Professor George Hewitt on alphabet imposition in Russia and on dying languages
	One language dies every fortnight
	HALF OF WORLD LANGUAGES WILL BE EXTINCT IN THIS CENTURY "There are about 6,000 languages. Between 30 and 50 per cent will be gone by the end of the current century. This still means that one language will die every 2 weeks during the coming 98 years..."
WHICH CAUCASIAN LANGUAGES WILL DIE? "Certainly Bats will go very soon and some of the very small Daghestanian languages like Udi, Kryts, Khinalug, Budukh, Hinukh, Archi, Hunzib. Abkhaz, Abaza, West Adyghe are not really in a healthy state ."
by Fehim Taştekin

North Caucasian languages
The Avar-Andi-Dido languages
Nakho-Dagestanian languages
The Lezgian languages

The genetic relationship of the Caucasian languages to any languages outside the Caucasus is highly speculative and as yet unproven. Several linguists have proposed an "Ibero-Caucasian" family comprising all of the Caucasian languages and Basque. Others have sought to link these languages with the as yet unaffiliated languages of the ancient Middle East (e.g., Sumerian and Hurrian-Urartian). Within the Caucasian languages, most scholars accept the following grouping: South Caucasian (Kartvelian), Northwest Caucasian (Abkhazo-Adyghian), and Northeast Caucasian (Nakho-Dagestanian).
The Kartvelian (South Caucasian) language family includes Georgian, Mingrelian, Laz, and Svan. Georgian, the national language of Georgia, is the only Caucasian language with an ancient literary tradition. Monuments were inscribed in an Old Georgian script derived from the Greek alphabet; the modern Georgian writing system, a round-form cursive written from left to right, is an indirect descendant of the old script. Mingrelian, Laz, and Svan are unwritten languages, with Mingrelian and Laz sometimes seen as dialects of a single language. Mingrelian and Laz are spoken along the Black Sea coast; Svan is spoken in the high mountain valleys south of Mount Elbrus. The Kartvelian languages are considered to be closely related and descended from a common language. The sound system in these languages is relatively uniform, and they have a highly developed system of word inflection, that is, of word endings and derivation.
The Abkhazo-Adyghian (Northwest Caucasian) group consists of the Abkhaz, Abaza, Adyghian, Kabardian, and Ubykh languages. Abkhaz is spoken in Abkhazia, Georgia, and the others of this group in the northwestern Caucasus region of Russia. The Ubykh language, however, is virtually extinct. The Abkhazo-Adyghian languages are not widely differentiated into dialects. Phonologically, they have a limited number of distinctive vowels but up to 80 distinctive consonant sounds.

The Nakho-Dagestanian (Northeast Caucasian) group consists of the Nakh and Dagestanian languages. Two Nakh languages-Chechen and Ingush-are spoken mainly in Chechnia and Ingushetia republics of Russia. A third, Bats, is spoken in Georgia. The Dagestanian languages can be divided into the following groups: (1) the Avar-Andi-Dido languages of central and western Dagestan, Russia, and part of Azerbaijan, (2) the Lak-Dargin (Lak-Dargwa) languages of central Dagestan, and (3) the Lezgian languages, principally of southern Dagestan.

Compared with the other two Caucasian families, the Nakho-Dagestanian is less clearly unified from a genetic standpoint. While some linguists join Nakho-Dagestanian with Abkhazo-Adyghian into a single North Caucasian family, others separate the Nakh languages (Central Caucasian) and the Dagestanian languages (East Caucasian) into two distinct families.

The original vocabulary of the North Caucasian languages has been fairly well preserved in the modern languages, though there are many loanwords. The written languages of the area are the state languages. Newspapers, radio, and television use the local languages; and children in primary schools are taught in their mother tongue. The North Caucasian alphabets are based on the Cyrillic alphabet, which was adopted in 1936-38.

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, Adyghian, Kabardian, 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 adge. 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-a and (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, 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-c: "my horse" (literally: "I my-horse"), wara u-c: "your horse" (pertaining to a man), bara b-c: "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-cer "I write," but v-u-cer "I write for him"); "potentiality" is a category expressing the possibility of an action (e.g., Abkhaz s-z-uam "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-s-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-swejt "I kill you (masculine)," sara wara s-u-sweit "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) 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 (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 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-acana hani-w-e "father has come here" (in which w is equivalent to the marker of the class of masculine person), ebel j-acana hani-j-e "mother has come here" (in which j is equivalent to the marker of the class of feminine person), and cu b-acana 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 gamac "a stone" (nominative), ganc-i-c:a (ergative), and ganc-i-da "on the stone." In pronouns the category of inclusive-exclusive is distinguished--e.g., Avar nil "we with you," niz "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-acana "the boy has come," jas (nominative, class II) j-acana "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 wacaraw ci 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 Islam), 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.

Source: Encyclopedia Britannica