Northwest Caucasian languages

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For other uses, see Pontic languages.

Northwest Caucasian
West Caucasian
Abkhazo–Circassian
Abkhaz–Adyghean
North Pontic
Pontic
Geographic
distribution		Caucasia in Eastern Europe
Linguistic classificationOne of the world's primary language families
Proto-languageProto-Northwest Caucasian
Subdivisions
Glottologabkh1242
  Circassian
  Abazgi
  Ubykh (extinct)

The Northwest Caucasian languages,

Karachay–Cherkessia), the disputed territory of Abkhazia, Georgia, and Turkey, with smaller communities scattered throughout the Middle East
.

The group's relationship to any other language family is uncertain and unproven. One language, Ubykh, became extinct in 1992, while all of the other languages are in some form of endangerment, with UNESCO classifying all as either "vulnerable", "endangered", or "severely endangered".[4]

The Northwest Caucasian languages possess highly complex sets of consonant distinctions paired with a lack of vowel distinctions, often providing archetypical cases of vertical vowel systems, also known as "linear" vowel systems.[5][6]

Main features

Phonetics

labialisation and palatalisation were reassigned to adjacent consonants. For example, ancestral */ki/ may have become /kʲə/ and */ku/ may have become /kʷə/, losing the old vowels */i/ and */u/ but gaining the new consonants /kʲ/ and /kʷ/. The linguist John Colarusso has further postulated that some instances of this may also be due to the levelling of an old grammatical class prefix system (so */w-ka/ may have become /kʷa/), on the basis of pairs like Ubykh /ɡʲə/ vs. Kabardian and Abkhaz /ɡʷə/ heart. This same process is claimed by some[who?] to lie behind the development of labiovelars in Proto-Indo-European, which once neighboured Proto-NWC
.

Lack of distinctive vowels and wealth of distinctive consonants

The entire family is characterised by a paucity of phonemic vowels (two or three, depending upon the analysis) coupled with rich consonantal systems that include many forms of secondary articulation.[3] Ubykh (Ubyx), for example, had two vowels and probably the largest inventory of consonants outside Southern Africa.

Grammar

Northwest Caucasian languages have rather simple noun systems, with only a handful of cases at the most, coupled with highly

indirect object,[7] and there are also a wide range of applicative constructions. There is a split between "dynamic" and "stative" verbs
, with dynamic verbs having an especially complex morphology. A verb's morphemes indicate the subject's and object's person, place, time, manner of action, negative, and other types of grammatical categories.

All Northwest Caucasian languages are

relative clauses
precede a noun.

Northwest Caucasian languages do not generally permit more than one finite verb in a sentence, which precludes the existence of

subordinate clauses in the Indo-European sense. Equivalent functions are performed by extensive arrays of nominal and participial
non-finite verb forms, though Abkhaz appears to be developing limited subordinate clauses, perhaps under the influence of Russian.

Classification

Northwest Caucasian family tree

Percentage of total Northwest Caucasian speakers, by language

  Kabardian (67.0%)
  Adyghe (23.5%)
  Abkhaz (7.6%)
  Abaza (1.9%)
  Ubykh (0%)
See also: Proto-Northwest Caucasian language

There are five recognized languages in the Northwest Caucasian family: Abkhaz, Abaza, Kabardian or East Circassian, Adyghe or West Circassian, and Ubykh.[3][8] They are classified as follows:

Circassian dialect continuum

See also:
Circassian language and Proto-Circassian language

Circassian
(Cherkess) is a cover term for the series of dialects that include the literary languages of Adyghe and Kabardian.

Adyghe

Hakuchi
spoken by the last speakers of Ubykh in Turkey. Adyghe has many consonants: between 50 and 60 consonants in the various Adyghe dialects but it has only three phonemic vowels. Its consonants and consonant clusters are less complex than the Abkhaz–Abaza dialects.

Yinal speaking Adyghe and Kabardian.

Kabardian

fricatives and a small number of vowels. Kabardian itself has several dialects, including Terek, the literary standard, and Besleney, which is intelligible with both Terek and Adyghe. Unlike the Adyghe, Kabardian lost many of the consonants that existed in the Proto-Circassian language
, for example the consonants /ʃʷʼ, ʐʷ, ʂʷ, ʐ, ʂ, tsʷ, dzʷ/ became /fʼ, v, f, ʑ, ɕ, f, v/.

Abkhaz–Abaza (Abazgi) dialect continuum

See also:
Proto-Abazgi language

Abkhaz

Abzhuy and Bzyp in Abkhazia and Sadz
in Turkey.

Abaza

Abaza has some 45,000 speakers, 35,000 in Russia and 10,000 in Turkey. It is a literary language, but nowhere official. It shares with Abkhaz the distinction of having just two phonemic vowels. Abaza is phonologically more complex than Abkhaz, and is characterised by large consonant clusters, similar to those that can be found in Georgian. There are two major dialects, Tapant and Ashkhar. Some are partially intelligible with Abkhaz.

Ubykh

pharyngealised consonants and a four-way place contrast among sibilants
. It was the only Northwest Caucasian language never to have a literary form.

Relationship to other language families

A number of factors make the reconstruction of the Northwest Caucasian proto-language problematic:

For these reasons, Proto–Northwest Caucasian is widely accepted as being one of the most difficult proto-languages to deal with, and it is therefore more difficult than most to relate to other families.[citation needed]

Connections to Hattic

Some scholars have seen affinities between the Northwest Caucasian (Circassian) family and the extinct

Caucasian Iberia
, a kingdom centered in eastern Georgia which existed from the 4th century BCE to the 5th century CE; it is not related to the Iberian Peninsula.)

Many Northwest Caucasian (

Hatuqwai" (Adyghe: Хьатыкъуай) (From Хьаты ("Hatti") + Кхъуэ ("male or son"); meaning "HattiSon").[9]

Connections to Indo-European

It has been conjectured

Proto-Pontic
, but is not widely accepted.

There does at least appear to have been extensive contact between the two proto-languages, and the resemblances may be due to this influence.

North Caucasian family

Many linguists join the Northwest and

Kartvelian (South Caucasian), which is thought to be unrelated, albeit heavily influenced by their northern neighbours). This hypothesis has perhaps been best illustrated by Sergei A. Starostin and Sergei Nikolayev, who present a set of phonological correspondences and shared morphological structure. However, there is no consensus that the relationship has been demonstrated. (See the article on North Caucasian languages
for details, as well as the external links below).

Higher-level connections

Main article: Languages of the Caucasus

A few linguists have proposed even broader relationships, of which the

Na–Dene families. However, this is an even more tentative hypothesis than Nostratic, which attempts to relate Kartvelian, Indo-European, Uralic, and Altaic
, etc., and which is widely considered to be undemonstrated.

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original on 13 August 2017. Retrieved 20 May 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ISBN 9781107623552
    .
  3. ^ a b c Hoiberg, Dale H. (2010)
  4. ^ "UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
  5. ^ Liljencrafts, Johan and Lindblom, Björn. 1972. "Numerical Simulation of Vowel Quality Systems: The Role of Perceptual Contrast". Language, vol 48, no 4. Page 845: ", a 'linear' vowel system, is described by Trubetzkoy (1958:87). He attributes such systems to Caucasian languages ... Abkhaz and Adyge... and with some hesitation Ubykh... The phonetic realizations of these vowels exhibit rich consonant-determined variation." page 857: "These observations bear to mind the phonological systems of Caucasian languages such as Kabardia whose underlying vowel segments are confined to /a/ and /a/ but whose consonant system is extreme".
  6. ^ Halle, M. 1970. "Is Kabardian a vowel-less language?". Foundations of Language 6: pages 95–103.
  7. ^ Nichols, Johanna (1986)
  8. ^ Chirikba, Viacheslav (1996); p. 452
  9. ^ Burney, Charles (2004); p. 106
  10. ^ Colarusso, John (2003)
  11. ^ Colarusso, John (1997)

Sources

Further reading

External links

Wiktionary has a list of reconstructed forms at Appendix:Proto-Northwest Caucasian reconstructions
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Northwest_Caucasian_languages&oldid=1220965864"