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North Caucasian languages is a blanket term for two language phyla spoken chiefly in the north Caucasus and Turkey: the Northwest Caucasian (Pontic, Abkhaz-Adyghe, Circassian) family and the Northeast Caucasian (East Caucasian, Caspian, Nakh-Dagestanian) family; the latter including the former North-central Caucasian (Nakh) family.
Many linguists, notably Sergei Starostin, believe that the two groups sprang from a common ancestor about five thousand years ago. However, due to the nature of the languages in question, this proposal is difficult to evaluate, and remains controversial.
Comparison of the two phyla
The main perceived similarities between the two phyla lie in their phonological systems. However, their grammars are quite different.
Main similarities
Both phyla are characterised by high levels of phonetic complexity, including the widespread usage of secondary articulation. Ubykh (Northwest) has 80 consonants, and Archi (Northeast) is thought to have 76.A list of possible cognates has been proposed. However, most of them may be loanwords or simply coincidences, since most of the morphemes in both phyla are quite short (often just a single consonant).
Main differences
The Northeast Caucasian languages are characterised by great syntactic complexity in the noun. For example, in Tabasaran, a series of locative cases intersect with a series of suffixes designating motion with regard to the location, producing an array of some 48 locative suffixes (often incorrectly described as noun cases).By contrast, the Northwest Caucasian noun systems are extremely poor, usually distinguishing just two or three cases. However, they make up with a very complex verbal structure: the subject, the direct object, the indirect object, benefactive objects and most local functions are expressed in the verb.
See also
External links
- Sergei Starostin, S. L. Nikolayev. 1994. A North Caucasian Etymological Dictionary
"North Caucasian languages"