SIL International Publications

This paper presents the results of sociolinguistic research conducted in 2016 and 2017 among the Dargwa people living in Dagestan. The internal structure of the Dargwa speech varieties has been heavily debated: There are over 60 varieties of Dargwa, many of which have been claimed to be separate languages. There is also disagreement regarding how endangered the language is. The goals of our research were to investigate the use of the Dargwa language in both urban and rural areas, attitudes towards the Dargwa language, the vitality of the Dargwa language, levels of bilingualism and multilingualism, and levels of intelligibility between varieties of Dargwa. We conclude that Dargwa is a single macrolanguage consisting of twelve languages. In spite of the fact that the language is used in the schools, we also conclude that it is threatened. Questionnaires, observations and recorded text tests were employed in the research.