North Caucasian languages
The North Caucasian languages is a group of languages, possibly related, that encompasses two families of Caucasian languages that had previously been considered unrelated families:
- Northwest Caucasian languages
- Northeast Caucasian languages
Some authors divide the languages of the Northeast into two different families, although most specialists consider it to be a single family.
North Caucasian languages are found in the northern Caucasus and northeastern Turkey.
Linguistic description
Both groups are characterized by great phonetic complexity, including extensive use of secondary articulation. However, the grammatical system of both families is very different. The northeastern languages are characterized by extraordinary noun complication: one example is known from Tabasaran in which a series of locatives intersect with a series of suffixes indicating movement relative to a place, producing some 48 suffixes (often incorrectly described as decline). By contrast, the Northwestern languages have a very poor system, normally distinguishing only two or three cases. However, the complexity of the verb in the northwestern group is remarkable: the subject, the direct object, the indirect object, the benefactive, and most local functions are expressed within the verb.
Despite this stark contrast (the Northeastern group with a very rich noun system and the Northwestern group with a correspondingly rich verbal system) some linguists are convinced that both groups stem from a common ancestor, that it split into two groups about five thousand years ago. The extreme phonologies of these languages (Northwestern Ubijé has 80 consonants and Archi is believed to have 76) as well as the extraordinary grammatical systems seem to support the theory, which however remains disputed.
 North Caucasian phylogenetic tree (Nikolayev & Starostin 1994) |
.png) Glotocronological model (reference?) |
Comparison of the two families
The main similarities between the two northern Caucasian families are in the phonological systems. However, their grammatical structures differ markedly, suggesting that some of the similarities could be typical language-area phenomena.
Main similarities
Both groups are characterized by high phonetic complexity. Between the consonants the secondary articulation or coarticulation occurs very frequently. The ubykh (northwestern cau.) has 84 different consonants, while for the archi (northeastern cau.) 76 consonants have been recorded.
In addition, a reasonable list of cognates has been proposed. However, most of them could be borrowings or simply coincidences, since most of the morphemes in both groups are very short (often with only one consonant, which greatly favors random coincidences).
Main differences
The Northeast Caucasian languages are characterized by considerable morphological complexity in the name. Thus, for example, in tsez, a series of locative cases can be combined with a series of suffixes referring to movement with respect to location, producing a set of 126 different locative forms (often described as different morphological cases, although different authors analyze them). in a different way).
This is in contrast to the nominal systems of Northwest Caucasian languages which are relatively simple in morphology. In these languages the name distinguishes only two or three different cases. Although the North-Western languages do have a complex verb structure, in which there are verb marks for the subject, direct object, indirect object, or benefactive object, as well as verb marks for locatives.
Lexical comparison
| Personal pronouns | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Person | North-Eastern Caucasian | PCNOc | PCN | ||||
| PN | PDL | PLK | PAAT | PCNOR | |||
| 1 sg. | ♪ his- | ♪ | ♪zwambi- | dVpal | ♪zwambi- | ♪ | *zo |
| 2 sg. | ♪ | ♪ | ♪ | dVlab/mV | ♪ | ♪ | ♪ u*o felt ♪ |
| 1 pl. in. | ♪ | *-χ felt | *χ felt | *iλi | (?) | *šjě/tundaa/χ | *Lä devoted |
| 1 pl. ex. | *tχu- | *žu | *žjø | *iši | *z margin | *ži | |
| 2 pl. | *šu- | *-štilea/zu | *žwě | *biš devoted | *z marginw | *swV | *źwe |
Abbreviations:
- PN = Proto-Nakh
- PDL = Proto-Dargi-Lak
- PLK = Proto-Lezgi-Khinalugh
- PAAT = Proto-Avar-Andi-Tsez
- PCNOr = North-Eastern Proto-caucasic
- PCNOc = Northwest proto-caucasic:
PCN = North (septentrational)
| GLOSA | Northeast | Northwest | PNC | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCNOR (S) | PCNOR (N) | PCNOR | PCNOc (S) | PCNOc (C) | ||
| 1 | *c(h)a | #c())V | *c())a | ♪ | *cH̆ | |
| 2 | *qw’a | *qw’ Â | *t’qw’a | *t’q’o | *qùHwǟ | |
| 3 | *)eb (?) | *Łøb- | *λ: | *(y-)x destined | *HHě | |
| 4 | *ambimq(w)’i | ♪ *moq.u | *p’λ’a | *hěmq̇ | ||
| 5 | *x embow | #(W)=)i/)wi | *p-Łu | *sx embow | *(w-/y-)ćx implied | *f_ inclusiveä |
| 6 | ♪n-국 | *ji-rduced ŁÜ | ♪ | *(w-)x blind | ¶¶ | |
| 7 | *u)θrδ (?) | ♪ | *bδ | * *ěrŁ_̆ | ||
| 8 | ♪mběrδ | ♪mbambir-- | -... | *(w-/y-) implied | *b)nŁ_e | |
| 9 | *wěrč’ | ♪ | *bğwj | *- marking | ¶¶ | |
| 10 | *wambic’ | ♪ | *bć’wθ | *(p-/w-)ź/2009/ | * *ěncĔ gift | |
- Abbreviation: (N) = Nichols, (S) = Schulze, (C) = Colarusso
- /c, č/ designate two Africans, alvelar and postalveolar (AFI /).,)./).
Population genetics and North Caucasian languages
The genetic study of the Y chromosome in the native populations of the North Caucasus, has found a geographical and linguistic correlation. The data suggest a direct origin of the Caucasian male lineages from the Near East, followed by a high level of isolation (geographical and historical reasons), with subsequent differentiation and genetic drift in situ. Comparison of genetic and linguistic reconstructions covering the last millennia showed surprising correspondences.
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