The Budukh people are an ethnic group indigenous to the northern regions of Azerbaijan, specifically in the Budukh and Quba district. They speak the Budukh language, which is a Northeast Caucasian language that belongs to the Lezgic branch of the language family
Budukh
Population in the Project Area: 3000
The People
Quba
The village where the majority of Budukhs live are: Aleksevka (Quba district), Vldiremovka (Quba district),Parespol (khachmaz distric),Aghiazibudukh (Khachmaz).
Budukhs are people who live in one of the highest places in the Caucasus region. Quba is located on the noth-eastern slope of the Caucasus, along the main ridge of the Caucasus. They are distinguished by special hospitality. The Budukh people have a rich cultural heritage, with unique customs, traditions, and folklore. They are known for their distinct music, dance, and clothing, which reflect their rich cultural history. The Budukh people have also developed their own traditional crafts, such as carpet weaving and embroidery. Budukh village is surrounded by mountains and rocks, here we will find large and small rock ruins, which are used by local people to build houses and fences. Due to the small population of the village, the guests are especially happy to visit the place. Due to the environmental conditions, dried cattle manure is used for heating, although there is an exception when firewood is used instead of manure. The Budukhs are Sunni branch of Islam. It is not known when they accepted Islam. No matter how surprising it might be, there is no mosque in the village and the population mainly prays at home.
The main economic activity of the Budukh is animal husbandry. The village is surrounded by rich pasture meadows. In farming, it has a supporting character and was considered a secondary branch. They have primary education done in their village itself. Afrer four years of primary school , they are forced to go to Quba to continue their education. Some stay with relatives or move with the whole family to ensure that their children can continue getting education. There are also families, who can not afford to take their children to the district for education, so they are forced to stop/cancel their child’s education. Similar families represent twenty proteans in Budukh.
The Project
Mother-Tongue literacy.
Budukh language is one of the oldest unwritten languages. People communicate with each other in Budukh language. They speak this language with family members and friends. Everyone knows the state language Azerbaijanian , because they have to speak Azerbaijanian at schools and in the public institutions. Since they do not have a script, they use Latin letters. They also speak Budukh, Azerbaijan and Russian languages. Budukh language is mainly used in Budukh village, Quba and khachmaz districts. There is no information about the origin and settlement of the Budukh. Azerbaijanian is the contact language for the rest of the nations. Schools never taught Budukh language because Azerbaijanian is the official language of the nation. The Budukh language, which has no dialect, is actively used in Budun. It is used in the family and for contact with relatives. Despite the fact that Lazgs and Krits are related nations, they have many words in common, they use the Azerbaijanian language. Budukhs think that they know the Budukh language more in Khachmaz district, even though their roots are from the village of Budukhiya and they had to leave the village for many reasons. In Budukh, the state language is taught only up to the fourth grade. In order to learn a foreign language and the Azerbaijanin language, they are forced to continue their studies at public schools of the districts. Budukhs look favorably on military conscription, most of them have served in the army.
Our team has completed a sociolinguistic survey in the respected region and found some interesting facts. The people mostly have a liberal attitude towards the languages. They don’t consider teaching Azerbaijanian as a threat to their mother tough. But some people still believe their language will extinct over time. Because The younger generation is considering the official language for their higher education. Because of this trend almost all people in the community know both languages. Based on the survey, our plan of action will be unique for this region. The mother tongue need to be protected. So the material creation will be done after effective filtering. The Budukh people themselves attempted script creation with Latin alphabets. But not yet popular. We have wider plans of orthography development following this.
Progress
As of March 2023
Our team conducted a sociolinguistic survey in the Budukh-speaking region with the aim of identifying the language and its socio-cultural features, assessing the language attitude of Budukh speakers, and determining the stability and vitality of the language. Our findings revealed that while the Budukh language is still spoken by a majority of the community, it is under threat due to the increasing use of Azerbaijani for higher education and other official purposes.
We also found that the Budukh people have a liberal attitude towards languages and are open to learning new ones. In an effort to protect their mother tongue, we plan to promote Latin based script and develop more mother tongue oriented orthography. While this is a first step, we plan to develop more efficient methods to promote the language and increase its usage. Our team will continue to work towards preserving the unique cultural heritage of the Budukh people and their language for future generations.