Editing Northeast Caucasian languages (section)

===Phonology===
Historically, Northeast Caucasian phonemic inventories were thought to be smaller than those of the neighboring [[Northwest Caucasian languages|Northwest Caucasian family]]. However, more recent research has revealed that many Northeast Caucasian languages are much more phoneme-rich than previously believed, with some languages containing as many as 70 consonants.<ref name="Hewitt2004">{{cite book|last=Hewitt|first=George|title=Introduction to the Study of the Languages of the Caucasus|year=2004|publisher=Lincom Europa|location=Munich}}</ref>{{rp|49}}

In addition to numerous [[Coronal consonant|front]] obstruents, many Northeast Caucasian languages also possess a number of [[Laryngeal consonant|back]] consonants, including [[uvular consonant|uvulars]], [[pharyngeal consonant|pharyngeals]], and glottal stops and fricatives. Northeast Caucasian phonology is also notable for its use of numerous [[secondary articulation]]s as contrastive features. Whereas English consonant classes are divided into voiced and voiceless phonemes, Northeast Caucasian languages are known to contrast voiced, voiceless, [[ejective consonants|ejective]] and [[fortis and lenis|tense]] [[Phone (phonetics)|phones]], which contributes to their large phonemic inventories. Some languages also include palatalization and labialization as contrastive features.<ref name="Hewitt2004" />{{rp|49–54}} Most languages in this family contrast tense and weak consonants. Tense consonants are characterized by the intensiveness of articulation, which naturally leads to a lengthening of these consonants.

In contrast to the generally large consonant inventories of Northeast Caucasian languages, most languages in the family have relatively few vowels, although more on average than the Northwest Caucasian languages.<ref name="Matthews 1951 88">{{cite book|last=Matthews|first=W.K.|title=Languages of the U.S.S.R.|year=1951|publisher=Russel & Russel|location=New York|page=88}}</ref>  However, there are some exceptions to this trend, such as [[Chechen language|Chechen]], which has at least twenty-eight vowels, diphthongs and triphthongs.<ref name="Hewitt2004" />{{rp|58}}

{{Pie chart|label1=[[Chechen language|Chechen]]|value1=33.6|label2=[[Avar language|Avar]]|value2=18.9|label3=[[Lezgian language|Lezgian]]|value3=16.3|label4=[[Dargwa language|Dargwa]]|value4=12.1|label5=[[Ingush language|Ingush]]|value5=8.0|label6=[[Lak language|Lak]]|value6=3.8|label7=Others|value7=7.3|caption=Percentage of Northeast Caucasian languages by speakers}}