Caucasian Languages

Caucasian languages, 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; the Northeast Caucasian, or Nakho-Dagestanian, languages; and the South Caucasian, or 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 and the non-Indo-European and non-Semitic languages of the ancient Middle East also lack sufficient evidence and must be considered as inconclusive.