Northeast Caucasian languages

Northeast Caucasian
Nakh(o)-Dag(h)estanian, Caspian
Geographic distribution	Caucasus
Linguistic classification	Alarodian ? North Caucasian ? Northeast Caucasian
Subdivisions	Nakh Avar-Andi Tsezic (Didoic) Lak Dargin Khinalug Lezgic

The Northeast Caucasian languages, also called East Caucasian, Caspian, or Nakh(o)-Dag(h)estanian, are a family of languages spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia, in northern Azerbaijan, and in Georgia, as well as in diaspora populations.

Linguistic features

This family is known for the complex phonology (up to 60 consonants or up to 30 vowels in some languages), noun classes, ergative sentence structure, and large number of noun cases, including several locative cases.

Language classification

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Traditional classification (Schulze 2009)

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Latest attempt at internal classification (Schulze 2009)

File:CauClass.jpg

A schematic comparison of the two classificatory models

There are two competing models of internal classification of the family. The traditional one assumes that the family is split into two branches: Nakh and Dagestanian (whence the term Nakho-Dagestanian). However, latest attempts at reconstructing the protolanguage suggest that the Nakh languages may be no more divergent than the other branches of Dagestanian. The following tree, based on the work of linguist Bernard Comrie and others, has been adopted by Ethnologue. Population data is from Ethnologue 15th ed.

Nakh family

Main article: Nakh languages

Spoken in Chechnya, Ingushetia, and Georgia. Chechen and Ingush are official languages of their respective republics.

• Batsbi (Bats) (3400 speakers)
• Veinakh languages
  • Chechen (1,360,000 in Russia in 2002)
  • Ingush (450,000 in Russia in 2002)

Avar-Andi family

Spoken in the Northwest Dagestan highlands and western Dagestan. Avar is the lingua franca for these and the Tsez languages, and the only literary language.

• Avar (600,000 speakers)
• Andi languages
  • Andi (Qwannab) (10,000)
  • Botlikh (Botlix) (5000)
  • Ghodoberi (3000)
  • Karata (Kirdi) (5000)
  • Akhvakh (Axvax) (3500)
  • Bagvalal (Kvanada) (2000)
  • Tindi (Tindal) (6700)
  • Chamalal (5000)

Tsezic (Didoic) family

Spoken mostly in Southwest Dagestan. None are literary languages.

• East Tsez languages
  • Hinukh (Hinux, Ginukh) (200 speakers)
  • Bezhta (Kapuch) (5,000)
• West Tsez languages
  • Tsez (Dido) (15,000)
  • Khwarshi (Khvarshi, Xvarsh) (3,000)
  • Hunzib (Gunzib) (2,000)

Lak isolate

Spoken in the Central Dagestan highlands. Lak is a literary language.

• Lak (120,000 speakers)

Dargi (Dargin) dialect continuum

Spoken by 370,000 in the Central Dagestan highlands. Dargwa proper is a literary language.

• Dargwa (Dargva)
• Kajtag
• Kubachi
• Itsari
• Chirag

Khinalug (Xinalug) isolate

Spoken in northern Azerbaijan.

• Khinalug (Xinalug) (2000 speakers)

Lezgic family

Spoken in the Southeast Dagestan highlands and in Northern Azerbaijan. The Lezgian language or, as the Lezgins call it themselves - Лезги чlал (lezgi ch'al) is the biggest, in terms of the number of native speakers, of all the languages of the Lezgic group (other languages from this group include Tabasaran, Udi, Tsakhur, and Rutul - Tabasaran was once thought to be the language with the largest number of grammatical cases at 54, which could – depending on the analysis – as well be the Tsez language with 64). The Lezgic family along with a couple of other families (Avaro-Ando-Tsez, Lakh, Dargin) forms the Daghestanian part of the Nakh-Daghestanian language family (the Nakh part is constituted by Chechen, Ingush and related small languages).

Lezgian and Tabassaran are literary languages.

• Archi (1000 speakers)
• Udi (5700). The Aghbanian language of the medieval Caucasian Albanian kingdom was a form of Old Udi.
• Nuclear Lezgian languages
  • Aghul (Agul) (17,400)
  • Lezgian (450,000)
  • Tabasaran (Tabassaran) (96,000)
  • Rutul (20,000)
  • Kryts (Kryz) (6000 in 1975)
  • Budukh (Budux) (1000)
  • Tsakhur (Tsaxur) (20,073)

Connections to other families

North Caucasian family

Many linguists think that the Northeast and Northwest Caucasian languages should be joined into a putative North Caucasian family, sometimes called Caucasic or Caucasian (even though it is not meant to include the South Caucasian (Kartvelian) family). However, this hypothesis is not well demonstrated.

Connections to Hurrian and Urartian

Some linguists — notably I. M. Diakonoff and S. Starostin — also see similarities between the Northeast Caucasian family and the extinct languages Hurrian and Urartian. Hurrian was spoken in various parts of the Fertile Crescent in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. Urartian was the language of Urartu, a powerful state centered in the area of Lake Van in Turkey, that existed between 1000 BC or earlier and 585 BC.

The two extinct languages have been grouped into the Hurro-Urartian family. Diakonoff proposed the name Alarodian for the union of Hurro-Urartian and Northeast Caucasian.

Agricultural vocabulary

The Proto-Northeast Caucasian language had many terms for agriculture, and Johanna Nichols has suggested that its speakers may have been involved in the development of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent. They had words for concepts such as yoke, as well as fruit trees such as apple and pear that suggest agriculture was already well developed when the proto-language broke up.

References

• NICHOLS, Johanna (2003), "The Nakh-Daghestanian consonant correspondences", in TUITE, Kevin; HOLISKY, Dee Ann (eds.), Current trends in Caucasian, East European, and Inner Asian linguistics: Papers in honor of Howard I. Aronson, Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 207–251
• SCHULZE, Wolfgang (2009), "The Languages of the Caucasus", http://wolfgangschulze.in-devir.com/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=63 {{citation}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |Format= ignored (|format= suggested) (help)
• SCHULZE, Wolfgang (2007), "Personalität in den ostkaukasischen Sprachen" (PDF), Munich Working Papers in Cognitive Typology, IATS University of Munich {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |Format= ignored (|format= suggested) (help)
• WUETHRICH, Bernice (2000). "Peering Into the Past, With Words". Science. 288 (5469): 1158. doi:10.1126/science.288.5469.1158. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

See also

• Languages of the Caucasus

External links

• CIA linguistic map of the Caucasus
• Ethnologue: North Caucasian, Northeast