Editing Northwest Caucasian languages

{{Short description|Language family}}
{{Other uses|Pontic languages}}
{{more citations needed|date=January 2010}}
{{Use American English|date=August 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{Infobox language family
| name          = Northwest Caucasian
| altname       = West Caucasian<br>Abkhazo–Circassian<br>Abkhaz–Adyghean<br>North Pontic<br>Pontic
| region        = [[North Caucasus|Ciscaucasia]] in [[Eastern Europe]]
| familycolor   = Caucasian
| family        = One of the world's primary [[language family|language families]]
| protoname     = [[Proto-Northwest Caucasian language|Proto-Northwest Caucasian]]
| glotto        = abkh1242
| glottorefname = Abkhaz–Adyge
| child1        = [[Abazgi languages|Abazgi]]
| child2        = [[Circassian languages|Circassian]]
| child3        = ''[[Ubykh language|Ubykh]]'' †
| map           = Northwest Caucasian languages map.png
| mapcaption    = {{legend|#D9196D|Circassian}}
{{legend|#FF6C60|Abazgi}}
{{legend|#FFC173|Ubykh (extinct)}}
}}
The '''Northwest Caucasian languages''',<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.uni-jena.de/unijenamedia/-p-48431.pdf%3Frewrite_engine%3Did |title=Archived copy |access-date=20 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170813054001/http://www.uni-jena.de/unijenamedia/-p-48431.pdf?rewrite_engine=id |archive-date=13 August 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref> also called '''West Caucasian''', '''Abkhazo-Adyghean''', '''Abkhazo-Circassian''',<ref name="Mathews">{{Cite book |last=Matthews |first=W. K. |year=2013 |title=Languages of the USSR |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RWNsAAAAQBAJ&q=%22Abkhazo-Circassian%22&pg=PA147 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781107623552 |page=147}}</ref> '''Circassic''', or sometimes '''Pontic languages''' (from Ancient Greek, ''pontos'', referring to the [[Black Sea]], in contrast to the [[Northeast Caucasian languages]] as the ''Caspian languages''), is a [[Language family|family of languages]] spoken in the northwestern [[Caucasus]] region,<ref name=EB>Hoiberg, Dale H. (2010)</ref> chiefly in three [[Russia]]n republics ([[Republic of Adygea|Adygea]], [[Kabardino-Balkaria]], [[Karachay–Cherkessia]]), the [[International recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia|disputed territory]] of [[Abkhazia]], [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]], and [[Turkey]], with smaller communities scattered throughout the [[Middle East]].

The group's relationship to any other [[language family]] is uncertain and unproven. One language, [[Ubykh language|Ubykh]], became extinct in 1992, while all of the other languages are in some form of endangerment, with UNESCO [[Endangered_language#Defining_and_measuring_endangerment|classifying]] all as either "vulnerable", "endangered", or "severely endangered".<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.unesco.org/languages-atlas/index.php|title=UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger|website=www.unesco.org|language=en|access-date=3 June 2018}}</ref>

The Northwest Caucasian languages possess highly complex sets of consonant distinctions paired with a lack of vowel distinctions, often providing archetypical cases of [[vertical vowel system]]s, also known as "linear" vowel systems.<ref>Liljencrafts, Johan and Lindblom, Björn. 1972. "Numerical Simulation of Vowel Quality Systems: The Role of Perceptual Contrast". ''Language'', vol 48, no 4. Page 845: ", a 'linear' vowel system, is described by Trubetzkoy (1958:87). He attributes such systems to Caucasian languages ... Abkhaz and Adyge... and with some hesitation Ubykh... The phonetic realizations of these vowels exhibit rich consonant-determined variation." page 857: "These observations bear to mind the phonological systems of Caucasian languages such as Kabardia whose underlying vowel segments are confined to /a/ and /a/ but whose consonant system is extreme".</ref><ref>Halle, M. 1970. "Is Kabardian a vowel-less language?". ''Foundations of Language'' 6: pages 95–103.</ref>

== Main features ==

=== Phonetics ===

[[Linguistic reconstruction]]s suggest that both the richness of the consonantal systems and the poverty of the vocalic systems may be the result of a historical process, whereby vowel features such as [[labialization]] and [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalization]] were reassigned to adjacent consonants. For example, ancestral {{IPA|*/ki/}} may have become {{IPA|/kʲə/}} and {{IPA|*/ku/}} may have become {{IPA|/kʷə/}}, losing the old vowels {{IPA|*/i/}} and {{IPA|*/u/}} but gaining the new consonants {{IPA|/kʲ/}} and {{IPA|/kʷ/}}. The linguist [[John Colarusso]] has further postulated that some instances of this may also be due to the levelling of an old [[noun class|grammatical class]] prefix system (so {{IPA|*/w-ka/}} may have become {{IPA|/kʷa/}}), on the basis of pairs like Ubykh {{IPA|/ɡʲə/}} vs. Kabardian and Abkhaz {{IPA|/ɡʷə/}} ''heart''. This same process is claimed by some{{who|date=June 2020}} to lie behind the development of [[labialized velar consonant|labiovelars]] in [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]], which once neighboured [[Proto-Northwest Caucasian language|Proto-NWC]].

==== Lack of distinctive vowels and wealth of distinctive consonants ====

The entire family is characterised by a paucity of [[phoneme|phonemic]] vowels (two or three, depending upon the analysis) coupled with rich consonantal systems that include many forms of [[secondary articulation]].<ref name=EB/> [[Ubykh language|Ubykh (Ubyx)]], for example, had two vowels and probably the largest inventory of consonants outside Southern [[Africa]].

===Grammar===
Northwest Caucasian languages have rather simple noun systems, with only a handful of cases at the most, coupled with highly [[agglutination|agglutinative]] verbal systems that can contain almost the entire syntactic structure of the sentence. All finite verbs are marked for agreement with three arguments: [[absolutive case|absolutive]], [[ergative case|ergative]], and [[indirect object]],<ref>Nichols, Johanna (1986)</ref> and there are also a wide range of [[applicative voice|applicative constructions]]. There is a split between "dynamic" and "stative" [[verb]]s, with dynamic verbs having an especially complex morphology. A verb's morphemes indicate the subject's and object's person, place, time, manner of action, negative, and other types of grammatical categories.

All Northwest Caucasian languages are [[left-branching language|left-branching]], so that the verb comes at the end of the sentence and modifiers such as [[relative clauses]] precede a noun.

Northwest Caucasian languages do not generally permit more than one finite verb in a sentence, which precludes the existence of [[subordinate clause]]s in the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] sense. Equivalent functions are performed by extensive arrays of [[noun|nominal]] and [[participle|participial]] non-finite verb forms, though Abkhaz appears to be developing limited subordinate clauses, perhaps under the influence of Russian.

==Classification==
[[File:Northwest Caucasian Family Tree.JPG|thumb|upright=1.5|right|Northwest Caucasian family tree]]
{{Pie chart|label1=[[Kabardian language|Kabardian]]|label2=[[Adyghe language|Adyghe]]|label3=[[Abkhaz language|Abkhaz]]|label4=[[Abaza language|Abaza]]|label5=[[Ubykh language|Ubykh]]|color1=white|color2=yellow|color3=blue|color4=red|color5=black|value1=67.0|value2=23.5|value3=7.6|value4=1.9|value5=0|caption=Percentage of total Northwest Caucasian speakers, by language}}
{{See also|Proto-Northwest Caucasian language}}

There are five recognized languages in the Northwest Caucasian family: [[Abkhaz language|Abkhaz]], [[Abaza language|Abaza]], [[Kabardian language|Kabardian]] or East Circassian, [[Adyghe language|Adyghe]] or West Circassian, and [[Ubykh language|Ubykh]].<ref name=EB/><ref>Chirikba, Viacheslav (1996); p. 452</ref> They are classified as follows:

{{tree list}}
* '''Northwest Caucasian family'''
** [[Abazgi languages|Abkhaz–Abaza]] (Abazgi)
*** [[Abaza language|Abaza]] (49,800 speakers)
*** [[Abkhaz language|Abkhaz]] (190,110 speakers)
** [[Circassian language|Circassian]]
*** [[Adyghe language|Adyghe]] (590,000)
*** [[Kabardian language|Kabardian]] (1,685,000)
** [[Ubykh language|Ubykh]] †
{{tree list/end}}

===Circassian dialect continuum===
{{See also|Circassian language|Proto-Circassian language}}
[[Circassian language|Circassian]] (Cherkess) is a cover term for the series of dialects that include the literary languages of Adyghe and Kabardian.

====Adyghe====
[[Adyghe language|Adyghe]] is one of the more widely spoken Northwest Caucasian languages. It has 500,000 speakers spread throughout [[Russia]] and the [[Middle East]]: 280,000 in [[Turkey]]; 125,000 in Russia, where it is official in the [[Republic of Adygea]]; 45,000 in [[Jordan]], 25,000 in [[Syria]], 20,000 in [[Iraq]], and 4,000 in [[Israel]]. There is even a small community in the [[United States]]. Four main dialects are recognised: [[Temirgoy]], [[Abadzekh]], [[Shapsugh]] and [[Bzhedugh]], as well as many minor ones such as [[Hakuchi Adyghe|Hakuchi]] spoken by the last speakers of Ubykh in Turkey. Adyghe has many consonants: between 50 and 60 consonants in the various Adyghe dialects but it has only three phonemic vowels. Its consonants and consonant clusters are less complex than the Abkhaz–Abaza dialects.
[[File:WIKITONGUES- Yinal speaking Adyghe and Kabardian.webm|thumb|Yinal speaking Adyghe and Kabardian.]]

====Kabardian====
[[Kabardian language|Kabardian]] has just over one million speakers: 550,000 in [[Turkey]] and 450,000 in [[Russia]], where it is an official language of the republics of [[Kabardino-Balkaria]] and [[Karachay–Cherkessia]]. Kabardian has the fewest consonants of any North-Western Caucasian language, with 48, including some rather unusual [[ejective consonant|ejective]] [[fricative consonant|fricative]]s and a small number of vowels. Kabardian itself has several dialects, including Terek, the literary standard, and Besleney, which is intelligible with both Terek and [[Adyghe language|Adyghe]]. Unlike the Adyghe, Kabardian lost many of the consonants that existed in the [[Proto-Circassian language]], for example, the consonants {{IPA|/ʃʷʼ, ʐʷ, ʂʷ, ʐ, ʂ, tsʷ, dzʷ/}} became {{IPA|/fʼ, v, f, ʑ, ɕ, f, v/}}.

===Abkhaz–Abaza (Abazgi) dialect continuum===
{{See also|Abazgi|Proto-Abazgi language}}

====Abkhaz====
[[Abkhaz language|Abkhaz]] has 100,000 speakers in [[Abkhazia]] (a ''de facto'' independent republic, but a ''de jure'' autonomous entity within [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]), where it is the official language, and an unknown number of speakers in [[Turkey]].  It has been a literary language from the beginning of the 20th century. Abkhaz and Abaza may be said to be dialects of the same language, but each preserves phonemes which the other has lost. Abkhaz is characterised by unusual consonant clusters and one of the world's smallest vowel inventories: It has only two distinctive vowels, an open vowel /a/ and a mid vowel /ə/. Next to [[Palatalization (phonetics)|palatalized]] or [[labialization|labialized]] consonants, /a/ is realized as [e] or [o], and /ə/ as [i] or [u]. There are three major [[dialect]]s: [[Abzhuy]] and [[Bzyb dialect|Bzyp]] in [[Abkhazia]] and [[Sadz]] in Turkey.

====Abaza====
[[Abaza language|Abaza]] has some 45,000 speakers, 35,000 in [[Russia]] and 10,000 in [[Turkey]]. It is a literary language, but nowhere official. It shares with Abkhaz the distinction of having just two phonemic vowels. Abaza is phonologically more complex than Abkhaz, and is characterised by large consonant clusters, similar to those that can be found in [[Georgian language|Georgian]]. There are two major dialects, [[Tapant]] and [[Ashkhar]]. Some are partially intelligible with Abkhaz.

===Ubykh===
[[Ubykh language|Ubykh]] forms a third branch, with parallels to both Adyghe and Abkhaz. The population switched to speaking Adyghe, and Ubykh became extinct on 7 October 1992, with the death of [[Tevfik Esenç]]. A dialectal division within Ubykh was suspected by [[Georges Dumézil]], but the divergent form he described in 1965 was never investigated further. With eighty-one consonants, Ubykh had perhaps the largest inventory in the world aside from the [[Kx'a languages|Kx'a]] and [[Tuu languages|Tuu]] families of southern Africa with their extensive system of [[click consonant|click]]s. There are [[pharyngealisation|pharyngealised consonant]]s and a four-way place contrast among [[sibilant]]s. It was the only Northwest Caucasian language never to have a literary form.

== See also ==

* [[Proto-Northwest Caucasian language]]
* [[Northeast Caucasian languages]]
* [[North Caucasian languages]]

== References ==

=== Citations ===
{{Reflist|30em}}

=== Sources ===
* {{cite book |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=74IJytg2XuUC&q=caucasian+hattic&pg=PA106 |title = Historical dictionary of the Hittites |first =  Charles |last =  Burney |publisher =  Scarecrow Press |year = 2004 |series = Historical Dictionaries of Ancient Civilizations and Historical Era |isbn = 978-0810849365 |location = Lanham, MD}}
* {{cite book |last = Chirikba |first = Viacheslav |year = 1996 |title = Common West Caucasian. The Reconstruction of its Phonological System and Parts of its Lexicon and Morphology |publisher = Research School CNWS, School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies |location = Leiden |isbn = 978-9073782716 }}
* {{Cite journal |last = Colarusso |first = John |title = Phyletic Links between Proto-Indo-European and Proto–Northwest Caucasian |journal = The Journal of Indo-European Studies |publisher = Chicago Linguistic Society |volume = 25 |issue = 1–2 |pages = 119–151 |year = 1997}}
* {{cite book |last = Colarusso |first = John |chapter = Further Etymologies between Indo-European and Northwest Caucasian |title = Current Trends in Caucasian, East European and Inner Asian Linguistics, Papers in Honor of Howard Aronson |url = https://archive.org/details/currenttrendscau00holi |url-access = limited |pages = [https://archive.org/details/currenttrendscau00holi/page/n69 41]–60 |publisher = John Benjamins Publishing Company |year = 2003 |location = Amsterdam |isbn = 978-1588114617 |series = Current Issues in Linguistic Theory |editor1-last = Holisky |editor1-first = Dee Ann |editor2-link = Kevin Tuite |editor2-last = Tuite |editor2-first = Kevin }}
* {{cite encyclopedia |editor-first = Dale H. |editor-last = Hoiberg |encyclopedia = Encyclopedia Britannica |title = Abkhazo-Adyghian languages |edition = 15th |year = 2010 |publisher = Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. |volume = I: A-ak Bayes |location = Chicago, IL |isbn = 978-1-59339-837-8 |page = [https://archive.org/details/newencyclopaedia2009ency/page/33 33] |url = https://archive.org/details/newencyclopaedia2009ency/page/33 }}
* {{cite journal |first = Johanna |last = Nichols |date = Mar 1986 |title = Head-Marking and Dependent-Marking Grammar |jstor = 415601 |journal = Language |volume = 62 |issue = 1 |pages = 56–119 |publisher = Linguistic Society of America |doi = 10.1353/lan.1986.0014|s2cid = 144574879 }}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book | url =http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/query.cgi?root=config&morpho=0&basename=\data\cauc\caucet | title = A North Caucasian Etymological Dictionary | editor-first = S. A. | editor-last = Starostin | isbn = 978-0882061177 |publisher = Caravan Books|year = 2008 | orig-year =1994 }}

==External links==
{{sister project |project=wiktionary |text=[[Wiktionary]] has a list of reconstructed forms at '''''[[Wiktionary:Appendix:Proto-Northwest Caucasian reconstructions|Appendix:Proto-Northwest Caucasian reconstructions]]'''''}}
* [http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/commonwealth/ethnocaucasus.jpg CIA linguistic map of the Caucasus]
* [http://lingvarium.org/publications/caucas/alw_cau_content.shtml Atlas of the Caucasian Languages with detailed Language Guide (by Yuri B. Koryakov)]
* A Comparative Dictionary of North Caucasian Languages: [http://starling.rinet.ru/Texts/caucpref.pdf Preface] by Sergei Starostin & Sergein Nikolayev
* [http://www.ethnic-cinema-country.ru/kalligrafia/ Ancient Adyghe Abkhaz–Abaza Ubykh alphabet]

{{Northwest Caucasian languages}}
{{Languages of the Caucasus}}
{{Language families}}
{{Eurasian languages}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Northwest Caucasian Languages}}
[[Category:Northwest Caucasian languages| ]]
[[Category:Agglutinative languages|Caucasian languages]]
[[Category:Languages of Russia]]
[[Category:Language families]]