Rutulspeaking

Rutulspeaking refers to the language spoken by the Rutul people, an ethnic group primarily residing in the Rutulsky District of Dagestan, Russia, and in neighboring areas of Azerbaijan. Rutul is a Northeast Caucasian language, belonging to the Lezgic branch of the Nakh-Dagestanian language family. It is not a single, uniform language, but rather a dialect continuum with significant variation between different communities. Some scholars distinguish several distinct Rutul dialects, which can be mutually unintelligible to varying degrees.

Historically, Rutul had no standardized written form. While some attempts at codification and literacy in Rutul have been made, Russian remains the dominant language of education, administration, and media in the regions where Rutuls live. This has contributed to a decline in the number of active Rutul speakers, particularly among younger generations, and Rutul is considered an endangered language. Efforts are underway by linguists and community members to document and preserve the language. The language's unique phonetic and grammatical features make it of interest to linguists studying Caucasian languages.