Editing Avar language (section)

==Phonology==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|+ Consonant phonemes of Avar<ref name="TITUS">[http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/didact/caucasus/nekklaut.htm#XFN1 Consonant Systems of the North-East Caucasian Languages on TITUS DIDACTICA]</ref>
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! colspan="2" rowspan="3" |
! rowspan="3" | [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" | [[Dental consonant|Dental]]
! colspan="4" | [[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! rowspan="3" | [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" | [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" | [[Uvular consonant|Uvular]]
! rowspan="3" | [[Pharyngeal consonant|Pharyngeal]]
! rowspan="3" | [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|- class="small"
! colspan="2" | central
! colspan="2" | [[lateral consonant|lateral]]
|- class="small"
! lenis
! [[fortis and lenis|fortis]]
! lenis
! fortis
! lenis
! fortis
! lenis
! fortis
! lenis
! fortis
|-
! colspan="2" | [[Nasal stop|Nasal]]
| {{IPA link|m}}
| {{IPA link|n}}
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! rowspan="3" | [[Plosive consonant|Plosive]]
! <small>[[voice (phonetics)|voiced]]</small>
| {{IPA link|b}}
| {{IPA link|d}}
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| {{IPA link|ɡ}}
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! <small>[[voiceless]]</small>
| {{IPA link|p}}
| {{IPA link|t}}
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| {{IPA link|k}}
| {{IPA link|kː}}
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| {{IPA link|ʔ}}
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! <small>[[ejective consonant|ejective]]</small>
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| {{IPA link|tʼ}}
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| {{IPA link|kʼ}}
| {{IPA link|kʼː}}
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! rowspan="2" | [[affricate consonant|Affricate]]
! <small>[[voiceless]]</small>
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| {{IPA link|t͡s}}
| {{IPA link|t͡sː}}
| {{IPA link|t͡ʃ}}
| {{IPA link|t͡ʃː}}
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| {{IPA link|t͡ɬː}}
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| {{IPA link|q͡χː}}
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! <small>[[ejective consonant|ejective]]</small>
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| {{IPA link|t͡sʼ}}
| {{IPA link|t͡sʼː}}
| {{IPA link|t͡ʃʼ}}
| {{IPA link|t͡ʃʼː}}
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| ({{IPA link|t͡ɬʼː}})
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| {{IPA link|q͡χʼː}}
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! rowspan="2" | [[fricative consonant|Fricative]]
! <small>[[voiceless]]</small>
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| {{IPA link|s}}
| {{IPA link|sː}}
| {{IPA link|ʃ}}
| {{IPA link|ʃː}}
| {{IPA link|ɬ}}
| {{IPA link|ɬː}}
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| {{IPA link|x}}
| {{IPA link|xː}}
| {{IPA link|χ}}
| {{IPA link|χː}}
| {{IPA link|ʜ}}
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! <small>[[voice (phonetics)|voiced]]</small>
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| {{IPA link|z}}
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| {{IPA link|ʒ}}
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| {{IPA link|ʁ}}
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| {{IPA link|ʕ}}
| {{IPA link|ɦ}}
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! colspan="2" | [[trill consonant|Trill]]
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| {{IPA link|r}}
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! colspan="2" | [[approximant consonant|Approximant]]
| {{IPA link|w}}
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| {{IPA link|l}}
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| {{IPA link|j}}
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There are competing analyses of the distinction transcribed in the table with the length sign {{angbr IPA|ː}}. Length is part of the distinction, but so is articulatory strength, so they have been analyzed as [[fortis and lenis]].{{citation needed|date=October 2015}} The fortis affricates are long in the fricative part of the contour, e.g. {{IPAblink|tsː}} (tss), not in the stop part as in geminate affricates in languages such as Japanese and Italian {{IPAblink|tːs}} (tts). Laver (1994) analyzes e.g. {{IPAblink|t͡ɬː}} as a two-segment affricate–fricative sequence [{{IPA|t͡ɬɬ}}]  ({{IPA|/t𐞛ɬ/}} = {{IPA|/t<sup>ɬ</sup>ɬ/}}).<ref>Laver (1994) ''Principles of Phonetics'' p. 371.</ref>
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
|+Avar Vowels
!
![[Front vowel|Front]]
![[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
![[High vowel|High]]
|{{IPA link|i}}
|{{IPA link|u}}
|-
![[Mid vowel|Mid]]
|{{IPA link|e}}
|{{IPA link|o}}
|-
![[Low vowel|Low]]
| colspan="2" |{{IPA link|a}}
|}
Avar has five phonemic vowels: /a e i o u/.

===Lexical accent===
In Avar, accent is contrastive, free and mobile, independent of the [[Syllable weight|number of syllables]] in the word. Changes in lexical accent placement indicate different semantic meaning and grammatical meanings of a word:
* {{lang|av|ра́гӏи}} {{gloss|word}} ~ {{lang|av|рагӏи́}} {{gloss|fodder}}
* {{lang|av|ру́гънал}} {{gloss|wound.{{gcl|nom}}.{{gcl|pl}}}} ~ {{lang|av|ругъна́л}} {{gloss|wound.{{gcl|gen}}.{{gcl|sg}}}}