Northeast Caucasian languages
The Northeast Caucasian languages (including post-Dagestani languages ) are a family of languages whose sub-languages are mainly spoken in the autonomous republics of Chechnya , Ingushetia , Dagestan ( Russian Federation ) and, to a lesser extent, in Azerbaijan and Georgia . Over four million people speak a language in this family. The Northeast Caucasian languages are part of the language complex of the Caucasian languages .
Mark
The languages are characterized by a multitude of sounds (up to 60 consonants and 30 vowels in some languages), several series of plosives and a multitude of cases , including the ergative , the absolutive and numerous locatives .
Systematics
The Northeast Caucasian languages can be divided into four groups:
- Ando-Avaro-Didoic languages
- Lakisch-Dargin languages
- Lesgic languages
- Nachish languages
Relationship to other languages
The Northeast Caucasian languages are sometimes combined with the Northwest Caucasian languages to form a North Caucasian language family . A linguistic relationship between these two families has not yet been proven.
It is also assumed that Hurrian and Urartian , two languages that existed from the 3rd to the 1st millennium BC. Were spoken in Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia , are related to the Northeast Caucasian languages.
literature
- IM Diakonoff u. Sergei Anatoljewitsch Starostin : Hurro-Urartian as an Eastern Caucasian Language . Kitzinger, Munich 1986.