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 Kartvelian family; the Northwest Caucasian, or Abkhaz-Adyghe languages; and the Northeast Caucasian, or Nakh-Dagestanian languages. Kartvelian, with more than 4.5 million speakers, comprises four relatively closely related languages, including Georgian. Northwest Caucasian languages include Abkhaz and a chain of dialects called collectively Circassian. The Northeast Caucasian languages are further divided into two groups, Nakh and Dagestanian. The Nakh languages include Chechen and Ingush, spoken by more than a million people mainly in Chechnya and Ingushetia. Dagestanian is an extraordinarily diversified group of 25–30 languages spoken by some 1.7 million people mainly in northern Azerbaijan and the Republic of Dagestan. Several Dagestanian languages, including Avar, Lak, Dargva, and Lezgi, number their speakers in the hundreds of thousands; others are spoken in only a few villages. In spite of their great diversity, most Caucasian languages have in common large consonant inventories; in some languages the number of consonants distinguished approaches 80. Those Caucasian languages with standard written forms employ the Cyrillic alphabet, with the prominent exception of Georgian. An effort is being made to introduce the Latin alphabet for Chechen in Chechnya.

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Introduction

also called  Paleo-Caucasian,  or  Ibero-Caucasian,  

 group of languages indigenous to Transcaucasia and adjacent areas of the Caucasus region, between the Black and Caspian seas. As used in this article, the term excludes the Indo-European (Armenian, Ossetic, Talysh, Kurdish, Tat) and Turkic languages (Azerbaijani, Kumyk, Noghay, Karachay, Balkar) and some other languages of the area, all of which were introduced to the Caucasus in historical times.

      The Caucasian languages are found in the territory north and south of the Greater Caucasus range; their number varies, according to different classifications, from 30 to 40. The concentration of so many languages in such a small territory is indeed remarkable. There are about 8 million speakers of Caucasian languages; their language communities range in size from only a few hundred people to large national groups of millions.

      The Caucasian languages fall into three typologically well-defined language families: the Northwest Caucasian, or Abkhazo-Adyghian, languages; (Abkhazo-Adyghian languages) the Northeast Caucasian, or Nakho-Dagestanian, languages; (Nakho-Dagestanian languages) and the South Caucasian, or Kartvelian, languages (Kartvelian languages) (also called Iberian). From the typological point of view, the Northwest and Northeast Caucasian groups present opposite structural types, with South Caucasian holding an intermediary position.

      The exact genetic relationships of the Caucasian languages are still unclear on many points, not only in regard to interrelationships of the three major groups but also to some internal groupings. Although the genetic relationships between Northwest and Northeast Caucasian seem probable, the interrelationships of North and South Caucasian are as yet uncertain because of the absence of any regular sound correspondences between them. At the present stage of comparative Caucasian linguistics, North Caucasian and South Caucasian must be viewed as separate language families.

      The theories relating Caucasian with such languages as Basque (Basque language) and the non-Indo-European and non-Semitic languages of the ancient Middle East also lack sufficient evidence and must be considered as inconclusive.

Kartvelian (South (Kartvelian languages) Caucasian) languages

Languages of the group

      The Kartvelian (South Caucasian or Iberian) language family comprises Georgian, Mingrelian (Megrelian), Laz (or Chan), and Svan. The speakers of these languages constitute the Georgian nation and numbered 4.2 million in the mid-1990s.

Georgian

      Georgian (self-designation: kartuli ena (Georgian language)), used as the language of literature and instruction, is the state language of the Republic of Georgia. It is common to all speakers of the Kartvelian languages within Georgia. Beyond the borders of Georgia, Georgian is spoken in the adjacent regions of Azerbaijan and northeastern Turkey. There are also 14 villages of Georgian speakers in the province of Eṣfahān, Iran.

      The designation Georgian that is used in the European languages was coined during the Crusades; it is based on Persian gorji (Georgian), from which the Russian gruzin was also derived. The Greek term íbēres (Georgians) is connected with an Old Iranian name for Georgia.

      The dialects of Georgian fall into two groups—East and West Georgian—divided by the Suram Mountains. These exhibit only slight differences.

      Among the Caucasian languages, only Georgian has an ancient literary tradition, which dates back to the 5th century AD, when the oldest datable monuments were inscribed in an original script. With regard to the order of the alphabet and the shape of some characters, this Old Georgian script is presumed to have been derived from the Greek alphabet. The modern Georgian writing system is based on the round-form cursive, which was developed from the angular book script of the 9th century; the latter was a direct descendant of the Old Georgian script. The Georgian writing system includes a symbol for each of the distinctive sounds (phonemes) of the Georgian language.

      During the Old Georgian period (from the 5th to the 11th century), original and translated literary monuments were produced, among them the Georgian translation of the Bible. The conventions of the New Georgian literary language, ultimately established in the mid-19th century on the basis of an East Georgian dialect, originated in the secular literature of the 12th century. New Georgian differs structurally in many respects from Old Georgian, but the old language is still comprehensible to the Georgians of today. Until the beginning of the 19th century, Old Georgian was still in use in religious services and theological writings.

Mingrelian

      The Mingrelian language (self-designation: margaluri nina) is spoken in the territory north of the Rioni River and west of the Tskhenis-Tskali River and along the Black Sea coast from the mouth of the Rioni up to the city of Ochamchire. The language is unwritten; Georgian is used as a literary language.

Laz

      The Laz language (self-designation: lazuri nena) is spoken along the Black Sea coast from the Chorokh River (Georgia) to south of Pazar (Atina) in Turkish territory. The language is unwritten, Georgian being used as the literary language in Georgia and Turkish in Turkey. In view of the structural closeness between Mingrelian and Laz, they are sometimes considered as dialects of a single language.

Svan

      The Svan language (self-designation: lušnu nin), also unwritten, is located south of Mount Elbrus, in the high valleys of the upper Tskhenis-Tskali and its tributary Kheledula and in the valleys of the upper Inguri River. There are four fairly distinct dialects: Upper and Lower Bal in the Inguri region, and Lashkh and Lentekh in the Tskhenis-Tskali region. Georgian and Russian are used as literary languages.

Linguistic characteristics

      Correspondences between sounds and meanings in words and word elements provide a basis for considering the Kartvelian languages as being closely related and descended from a common ancestral language (a protolanguage).

Phonology

      The sound system of the Kartvelian languages is relatively uniform, with only the vowel systems exhibiting considerable differences. Apart from the five cardinal vowels a, e, i, o, u, which exist in all the Kartvelian languages, the Svan dialects show several additional vowels: the front (or palatalized) vowels, ä, ö, ü, and a high central vowel, ə (as the a in English “sofa”). All these vowels also have distinct lengthened counterparts, thus giving a total of 18 distinctive vowels in some dialects of Svan. Vowel length is not distinctive in the other Kartvelian languages.

      Within the Kartvelian consonant system the stops and affricates have voiced, voiceless, and glottalized varieties. (Stops are produced by complete but momentary stoppage of the breath stream some place in the vocal tract; affricates are sounds begun as stops but released with local friction, such as the ch sounds in “church.” Voiced sounds are made with vibrating vocal cords; in voiceless sounds, the vocal cords do not vibrate; glottalized consonants, indicated in phonetic transcription by dots below or above certain letters, are pronounced with an accompanying closure of the glottis [the space between the vocal cords].) Fricative sounds (e.g., s, z, v), which are characterized by local friction, have only voiced and voiceless types.

      Although most word roots begin with one or two consonants, instances of long consonant clusters in word-initial position occur quite frequently, especially in Georgian, in which such clusters may comprise up to six consonants—e.g., Georgian prckvna “peeling,” msxverṗli “sacrifice.”

Grammatical characteristics

      The Kartvelian languages exhibit a developed system of word inflection (e.g., the use of endings, such as English “dish, dishes” or “walk, walks, walked”) and derivation (word formation). Derivation is characterized by compounding, the combination of words to form new words, as well as by affixation, the addition of prefixes and suffixes—e.g., Georgian kartvel-i “Georgian,” sa-kartvel-o “Georgia”; Mingrelian žir-i “two,” ma-žir-a “second.”

      The verb system distinguishes the categories of person, number (singular and plural, with differentiation of inclusive and exclusive plural in Svan), tense, aspect, mood, voice, causative, and version (the latter defines the subject–object relations). These categories are expressed mainly by the use of prefixes and suffixes, as well as by internal inflection (changes within the verb stem), which is frequently a redundant grammatical feature.

      The system of verb conjugation in Kartvelian languages is multipersonal; that is, the verb forms can indicate the person of the subject (the agent) and of the direct or indirect object by the use of special prefixes. (The subject of the third person is marked by endings in Georgian and Mingrelo-Laz and by a lack of ending in Svan.) An example is Georgian m-er-s “he writes to me,” m-xaṭav-s “he paints me,” in which m denotes the first person as object and s marks the third person as subject. The finite verb forms fall into three series of tenses: the present tense, the aorist (indicating occurrence, usually past, without reference to completion, duration, or repetition), and the perfect or resultative (denoting an action in the past not witnessed by the speaker).

      There is a developed system of preverbs, elements preceding the verb stem and attached to it, with local meaning indicating location of the action in space, as well as its direction (especially in Mingrelian and Laz). Simple preverbs are combined into complex ones. The preverbs are also used to mark the aspect (nature of the action indicated by the verb, with reference to its beginning, duration, completion), which is used for the formation of future and aorist forms—e.g., Georgian er-s “he writes” versus da-er-s “he will write” and da-er-a “he wrote.”

      The nominal (noun, pronoun, adjective) system is distinguished by less structural complexity than the verb system and has cases varying in number from 6 to 11. The six cases common to all the Kartvelian languages are: nominative, marking subject of the intransitive verb; ergative (see below), modified in Mingrelian and Laz; genitive, marking possession; dative, marking indirect objects; ablative–instrumental, expressing relations of separation and source and means or agency; and adverbial, expressing goal of the action—e.g., “to make it.” There are also some secondary local cases (in New Georgian, Mingrelian) that indicate location and direction toward the object as well as from the object (rendered in English by such prepositions as “in,” “on,” “to,” “from,” and so on). The nominal system does not distinguish gender, which is absent even in pronouns, and there are no special articles (such as English “a,” “the”).

      A basic feature of Kartvelian syntax is the ergative construction of the sentence. The subject of a transitive verb (the agent) is marked by a special agentive, or ergative, case, while the case of the direct object is the same as that of the subject with intransitive verbs, traditionally called the nominative case—e.g., Georgian ḳac-i (nominative) midis and Svan māre (nominative) esɤri, “the, or a, man goes” but Georgian ḳac-ma (ergative) moḳla datv-i (nominative) and Svan mārēĩ (ergative) adgär däšdw (nominative) “the, or a, man killed the, or a, bear.” A specific feature of the Georgian and Svan ergative construction is its restriction to the aorist series (i.e., that showing simply occurrence). In the present-tense series the subject (agent) of transitive as well as intransitive verbs is put into the same nominative case, and the direct object is in the dative—e.g., Georgian ḳac-ma (ergative) moḳla datv-i (nominative) “the man killed a bear” (aorist), but ḳac-i (nominative) ḳlavs datv-s (dative) “the, or a, man kills the, or a, bear” (present tense). In Mingrelian the ergative case with the formative (suffix) -k extends in the aorist series to the constructions with intransitive verbs and results in a formation of two distinct subject cases. In Laz, conversely, the case with the formative -k extends to the constructions with transitive verbs in the present-tense series.

Vocabulary

      The genetic closeness of the Kartvelian languages is evidenced by a large number of structural correspondences and of common lexical (vocabulary) and grammatical items. Though the Kartvelian languages abound in ancient loanwords from Iranian, Greek, Arabic, Turkish, and other languages, it is nevertheless possible to single out the basic vocabulary and grammatical elements of original Caucasian origin, which exhibit a system of regular sound correspondences. The common Kartvelian vocabulary comprises the kinship terms, names of animals, birds, trees, and plants, and parts of the body, as well as different human activities, qualities, and states. The words that are used for the numerals from 1 to 10 and the word for “hundred” are also original common Kartvelian terms.

Proto-Kartvelian

      A comparative study of the Kartvelian languages enables specialists to outline the general structure of the parent language, called Proto-Kartvelian, which yielded the known Kartvelian, or South Caucasian, languages. One of the most characteristic features of the Proto-Kartvelian language is the functional vowel alternation, or ablaut; different forms of a word root or word element appear either with a vowel (*e, *a, *o), called full grade, or without a vowel, called zero grade. (An asterisk indicates that the following form is not attested but has been reconstructed as a hypothetical ancestral form.) In a sequence of word elements (called morphemes) only one element may occur in full grade, the others being in either zero or reduced grade forms (i.e., in a form with *i). To a word root with a full-grade vowel, for example, a suffix in zero may be added, and vice versa: *der-ḳ- (intransitive) “stoop, recline” and *dr-eḳ- (transitive) “bend.” When a full-grade ending is added to these stems, the preceding full-grade element is shifted to zero or a reduced grade; e.g., *der-ḳ- plus the ending *-a becomes *dṛ-ḳ-a. In such patterns the lengthened grade, a long vowel, may also appear.

      These ablaut patterns, strikingly parallel to those of the Indo-European languages, and other linguistic features may have arisen in Proto-Kartvelian as a result of contacts with Indo-European at a comparatively early date. Such contacts between Kartvelian and Indo-European are further evidenced by a number of Indo-European loanwords in Proto-Kartvelian, such as Proto-Kartvelian *ṭep “warm” (compare Indo-European *tep “warm”), Proto-Kartvelian *ṃḳerd “breast” (compare Indo-European *ḱerd “heart”), and others.

      In Mingrelo-Laz the ancient ablaut patterns were eliminated and new forms were set up with a stable, non-interchanging vowel in each word element. The ancient ablauting models were better preserved in Georgian and especially in Svan, in which new ablauting patterns, in addition to the old structures, were established.

      The pronominal system of Proto-Kartvelian is characterized by the category of inclusive–exclusive (i.e., there are two forms of the pronoun “we,” one including the hearer, and the other excluding him), which survived in Svan but has been lost in other languages of the family. Svan also has preserved a certain number of archaic structural features of the Proto-Kartvelian epoch, further setting it apart from Georgian and Mingrelo-Laz, which share a number of common lexical and grammatical innovations. These features provide evidence that Svan was separated fairly early from the rest of Proto-Kartvelian, which later yielded the Mingrelo-Laz and Georgian languages.

Thomas V. Gamkrelidze

North Caucasian languages

      The North Caucasian languages are divided into two groups: Abkhazo-Adyghian, or the Northwest Caucasian, languages, and Nakho-Dagestanian, or the Northeast Caucasian, languages.

Abkhazo-Adyghian languages

      The Abkhazo-Adyghian group consists of the Abkhaz, Abaza (Abaza language), Adyghian, Kabardian (Kabardian language), and Ubykh languages. Adyghians and Kabardians are often considered members of a larger, Circassian group. Abkhaz, with about 90,000 speakers, is spoken in Abkhazia (the southern slopes of the western Greater Caucasus, Georgia). The other languages are spread over the northern slopes of the western Greater Caucasus. Abazians, who numbered some 20,000 in the Soviet census of 1989, live in Karachay-Cherkessia; Adyghians (120,000), in Adygea; Kabardians (380,000) dwell mainly in Kabardino-Balkaria. Both Adyghians and Kabardians call themselves adəge. The Ubykh language, now extinct, was formerly found to the north of the area where Abkhaz is spoken, in the vicinity of Tuapse, Russia. In 1864 Ubykhians as well as a substantial part of the Abkhaz- and Adyghe-speaking population migrated to Turkey, where before long they lost their native tongue. The total number of people speaking Abkhazo-Adyghian languages is about 610,000. Many speakers of Abkhazo-Adyghian languages live in the countries of the Middle East—Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq.

      All Abkhazo-Adyghian languages, with the exception of Ubykh, are written. From the dialectological point of view, the Abkhazo-Adyghian languages are not widely differentiated, the differences being mainly of phonetic character. In Abkhaz two dialects are distinguished; Adyghian and Kabardian differentiate four dialects each. Abkhaz and Abaza are very close to each other and are considered by some scholars to be dialects of the same language. The same kind of affinity exists between Adyghian and Kabardian. Ubykh occupies an intermediate position between the Abkhaz-Abaza and Adyghe-Kabardian languages.

Phonology

      A characteristic feature of the sound system of the Abkhazo-Adyghian languages is a rather limited number of distinctive vowels (vowel)—a and ə (pronounced as the a in English “sofa”). Some scholars consider it possible to posit only one vowel, which, depending on the position, can be realized in different ways: a, ə, i, o, e. On the other hand, the languages are notable for a great diversity in their consonant systems. The number of consonants distinguished reaches about 70 (in the Abkhaz and Adyghian languages) or even 80 (Ubykh). Along with the consonants that occur in all the Caucasian languages, the Abkhazo-Adyghian languages are characterized by different sets of labialized consonants (formed by rounding the lips), strong (hard or tense) consonants, half-hushing consonants, and velarized consonants (formed with the back of the tongue approaching the soft palate).

Grammatical characteristics

      The grammatical characteristics of the Abkhazo-Adyghian languages include an extremely simple noun system and a relatively complicated system of verb conjugation. There are no grammatical cases in Abkhaz and Abaza, and in the other languages only two principal cases occur: a direct case (nominative) and an oblique case, combining the functions of several cases—ergative, genitive, dative, and instrumental. In nouns, possession is expressed by means of pronominal prefixes—e.g., Abkhaz sarra s-č:ə “my horse” (literally: “I my-horse”), wara u-č:ə “your horse” (pertaining to a man), bara b-č:ə “your horse” (pertaining to a woman), and so forth. (The colon [:] indicates that the preceding consonant is a strong consonant.)

      The Abkhaz and Abaza languages distinguish the grammatical classes of person and thing (the latter class includes all nouns denoting nonhuman objects). The class of person also differentiates between the subclasses of masculine and feminine.

      The verb in the Abkhazo-Adyghian languages has a pronounced polysynthetic character; that is, various words combine to form a composite word that expresses a complete statement or sentence. The most important verbal categories are expressed by prefixes, although suffixes also form tenses and moods. The principal verb categories are dynamic versus static, transitivity, person, number, class, tense, mood, negation, causative, version, and potentiality. “Dynamic versus static” is a verb form expressing action versus state of being; “version” is a verb category denoting for whom the action is intended (compare Georgian v-er “I write,” but v-u-er “I write for him”); “potentiality” is a category expressing the possibility of an action (e.g., Abkhaz s-zə-ɯuam “I cannot write”). The verb is multipersonal and can denote up to four persons.

      Adverbial relationships (such as “where,” “when,” “how”) are expressed by prefixes following the personal markers. On the whole, the verb forms appear as a long string of word elements expressing the above-mentioned categories—e.g., Abkhaz i-u-z-d-aa-sə-r-g-an “that (thing)-you (masculine)-for-them-hither-I shall-make-bring” (i.e., “I shall make them bring that for you”). In a sequence of prefixes, up to nine morphemes are possible.

      The simple sentence has three constructions: indefinite, nominative, and ergative (in Abkhaz and Abaza only indefinite). An indefinite construction has the subject in the indefinite case (i.e., not marked with a special suffix); a nominative construction has the subject in the nominative case. The same personal markers, depending on their arrangement, can denote both the subject and various objects—e.g., Abkhaz, wara sara u-s-šwejṭ “I kill you (masculine),” sara wara s-u-šweiṭ “you (masculine) kill me.”

Nakho-Dagestanian languages

      The Nakho-Dagestanian group consists of the Nakh and Dagestanian languages. Some investigators subdivide the Nakho- Dagestanian languages into two independent groups: Central Caucasian languages (Nakh languages) (Nakh) and East Caucasian languages (Dagestan), although the great proximity of these groups, and their equal remoteness from the Abkhazo-Adyghian languages, may justify regarding them as a common group of languages.

      The Nakh languages consist of Chechen (890,000 speakers), Ingush (210,000), and Bats (or Tsova-Tushian, about 3,000 speakers). The Chechens and Ingush live in Chechenia and Ingushetia; the Bats dwell in the village Zemo-Alvani in the Akhmeta district of northeastern Georgia. Both Chechen and Ingush, which are fairly similar to one another, are written. Bats speakers, whose language is not written, use Georgian as their literary language.

      The Dagestan languages are numerous. The following groups can be distinguished:

The Avar-Andi-Dido languages

      These occupy the central and western part of Dagestan and part of the Zakataly region in northwestern Azerbaijan. The member languages are the Avar language; the Andi subgroup of languages, including Andi, Botlikh, Godoberi, Chamalal, Bagvalal, Tindi, Karata, and Akhvakh; and the Dido subgroup, including Dido (Tsez), Khvarshi, Hinukh, Bezhta, and Hunzib.

      Of these tongues, the language with the most speakers (about 530,000) is Avar, which has literary status. None of the Andi-Dido languages are written; Avar is used as the literary language. Most of them are spoken by fewer than 10,000 people. From ancient times the Andi-Dido nationalities have used the Avar language for intertribal communication. Avar is still widely known and spoken among them. The Andi languages are phonetically and grammatically very close to each other. The same affinity is observed among the Dido languages. In respect to dialectology, the majority of Avar-Andi-Dido languages are widely differentiated.

The Lak-Dargin languages

      Lak (also spelled Lakk, with some 100,000 speakers) and Dargin (or Dargwa, with 350,000) are spoken in the central part of Dagestan. Both are written languages. The Lak language is quite homogeneous with regard to its dialects; Dargin, however, possesses several diversified dialects—sometimes considered as separate languages (e.g., Kubachi). Some view Lak and Dargin as independent language groups.

The Lezgian languages

      This language group includes Lezgi (with 240,000 speakers in Dagestan and about 170,000 in Azerbaijan); Tabasaran (about 90,000); Agul (about 12,000); Rutul (about 15,000); Tsakhur (about 11,000); Archi (fewer than 1,000); Kryz (about 6,000); Budukh (about 2,000); Khinalug (about 1,500); and Udi (about 3,700). The majority of Lezgi languages are spoken in southern Dagestan, but some of them (Kryz, Budukh, Khinalug, Udi) are spoken chiefly in Azerbaijan; and one village of Udi speakers is located in Georgia. It is important to note that in Azerbaijan, as well as earlier in Russia, all Dagestanians—including Avars—referred to themselves as Lezginians. Among the Lezgian languages, only Lezgi and Tabasaran are written. Archi, Khinalug, and Udi are the most divergent languages of the Lezgian division. The Udi language is believed to be one of the languages of ancient Caucasian Albania.

Linguistic characteristics

Phonology

      The sound systems of the Nakho-Dagestanian languages are diverse. There are up to five vowels (vowel) (a, e, i, o, u); in some languages o is only now becoming an independent distinctive unit. Along with these cardinal vowels, in a number of languages there are also long and nasalized vowels (the Andi languages), pharyngealized vowels (in Udi), and labialized vowels (in Dido). In the Nakh languages (such as Chechen) the vowel system is fairly intricate, the number of distinctive vowels amounting to 30 (including diphthongs and triphthongs).

      The consonant systems of the Nakh languages are relatively simple, coinciding, on the whole, with those of the South Caucasian languages (apart from a number of pharyngeal consonants characteristic of all the Nakh languages and a lateral sound peculiar to Bats).

      The opposition of strong and weak voiceless consonants is typical of the majority of the Dagestanian languages. This contrast has been lost in a number of languages and dialects—for example, in the Dido languages and in some dialects of Avar. The labialized clusters kw, qw, sw, and so on, are widespread. In the Avar-Andi-Dido languages and in Archi there are fricative and affricate lateral sounds (i.e., different types of l), with the maximum possible number being six (in Akhvakh).

      All the Caucasian languages have a series of stops (stop) of three types—voiced, voiceless aspirated, and glottalized (i.e., pronounced, respectively, with vibrating vocal cords; with vocal cords not vibrating but with an accompanying audible puff of breath; and with accompanying closure of the glottis [space between the vocal cords]). In some languages strong and weak consonants also contrast. Usually, in the languages with a strongly developed vowel system, the system of consonants is comparatively simple (e.g., Chechen, Ingush, Dido), and vice versa (e.g., Avar, Lak, and Dargin have complicated consonantisms and relatively simple vowel systems).

Grammatical characteristics

      There are several common structural features in morphology (word structure), the most characteristic being the existence of the grammatical category of classes (eight classes in Bats; six in Chechen and Andi; five in Chamalal; four in Lak; three in Avar; two in Tabasaran).

      In a number of languages (Lezgi, Udi) noun differentiation by classes has disappeared. The class of “thing” is distinguished from the “person” class, which can be differentiated into the subclasses of masculine and feminine. Compare, for example, Avar emen w-aana hani-w-e “father has come here” (in which w is equivalent to the marker of the class of masculine person), ebel j-aana hani-j-e “mother has come here” (in which j is equivalent to the marker of the class of feminine person), and ču b-aana hani-b-e “a horse (a letter) has come here” (in which b is equivalent to the marker of the class of thing). In the plural there are usually fewer grammatical classes denoted.

      Nouns have many cases, both in singular and in plural; there are cardinal cases (nominative, ergative, genitive, dative) and local cases that denote the location of a thing (“on,” “in,” “near,” “under”), with a specification of movement (“where,” “which way,” “from where,” “over what”). The ergative case, the case of the real subject of transitive verbs, is present in all the Nakho-Dagestanian languages. Nouns have different stem forms in the nominative and the oblique (non-nominative) cases—e.g., Avar gama “a stone” (nominative), gan-i-c:a (ergative), and gan-i-da “on the stone.” In pronouns the category of inclusive–exclusive is distinguished—e.g., Avar niĺ “we with you,” niž “we without you.”

      The class of the noun in the nominative case (i.e., in the case of the subject of intransitive verbs and of the direct object of transitive verbs) is reflected in the verb—e.g., Avar: was (nominative, class I) w-aana “the boy has come,” jas (nominative, class II) j-aana “the girl has come.”

      In the Lezgi language, a characteristic structural feature is agglutination, the combination of various elements of distinct meaning into a single word. A typical feature of Nakho-Dagestanian syntax is the presence of the ergative construction of the sentence (the subject of transitive verbs is put in the ergative case and the real object in the nominative case). Complex sentences are usually formed with participial and adverbial–participial construction; e.g., Avar haniwe waaraw či dir wac: wugo “the man who arrived here is my brother” (literally, “the here arrived man my brother is”).

Vocabulary

      The original vocabulary of the North Caucasian languages has been fairly well preserved in the modern languages, although many words have been borrowed from Arabic (through Islām), the Turkic languages, and Persian. There are also loanwords that have been taken from the neighbouring languages (Georgian, Ossetic). Russian, which was a major influence from the late 19th century, was for decades the main source for new words, especially technical terminology.

T.E. Gudava

Additional Reading

General works

G. Deeters, G.R. Solta, and Vahan Inglisian, Armenisch und kaukasische Sprachen (1963), a survey, includes a presentation of the structure of the Caucasian languages according to the most characteristic features of phonology, morphology, and syntax, with an extensive bibliography. G.A. Klimov, Kavkazskie iazyki (1965), also available in a German translation, Die kaukasischen Sprachen (1969), offers a brief exposition of the history and structures of the Caucasian languages, with a general characterization of each group and an extensive bibliography, and his Vvedenie v kavkazskoe iazykoznanie, ed. by B.A. Serebrennikov (1986), also available in a German translation, Einführung in die kaukasische Sprachwissenschaft, ed. and trans. by Jost Gippert (1994), is also of interest. A.H. Kuipers, “Caucasian,” in Current Trends in Linguistics, vol. 1 (1963), pp. 315–344, provides a useful brief survey of Caucasian linguistics, with a selected bibliography. Adolf Dirr, Einführung in das Studium der kaukasischen Sprachen (1928, reprinted 1978), contains a survey of the structure of individual Caucasian languages and their interrelationships as well as a linguistic atlas. V.V. Vinogradov (ed.), IAzyki Narodov SSSR, vol. 4, Iberiisko-Kavkazskie IAzyki (1967), is a brief exposition of the structures of all the Caucasian languages, with a selected bibliography. Much of the more recent scholarship is published in Georgian or Russian. Recent works in English include John A.C. Greppin (ed.), The Indigenous Languages of the Caucasus (1991– ); and Howard I. Aronson (ed.), Non-Slavic Languages of the U.S.S.R.: Papers from the Fourth Conference (1994).Thomas V. Gamkrelidze T.E. Gudava

South Caucasian languages

Two useful practical guides to Georgian are Kita Tschenkéli, Einführung in die georgische Sprache, 2 vol. (1958, reissued 1980); and Howard I. Aronson, Georgian: A Reading Grammar, corrected ed. (1990). Much useful information about Georgian and the history of Georgian (Kartvelian) studies is contained in Shota Dzidziguri (Šotʿa Żiżiguri), The Georgian Language (1969). Hans Vogt, Grammaire de la langue géorgienne (1971), is a useful grammar. Important special works on the South Caucasian languages include G. Deeters, Das kharthwelische Verbum: Vergleichende Darstellung des Verbalbaus der südkaukasischen Sprachen (1930), a comprehensive comparative study of the verb structure of the Kartvelian languages; A.S. Čikobava, Drevnejšaja struktura imennyx osnov v kartvelʿskix jazykax (1942), in Georgian with Russian and English summaries, a comparative analysis of the ancient structure of nominal stems in the Kartvelian languages, with an interpretation of certain prefixes as the ancient class markers; Karl Horst Schmidt, Studien zur Rekonstruktion des Lautstandes der südkaukasischen Grundsprache (1962), a detailed analysis of sound correspondences with a reconstruction of the Proto-Kartvelian phonemic system; G.A. Klimov, Etimologicheskiĭ slovarʿ kartvelʿskikh iazykov (1964); T.V. Gamkrelidze and G.I. Machavariani, Sonanttʿa sistema da ablauti kʿartʿvelur enebši (1965), in Georgian with a Russian summary, also available in a German translation, Sonantensystem und Ablaut in den Kartwelsprachen (1982), a detailed comparative analysis of the Kartvelian phonological and morphophonological system, with a reconstruction of resonants and ablaut alternations in Proto-Kartvelian and their typological evaluation; and Alice C. Harris, Diachronic Syntax: The Kartvelian Case (1985). A.G. Šanidze, Osnovy gruzinskoj grammatiki, vol. 1 (1953), is a comprehensive exposition (in Georgian) of the structure of modern Georgian. An account of the Georgian sound system is given in G.S. Axvlediani, Osnovy obščej fonetiki (1949), in Georgian. A detailed descriptive analysis of the Svan verb system according to dialects is found in V.T. Topuria, Svanuri ena, vol. 1, Zmna (1931), in Georgian with a Russian summary. Additional works include Dee Ann Holisky, Aspect and Georgian Medial Verbs (1981); and T.V. Gamkrelidze, Alphabetic Writing and the Old Georgian Script (1994; originally published in Georgian, 1989), a typology of alphabetic writing and the question of the origin of the Georgian alphabet as a national Christian script.Thomas V. Gamkrelidze Ed.

North Caucasian languages

P.K. Uslar, Etnografiia Kavkaza: IAzykoznanie, 6 vol. in 3 (1887–96), and a more recent volume, published from the author's manuscript, vol. 7 (1979), contains descriptive grammars of the individual North Caucasian languages. A. Tschikobava, “Die ibero-kaukasischen Gebirgssprachen und der heutige Stand ihrer Erforschung in Georgien,” Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 9:109–161 (1959), a brief survey of the North Caucasian languages, includes an extensive bibliography. N. Trubetzkoy, “Nordkaukasische Wortgleichungen,” Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes, vol. 37 (1930), pp. 79–92, establishes sets of sound correspondences between the West and East Caucasian languages and deals with the history of their consonantism. Georges Dumézil, Études comparatives sur les langues caucasiennes du nord-ouest (morphologie) (1932), offers a comparative analysis of the grammatical structure of the Abkhazo-Adyghian languages. A.H. Kuipers, Phoneme and Morpheme in Kabardian (East Adyghe) (1960), analyzes in detail the phonemic structure of morphemes in Kabardian and includes a typological comparison with other linguistic systems. W.S. Allen, “Structure and System in the Abaza Verbal Complex,” Transactions of the Philological Society (1956), pp. 127–176, comprehensively analyzes the verb structure in Abaza.Two essays by Alf Sommerfelt in Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap, “Études comparatives sur le caucasique du Nord-ouest,” 7:178–210 (1934), and “Études comparatives . . . Nord-est,” 9:115–143 (1938), compare the sound systems of the Nakh languages. Henricus Joannes Smeets, Studies in West Circassian Phonology and Morphology (1984); John Colarusso, The Northwest Caucasian Languages: A Phonological Survey (1988), and A Grammar of the Kabardian Languages (1992); and Martin Haspelmath, A Grammar of Lezgian (1993). T.E. Gudava, Konsonantizm andiĭskikh iaazykov (1964), reconstructs the original consonant system of the Avar-Andi-Dido languages. B.K. Gigineishvili, Sravnitelʿnaia fonetika dagestanskikh iazykov (1977), presents a comparative phonetic study of Dagestanian languages. Two essays in N.I. Konrad et al. (eds.), IAzyki Azii i Afriki, vol. 3, IAzyki drevnei Perednei Azii (nesemitskie) (1979), are also of interest: E.A. Bokarev, “Dagestanskie iazyki,” pp. 161–172; and M.A. Kumakhov and A.K. Shagirov, “Abkhazo-adygskie iazyki,” pp. 133–160.T.E. Gudava

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