Editing Ibero-Caucasian languages

{{Short description|Proposed language family}}
{{Infobox language family
| name          = Ibero-Caucasian
| altname       = Caucasian
| acceptance    = controversial
| region        = [[Caucasus]]
| familycolor   = Caucasian
| family        = Proposed language family
| child1        = [[Northwest Caucasian languages|Northwest Caucasian]]
| child2        = [[Northeast Caucasian languages|Northeast Caucasian]]
| child3        = [[Kartvelian languages|South Caucasian]]
| glotto        = none
| map           = Caucasian Peoples and Languages as of 1990-2010.gif
| mapcaption    = The distribution of the Caucasian languages
| ethnicity     = [[Ethnic groups in the Caucasus|Caucasian peoples]]
| speakers      = {{c.|10 million}}
| date          = 2020
| protoname     = Proto-Caucasian language
}}

The term '''Ibero-Caucasian''' (or '''Iberian-Caucasian''') was proposed by [[Georgia (country)|Georgian]] linguist [[Arnold Chikobava]] for the union of the three language families that are specific to the [[Caucasus]] mountains region of Eurasia. 

{{tree list}}
* '''Ibero-Caucasian''' languages include:
** '''[[Kartvelian Languages|South Caucasian]]''', also called Kartvelian.
** '''[[Northwest Caucasian languages|Northwest Caucasian]]''', also called Abkhazo-Adyghean.
** '''[[Northeast Caucasian languages|Northeast Caucasian]]''', also called Nakh–Dagestanian.
{{tree list/end}}

The Ibero-Caucasian phylum would also include three extinct languages: [[Hattic language|Hattic]], connected by some linguists to the Northwest (Circassian) family, and [[Hurrian language|Hurrian]] and [[Urartian language|Urartian]], connected to the Northeast (Nakh–Dagestanian) family as [[Alarodian languages]].

== Family status ==
The affinities between the three families are disputed.  A connection between the Northeast and Northwest families is seen as likely by many linguists; see the article on the [[North Caucasian languages]] for details.

On the other hand, there are no known affinities between South Caucasian and the northern languages, which are two unrelated phyla even in [[Joseph H. Greenberg|Greenberg]]'s deep classification of the world's languages.  "Ibero-Caucasian" therefore remains at best a convenient geographical designation.

== Family name ==
The "Iberian" in the family name refers to [[Kingdom of Iberia (antiquity)|Caucasian Iberia]] — a kingdom centered in Eastern [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]] which lasted from the 4th century BC to the 5th century AD, and is not related to the [[Iberian Peninsula]].

==See also==
* [[Languages of the Caucasus]]

== References  ==
<references />
* Tuite, Kevin (2008). "[http://www.mapageweb.umontreal.ca/tuitekj/caucasus/IberoCaucasian.pdf The Rise and Fall and Revival of the Ibero-Caucasian Hypothesis]". ''Historiographia Linguistica'' Vol. 35, No. 1-2. pp.&nbsp;23–82.

== Further reading ==
=== Main publications ===
* ''The Yearbook of the Iberian-Caucasian Linguistics'' (Tbilisi).
* ''Revue de Kartvelologie et Caucasologie'' ([[Paris]]).

== External links ==
=== Main research centers ===
* [http://caucasiology.tsu.ge/ TSU Institute of caucasiology]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040420105837/http://www.acnet.ge/ike.htm Chikobava Institute of Linguistics] of the [[Georgian Academy of Sciences]] ([[Tbilisi]]).
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040407114628/http://lingua1.phil.uni-jena.de/ssm/ Department of Caucasiology] at the [[University of Jena]] ([[Germany]]).
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040517153301/http://www.tsu.edu.ge/eng/faculties_e/10E.htm Faculty of Philology] at the  [[Tbilisi State University]] (Tbilisi).

{{Eurasian languages}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Proposed language families]]
[[Category:Languages of the Caucasus]]