Northeast Caucasian languages

Northeast Caucasian languages
Northeast Caucasian
Nakh(o)-Dag(h)estanian, Caspian
Geographic
distribution:
Caucasus
Linguistic classification: North Caucasian ?
Subdivisions:
Avar–Andic
Lezgic
Northeast Caucasian languages.png
  Nakh
  Avar–Andic
  Tsezic
  Dargin
  Lak
  Lezgic

The Northeast Caucasian languages constitute a language family spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, northern Azerbaijan, and in northeastern Georgia, as well as in diaspora populations in Russia, Turkey, and the Middle East. They are also called Nakho-Dagestanian / Nakh–Dagestanian or just Dagestanian (Daghestanian), or sometimes Caspian, as opposed to Pontic for the Northwest Caucasian languages.

Contents

Name of the family

Several names have been in use for this family. The most common term, Northeast Caucasian, contrasts the three established families of the Caucasus language area: Northeast Caucasian, Northwest Caucasian, and South Caucasian (Kartvelian). This may be shortened to East Caucasian, especially by those linguists who accept the North Caucasian languages as a language family. The older term Nakho-Dagestanian reflected an erstwhile primary division of the family into Nakh and Dagestanian branches, a view which is no longer widely accepted. The rare term Caspian (that is, bordering the Caspian Sea) is only used in opposition to Pontic (that is, bordering the Black Sea) for the Northwest Caucasian languages.

Linguistic features

Phonology

This family is known for the complex phonology (70+ consonants or up to 30 vowels in some languages). Most languages in this family contrast tense and weak consonants. Tense consonants are characterized by the intensiveness of articulation, which naturally leads to a lengthening of these consonants.

Morphology

These languages can be characterized by strong suffixal agglutination. Weak tendencies towards inflexion may be noted as well. Nouns display covert nominal classification, but partially overt cases of secondary origin can be observed too; classes in individual languages range from two up to eight. As to the grammatical number, opposition between the singular and plural (which can be classifying to some extent) and, sometimes, the collective is seen. Many languages distinguish local versus functional cases, to some degree also casus rectus versus casus obliquus. The inflexional paradigms are often based on, partially-classifying, productive stem extensions (absolutive, oblique, ergative, and genitive flexion). Localization is mostly conveyed by postpositions, but it can be also partly based on preverbs. Noun phrases exhibit incomplete class agreement, group inflexion (on the noun) with partial attributive oblique marking, which may, in turn, carry a partially determining function.

Language classification

Traditional classification (Nichols (2003))
Latest attempt at internal classification (Schulze (2009))
Branching without relative chronology (Schulze (2009))

A long-time classification divided the family into Nakh and Dagestanian branches, whence the term Nakho-Dagestanian.[1] However, attempts at reconstructing the protolanguage suggest that the Nakh languages are no more divergent from Dagestanian than the various branches of Dagestanian are from each other,[2] although this is still not universally accepted. The following outline, based on the work of linguist Bernard Comrie and others, has been adopted by Ethnologue. Population data is from Ethnologue 16th ed.

Nakh family

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

Avar–Andic family

Spoken in the Northwest Dagestan highlands and western Dagestan. Avar is the lingua franca for these and the Tsezic languages, and the only literary language. Schulze (2009) gives the following family tree for the Avar–Andic languages:

  • Avar (788,960)
  • Andic languages

Figures retrieved from Ethnologue.[6]

Tsezic (Didoic) family

Spoken mostly in Southwest Dagestan. None are literary languages. Formerly classified geographically as East Tsezic (Hinukh, Bezta) and West Tsezic (Tsez, Khwarshi, Hunzib), these languages may actually form different subgroupings according to the latest research by Schulze (2009):

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.

Khinalug (Xinalug) isolate

Spoken in northern Azerbaijan.

Lezgic family

Spoken in the Southeast Dagestan highlands and in Northern Azerbaijan. The Lezgian language or, as the Lezgins themselves call it, 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, instead be the Tsez language with 64). The Lezgic family along with a couple of other families (Avar–Andic, Tsezic, Lak, Dargin, and Khinalug) forms the Daghestanian part of the Nakh–Daghestanian language family (the Nakh part is constituted by Chechen, Ingush and related small languages).

Lezgian and Tabasaran are literary languages.

Lezgic family tree

  • Peripheral: Archi (1200 speakers)
  • Samur (or Nuclear Lezgian)
    • Eastern Samur
    • Southern Samur
      • Kryts (6000 in 1975)
      • Budukh (1000)
    • Western Samur

Connections to other families

North Caucasian family

Many linguists[who?][citation needed] 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.[9] 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.

Footnotes

See also

References

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Caucasian languages — Group of languages spoken in the Caucasus region that are not members of any language families spoken elsewhere in the world. Caucasian languages, spoken by some nine million people, are divided into three subgroups: the South Caucasian, or… …   Universalium

  • North Caucasian languages — North Caucasian Caucasic Geographic distribution: Caucasus Linguistic classification: proposed language family, which is widely disputed; although links with other families have been proposed, none of these has received mainstream acceptance …   Wikipedia

  • Northwest Caucasian languages — For the language macrofamily proposal of the same name, see Pontic languages. Northwest Caucasian Abkhazo Adyghean, Pontic Geographic distribution: Caucasus Linguistic classification: North Caucasian? Sub …   Wikipedia

  • Ibero-Caucasian languages — Infobox Language family name=Ibero Caucasian altname= region=Caucasus familycolor=Caucasian family= child1=Northwest Caucasian child2=Northeast Caucasian child3=South CaucasianThe term Ibero Caucasian (or Iberian Caucasian) was proposed by… …   Wikipedia

  • South Caucasian languages — Infobox Language family name=South Caucasian altname= Kartvelian region=South Caucasus, Anatolia familycolor=Caucasian family=One of the world s primary language families child1=Georgian child2=Zan *Mingrelian *Laz child3=Svan iso2=cauThe South… …   Wikipedia

  • Languages of Europe — Most of the many languages of Europe belong to the Indo European language family. Another major family is the Finno Ugric. The Turkic family also has several European members. The North and South Caucasian families are important in the… …   Wikipedia

  • Languages written in a Cyrillic alphabet — This is a list of languages that have been written in the Cyrillic script at one time or another. See also early Cyrillic alphabet. Distribution of the Cyrillic script worldwide. The dark green shows the countries that use Cyrillic as the one… …   Wikipedia

  • Languages using Cyrillic — This is a list of languages that have been written in the Cyrillic alphabet at one time or another. See also early Cyrillic alphabet. Indo European languages * Indo Iranian languages **Indo Aryan languages ***Romani (in Serbia, Montenegro,… …   Wikipedia

  • Languages of the Caucasus — The languages of the Caucasus are 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 these …   Wikipedia

  • Languages of Muslim countries — Muslims believe that God revealed the Qur an to the Muhammad literally, word for word, in the Arabic language.Thus, Arabic is regarded as the holy language of Islam. However, there is no single Muslim language per se, as Islam, the faith of… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”