveolar lateral ejective fricative [?'] in most other varieties of Circassian.[4] The Besleney dialect has a voiceless glottal fricative [h] that corresponds to in other Circassian dialects.[5]
| Meaning | Besleney sub-dialect | Standard Kabardian | Standard Adyghe | Shapsug sub-dialect | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cyrillic | IPA | Cyrillic | IPA | Cyrillic | IPA | Cyrillic | IPA | |
| horse | t | |||||||
| sister | ? | tp | p | p | p | |||
| wedding | ? | n?sa:ta | n?sa:?a | n?sa:?a | n?sa:?a | |||
| day | ma:x?a | ma:x?a | ? | ma:fa | ? | ma:fa | ||
| black | f'?t?s'a | f'?t?s'a | '?t?s'a | '?s'a | ||||
| shirt / dress | a:na | da:na | da:na | a:na | ||||
| tree | ? | d? | t | t | ||||
| four | pt'?: | ? | p?'?: | ? | p?'?: | ? | p?'?: | |
| man | ? | t'?: | ?'?: | ?'?: | ?'?: | |||
| chicken | ? | gad | ? | dad | ? | tat? | ? | k?at |
| tail / seed | ? | k?'a | t'a | t'a | ? | k?'a | ||
| young man, boy | t'a:la | ?'a:?a | t'a:?a | t'a:la | ||||
| new | t'a | ?'a | t'a | t'a | ||||
See also
- East Adyghe dialect
- West Adyghe dialect
- Other Circassian tribes:
- Abzakh
- Bzhedug
- Hatuqwai
- Kabardian
- Mamkhegh
- Natukhai
- Rescue of Leningrad Jewish children in Beslenei
- Shapsug
- Temirgoy
- Ubykh
- Yegeruqwai
- Zhaney
References
- ^ John Colarusso. A Grammar of the Kabardian Language University of Calgary Press, 1992. p. 12. ISBN 9780919813991 "This highly divergent dialect..."
- ^ James Stuart Olson, et al., eds. "Adyghe".An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires. Greenwood Publishing, 1994. p. 15. ISBN 9780313274978 "The Beslenei (Beslenej) are located between the upper Urup and Khozdya rivers, and along the Middle Laba River, in the western reaches of the North Caucasus."
- ^ ? ? ? ? (in Russian)
- ^ UCLA Phonetics Lab Archive - Recording Details for Kabardian Baslanei dialect. In the first word list called kbd_word-list_1970_01.html the words "man" and "quarter" are pronounced as /t'?/ and /pt'a:na/ compare to Standard Kabardian /?'?/ and /p?'a:na/
- ^ ? ? ? ? (in Russian)
External links
This article uses material from the Wikipedia page available here. It is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.