Languages of the Caucasus
|
Ethno-Linguistic groups in the Caucasus region |
The
languages of the Caucasus are a large and extremely varied array of languages spoken by more than ten million people in the
Caucasus region of
Eastern Europe and Western Asia, between the
Black Sea and the
Caspian Sea. Linguistic studies allow those languages to be classified into several language families, with little or no discernible affinity to each other.
Some of those language families have no known members outside the Caucasus area. The term
Caucasian languages may refer to these families specifically, or more generally to all languages historically spoken in that area.
Families restricted to the Caucasus area
Most of the languages spoken in the Caucasus area fall into three widely accepted
language families. These families were essentially restricted to the Caucasus area through historic times, hence their common label
Caucasian languages.
*
South Caucasian, also called the
Georgian or
Kartvelian family
Includes
Georgian, the official language of
Georgia, with four million speakers;
*
Northwest Caucasian, also called the
Abxaz-Adyge,
Circassian, or
Pontic familyIncludes the
Kabardian language, with one million speakers;
*
Northeast Caucasian, also called the
Dagestanian,
Nakho-Dagestanian, or
Caspian familyIncludes the
Chechen language, with one million speakers.
Families with wider distribution
Other languages historically and presently spoken in the Caucasus area can be placed into familes with a much wider geographical distribution.
*
Indo-European**
Armenian**
Greek***
Pontic**
Iranian languages***
Ossetian***
Talish***
Judeo-Tat**
Slavic languages***
Russian*
Altaic**
Turkic languages***
Azeri***
Balkar***
Karachay***
Kumyk***
Nogai**
Mongolian languages***
KalmykFor a more detailed classification of these languages, see the articles on the corresponding families.
A topic that has attracted much research since the 19th century is the classification of the four major Caucasian families into larger groups. Unfortunately this field is quite sensitive, given the complex ethnic and political situation of the region, both before and after the extinction of the
Soviet Union. As in many other regions of the globe, linguistic arguments are often used to back up or dismiss territorial disputes and separatist movements. Given the general paucity of linguistic and historical evidence for inter-family relationships, those political implications often dominate the debate.
North Caucasian languages
Some linguists see the Northwest (Abkhaz-Adyghe) and Northeast (Nahk-Dagestanian) families as related, and have proposed to join them into a single
North Caucasian family — which is sometimes called
Caucasic or simply
Caucasian, even though it is not meant to contain the South Caucasian (Kartvelian) languages. However, this proposal is not yet widely accepted. See the article on
North Caucasian languages for details.
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. (The
Ibero in the name refers to the ancient kingdom of
Caucasian Iberia in Eastern
Georgia and is not related to the
Iberian Peninsula.) See the article on
Ibero-Caucasian languages for details.
Since the birth of comparative linguistics in the 19th century, the riddle of the apparently isolated Caucasian language families has attracted the attention of many scholars who have strenuously tried to relate them to other languages outside the Caucasus region. While most linguists do not accept these proposals, there may be connections between the Northwest and Northeast Caucasian families and some extinct languages formerly spoken in
Anatolia and northern
Mesopotamia.
Hattic
Some linguists have claimed affinities between the Northwest Caucasian (Circassian) family and the extinct
Hattic language. See the article on
Northwest Caucasian languages for details.
Hurrian and Urartian
Other linguists have claimed similarities between the Northeast Caucasian (Nakh-Dagestan) family and the extinct languages
Hurrian and
Urartian. See the article on
Northeast Caucasian languages for details.
Basque
Many of the Caucasian languages have
case systems (noun inflection rules) of a particular kind, known as
ergative, which sets them apart from most European languages. The fact that
Basque, an
isolated language spoken in the
Pyrenees, also has an ergative case system has led many scholars to propose it as a displaced member of some Caucasian family. However, the resemblances between the case systems of Basque and of the Caucasian languages have been found to be rather superficial. In fact, linguists claim that the underlying structure of Georgian is not ergative.
(Western) Iberian language
It has been speculated that the South Caucasian languages may be related to the extinct
Iberian language, spoken until the 1st century BC in the
Iberian peninsula (which is known as "Western Iberia" in the Caucasus, to distinguish it from the
Caucasian Iberia). There seems to be no evidence for this relationship other than the coincidence of the names; however, the few surviving Iberian inscriptions suggest a genetic relationship to Basque, so any links with one language may also apply to the other.
Dene-Caucasian family
Recently, linguists such as
Sergei Starostin have proposed a
Dene-Caucasian superfamily which would include, among others, the North Caucasian languages and
Na-Dené. In Sarostin's version, Hurro-Urartian and Northeast Caucasian are related only at a higher level of this family called Sino-Caucasian.
*
Language family*
TITUS Language map by Jost Gippert*
CIA ethnolinguistic map*
Linguistic families map by Matthew Dryer*
Ethnolinguistic map of Tajikistan by Iraj Bashiri*
Caucausian section of the Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire*
The Iberian-Caucasian Connection in a Typological Perspective â€" 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.
*
The A. Chikobava Institute of Linguistics, Georgian Academy of Sciences*
Atlas of the Caucasian Languages with very detailed Language Guide (by Yuri B. Koryakov)*
The Graphic Model and the Maps of Origin Homelands of North Caucasian and Abkhaz-Adyghean Languages*
Comparative Notes on Hurro-Urartian, Northern Caucasian and Indo-European by
V. V. Ivanov
