Mehweb
Megeb[1]
мехӀвела мез
Pronunciation	[meħʷelamez]
Native to	Russia
Region	Megeb,Dagestan
Ethnicity	Dargins
Native speakers	800-900 (2019)[2] 1,300 (2021)[3]
Language family	Northeast Caucasian Dargin North-Central Dargin Mehweb
Writing system	unwritten
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	mege1234
Mehweb

Mehweb (Mehweb:мехӀвела мез,meħʷela mez^[4]) orMegeb is aDargin language, frequently considered a dialect of a unified Dargwa language, spoken in the village ofMegeb inDagestan, as well as by former residents of the village who have moved to larger cities, by about 800 to 900 people.^[2]

Mehweb is isolated from all other varieties of Dargwa and is surrounded by regions ofAvar- andLak-language speakers. All native speakers of Mehweb originate from Megeb, including those who have migrated to larger cities. Some Mehweb is spoken in the nearby Avar village ofObokh. There is nolanguage shift occurring in the village, but multilingualism inRussian has increased over the years.^[2] The official language in the region is Avar, which Mehweb speakers are taught in school, and as a result, many speakers are bi- or trilingual.^[5]

While Mehweb is a typical representative of the northern branch of Dargin, its isolation, estimated to span from 300 to 1000 years, combined with the development of a distinct identity and influence from Avar and Lak, has led many to consider it as a separate language.^[6] It is completely mutually unintelligible with other Dargin languages.^[7]

Mehweb has 41 consonants.Gemination does not occur.

Mehweb has a three-way opposition between voiced plosives, ejectives and voiceless plosives.^[2]

1. [ʡ] and[ʜ] are essentially pharyngealized versions of[ʔ] and[ħ].
2. [ɣ] is rare and is realised as[ɡ] by younger speakers.
3. [h] may be rarely realized as[ɦ].
4. [d͡z] and[d͡ʒ] are realizations of[z] and[ʒ] by older speakers.
5. Sonorants[n][l][r] can be articulated as being either dental or alveolar.

Pharyngealization is considered to besuprasegmental, as it is not associated with any specific consonant or vowel. It results inepiglottalization of the glottal phonemes andcentralization of vowels.^[2]

Vowel length is not phonemic. Vowels[iˤ],[eˤ], and[uˤ] are very rare and their status is unclear, and the other pharyngealized vowels are uncommon.^[2]

Mehweb is an unwritten language, and speakers use Avar or Russian for writing. There is no evidence that Mehweb was written using Arabic or Cyrillic in the past, unlikeArchi.^[2]

• Northeast Caucasian languages

• CS1 uses Russian-language script (ru)
• CS1 Russian-language sources (ru)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles containing Dargwa-language text
• Pages with plain IPA
• Dialects of languages with ISO 639-3 code
• Languages without ISO 639-3 code but with Glottolog code
• Articles with unnamed Glottolog code