The Budukh Language

§ 1. Budukh is spoken in the villages of Budukh in the Qonaqkend region and Yerguch in the Xaçmaz region in the Republic of Azerbaijan. Budukh is the name of the main village and they call themselves Budad, which means "local person, inhabitant", and the language — Budano Mez "language of the local inhabitants". Separate families of Budukh live in Quba and others rayons of the Azerbaijan. They are shifting to the Azerbaijan literary language, and losing their native language. The Budukh language is very close to Kryts. Nearly a thousand people speak the unwritten Budukh language ( adapted from Desheriev, 1969). At the present time of this writing (2016) however, there are less than 600 native speakers, and most are over the age of 50.