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The Caucasian languages comprise a large and extremely varied array of languages spoken by more than ten million people in and around the Caucasus Mountains, which lie between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
Linguistic comparison allows the classification of these languages into several different language families, with little or no discernible affinity to each other. However, the languages of the Caucasus are sometimes mistakenly referred to as a family of languages. According to Asya Pereltsvaig, "grammatical differences between the three groups of languages are considerable. [...] These differences force the more conservative historical linguistics to treat the three language families of the Caucasus as unrelated."[1]
Three of these families have no current indigenous members outside the Caucasus, and are considered indigenous to the area. The term Caucasian languages is generally restricted to these families, which are spoken by about 11.2 million people.[citation needed]
Kartvelian, also known as the South Caucasian or Iberian language family, with a total of about 5.2 million speakers. Includes Georgian, the official language of Georgia, with four million speakers, Svan, Mingrelian and Laz.
Northeast Caucasian, also called the Nakh-Daghestanian or Caspian family, with a total of about 3.8 million speakers. Includes the Chechen language with 1.5 million speakers, the Avar language with 1 million speakers, the Ingush language with 500,000 speakers, the Lezgian language with 800,000 speakers, and others.
Northwest Caucasian, also called the Abkhazo-Adyghean, Circassian, or Pontic family, with a total of about 2.5 million speakers. Includes the Kabardian language, with one million speakers.
It is commonly believed that all Caucasian languages have many consonants. While this is certainly true for most members of the Northeast and Northwest Caucasian families (inventories range up to the 80–84 consonants of Ubykh), the consonant inventories of the South Caucasian languages are not nearly as extensive, ranging from 28 (Georgian) to 30 (Laz) – comparable to languages like Russian (up to 37 consonant phonemes, depending on definition), Arabic (28 phonemes), and Western European languages (often more than 20 phonemes).
The autochthonous languages of the Caucasus share some areal features, such as the presence of ejective consonants and a highly agglutinative structure, and, with the sole exception of Mingrelian, all of them exhibit a greater or lesser degree of ergativity. Many of these features are shared with other languages that have been in the Caucasus for a long time, such as Ossetian (which has ejective sounds but no ergativity).
External relations
Since the birth of comparative linguistics in the 19th century, scholars have attempted to relate them to each other or to languages outside the Caucasus region. The most promising proposals are connections between the Northeast and Northwest Caucasian families and each other or with languages formerly spoken in Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia.
Linguists such as Sergei Starostin see the Northeast (Nakh-Dagestanian) and Northwest (Abkhaz–Adyghe) families as related and propose uniting them in a single North Caucasian family, sometimes called Caucasic or simply Caucasian. This theory excludes the South Caucasian languages, thereby proposing two indigenous language families. While these two families share many similarities, their morphological structure, with many morphemes consisting of a single consonant, make comparison between them unusually difficult, and it has not been possible to establish a genetic relationship with any certainty.
There are no known affinities between the South Caucasian and North Caucasian families. Nevertheless, some scholars have proposed the single name Ibero-Caucasian for all the Caucasian language families, North and South, in an attempt to unify the Caucasian languages under one family.
Hattic
Some linguists have claimed affinities between the Northwest Caucasian (Circassian) family and the extinct Hattic language of central Anatolia. See the article on Northwest Caucasian languages for details.
^Zelkina, Anna (2000). In Quest for God and Freedom: The Sufi Response to the Russian Advance in the North Caucasus. C. Hurst & Co. p. 31. ISBN9781850653844.
^Nichols, Johanna. 2003. The Nakh-Daghestanian consonant correspondences. In Dee Ann Holisky and Kevin Tuite (eds.), Current Trends in Caucasian, East European and Inner Asian Linguistics: Papers in honor of Howard I. Aronson, 207-264. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi:10.1075/cilt.246.14nic
^Chirikba, Viacheslav. 1996. Common West Caucasian: The Reconstruction of its Phonological System and Parts of its Lexicon and Morphology. Leiden: Research School CNWS, School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies. ISBN 978-9073782716.
^Klimov, G. (1998). Etymological Dictionary of the Kartvelian Languages. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
External links
TITUS: Caucasian languages map by Jost Gippert& projects Armazi& Ecling
CIA ethnolinguistic map
language-family map by Matthew Dryer
Caucausian section of the Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire
– An in-depth linguistic study of Basque, Georgian, and other ergative languages, concluding that the similarities are not strong enough to prove a genetic link.
Comparative Notes on Hurro-Urartian, Northern Caucasian and Indo-European by V. V. Ivanov
January 09, 2023
languages, caucasus, this, article, includes, list, general, references, lacks, sufficient, corresponding, inline, citations, please, help, improve, this, article, introducing, more, precise, citations, june, 2011, learn, when, remove, this, template, message,. This article includes a list of general references but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations June 2011 Learn how and when to remove this template message This article or section should specify the language of its non English content using lang transliteration for transliterated languages and IPA for phonetic transcriptions with an appropriate ISO 639 code Wikipedia s multilingual support templates may also be used See why June 2021 The Caucasian languages comprise a large and extremely varied array of languages spoken by more than ten million people in and around the Caucasus Mountains which lie between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea Ethnolinguistic groups in the Caucasus region 1995 Linguistic comparison allows the classification of these languages into several different language families with little or no discernible affinity to each other However the languages of the Caucasus are sometimes mistakenly referred to as a family of languages According to Asya Pereltsvaig grammatical differences between the three groups of languages are considerable These differences force the more conservative historical linguistics to treat the three language families of the Caucasus as unrelated 1 Contents 1 Families indigenous to the Caucasus 1 1 External relations 1 1 1 North Caucasian languages 1 1 2 Ibero Caucasian languages 1 1 3 Hattic 1 1 4 Alarodian 1 1 5 Dene Caucasian macrofamily 2 Families with wider distribution 2 1 Indo European 2 2 Semitic 2 3 Turkic 2 4 Mongolic 3 Vocabulary comparison 4 See also 5 References 6 External linksFamilies indigenous to the Caucasus EditThree of these families have no current indigenous members outside the Caucasus and are considered indigenous to the area The term Caucasian languages is generally restricted to these families which are spoken by about 11 2 million people citation needed Kartvelian also known as the South Caucasian or Iberian language family with a total of about 5 2 million speakers Includes Georgian the official language of Georgia with four million speakers Svan Mingrelian and Laz Northeast Caucasian also called the Nakh Daghestanian or Caspian family with a total of about 3 8 million speakers Includes the Chechen language with 1 5 million speakers the Avar language with 1 million speakers the Ingush language with 500 000 speakers the Lezgian language with 800 000 speakers and others Northwest Caucasian also called the Abkhazo Adyghean Circassian or Pontic family with a total of about 2 5 million speakers Includes the Kabardian language with one million speakers It is commonly believed that all Caucasian languages have many consonants While this is certainly true for most members of the Northeast and Northwest Caucasian families inventories range up to the 80 84 consonants of Ubykh the consonant inventories of the South Caucasian languages are not nearly as extensive ranging from 28 Georgian to 30 Laz comparable to languages like Russian up to 37 consonant phonemes depending on definition Arabic 28 phonemes and Western European languages often more than 20 phonemes The autochthonous languages of the Caucasus share some areal features such as the presence of ejective consonants and a highly agglutinative structure and with the sole exception of Mingrelian all of them exhibit a greater or lesser degree of ergativity Many of these features are shared with other languages that have been in the Caucasus for a long time such as Ossetian which has ejective sounds but no ergativity External relations Edit Since the birth of comparative linguistics in the 19th century scholars have attempted to relate them to each other or to languages outside the Caucasus region The most promising proposals are connections between the Northeast and Northwest Caucasian families and each other or with languages formerly spoken in Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia North Caucasian languages Edit Main article North Caucasian languages Linguists such as Sergei Starostin see the Northeast Nakh Dagestanian and Northwest Abkhaz Adyghe families as related and propose uniting them in a single North Caucasian family sometimes called Caucasic or simply Caucasian This theory excludes the South Caucasian languages thereby proposing two indigenous language families While these two families share many similarities their morphological structure with many morphemes consisting of a single consonant make comparison between them unusually difficult and it has not been possible to establish a genetic relationship with any certainty Ibero Caucasian languages Edit Main article Ibero Caucasian languages There are no known affinities between the South Caucasian and North Caucasian families Nevertheless some scholars have proposed the single name Ibero Caucasian for all the Caucasian language families North and South in an attempt to unify the Caucasian languages under one family Hattic Edit Some linguists have claimed affinities between the Northwest Caucasian Circassian family and the extinct Hattic language of central Anatolia See the article on Northwest Caucasian languages for details Alarodian Edit Main article Alarodian languages Alarodian is a proposed connection between Northeast Caucasian and the extinct Hurro Urartian languages of Anatolia Dene Caucasian macrofamily Edit Main article Dene Caucasian languages Linguists such as Sergei Starostin have proposed a Dene Caucasian macrofamily which includes the North Caucasian languages together with Basque Burushaski Na Dene Sino Tibetan and Yeniseian This proposal is rejected by most linguists Families with wider distribution EditOther languages historically and currently spoken in the Caucasus area can be placed into families with a much wider geographical distribution Indo European Edit The predominant Indo European language in the Caucasus is Armenian spoken by the Armenians circa 6 7 million speakers The Ossetians speaking the Ossetian language form another group of around 700 000 speakers Other Indo European languages spoken in the Caucasus include Greek Pontic Greek Persian including Tat Persian Kurdish Talysh Judeo Tat and the Slavic languages such as Russian and Ukrainian whose speakers number over a third of the total population of the Caucasus Semitic Edit Two dialects of Neo Aramaic are spoken in the Caucasus Assyrian Neo Aramaic with around 30 000 speakers and Bohtan Neo Aramaic with around 1 000 speakers Both of these were brought to the Caucasus by ethnic Assyrians fleeing the Sayfo or Assyrian genocide during World War I A dialect of Arabic known as Shirvani Arabic was spoken natively in parts of Azerbaijan and Dagestan throughout medieval times until the early 20th century 2 3 In the nineteenth century it was considered that the best literary Arabic was spoken in the mountains of Dagestan 4 Turkic Edit Several Turkic languages are spoken in the Caucasus Of these Azerbaijani is predominant with around 9 million speakers in Azerbaijan and more than 10 million in North Western Iran Other Turkic languages spoken include Karachay Balkar Kumyk Nogai Turkish Turkmen and Urum Mongolic Edit Kalmyk Oirat spoken by descendants of Oirat speakers from East Asia is a Mongolic language Vocabulary comparison EditBelow are selected basic vocabulary items for all three language families of the Caucasus gloss Proto NE Caucasian 5 Proto NW Caucasian 6 Proto Kartvelian 7 Georgianeye b ul b al b la twal tvalitooth cVl ca GZ ḳb il k bilitongue maʒ i bza nena enahand arm kV kol q a qe xeliback of body uqq pxa zurgiheart rVk u Vrk u g e gul gulimeat CV lV ƛƛ Le GZ qorc xorcisun bVrVg deɣa mz e mzemoon baʒVr buʒVr meʒa tute mtvareearth l oncci c e g e P Circassian dedamiʦ awater ɬɬin pse P Circassian GZ c q a ʦ q alifire c ar i c ad i mec a GZ ʓec xl cecxli xanʒariashes rV uqq rV uƛƛ tq a ṭuṭa perpliroad eqq aqq meʕ a GZ gza gzaname cc Vr cc Vri p c a ʓ ax e saxeli gvarikill Vƛ ƛ e k vlaburn Vk ca bla e c x ʦ vaknow Vc c a codnablack alc i ʕalc i c a saviround goRg gog R mrgvalidry aqq u uqq ʕ e swer swr msralithin C uƛ Vl c a GZ ttx el txeliwhat sti se tʰe se da P Circassian ma raone cV cʕV za GZ ert ertifive W ƛƛi ƛƛwi txᵒe xut xutiSee also Edit Wiktionary has word lists at Appendix Caucasian word lists Language portal Europe portalCaucasus Peoples of the Caucasus Languages of Europe North Caucasus South CaucasusReferences Edit Asya Pereltsvaig Languages of the World An Introduction 2012 Cambridge University Press p 64 Owens Jonathan 2000 Arabic As a Minority Language Walter de Gruyter pp 89 101 ISBN 9783110165784 Zelkina Anna 2000 In Quest for God and Freedom The Sufi Response to the Russian Advance in the North Caucasus C Hurst amp Co p 31 ISBN 9781850653844 Bryan Fanny E B 1992 Bennigsen Broxup Marie ed The North Caucasus Barrier The Russian Advance Towards the Muslim World C Hurst amp Co p 210 ISBN 9781850653059 Nichols Johanna 2003 The Nakh Daghestanian consonant correspondences In Dee Ann Holisky and Kevin Tuite eds Current Trends in Caucasian East European and Inner Asian Linguistics Papers in honor of Howard I Aronson 207 264 Amsterdam John Benjamins doi 10 1075 cilt 246 14nic Chirikba Viacheslav 1996 Common West Caucasian The Reconstruction of its Phonological System and Parts of its Lexicon and Morphology Leiden Research School CNWS School of Asian African and Amerindian Studies ISBN 978 9073782716 Klimov G 1998 Etymological Dictionary of the Kartvelian Languages Berlin Mouton de Gruyter External links EditTITUS Caucasian languages map by Jost Gippert amp projects Armazi amp Ecling CIA ethnolinguistic map language family map by Matthew Dryer Caucausian section of the Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire The Iberian Caucasian Connection in a Typological Perspective An in depth linguistic study of Basque Georgian and other ergative languages concluding that the similarities are not strong enough to prove a genetic link Atlas of the Caucasian Languages with very detailed Language Guide by Yuri B Koryakov Comparative Notes on Hurro Urartian Northern Caucasian and Indo European by V V Ivanov Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Languages of the Caucasus amp oldid 1128174395, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
