The Nakh languages are a group of languages within
Northeast Caucasian family, spoken chiefly by the
Chechens
The Chechens (; ce, Нохчий, , Old Chechen: Нахчой, ''Naxçoy''), historically also known as ''Kisti'' and ''Durdzuks'', are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group of the Nakh peoples native to the North Caucasus in Eastern Europe. "Eu ...
and
Ingush in the
North Caucasus
The North Caucasus, ( ady, Темыр Къафкъас, Temır Qafqas; kbd, Ишхъэрэ Къаукъаз, İṩxhərə Qauqaz; ce, Къилбаседа Кавказ, Q̇ilbaseda Kavkaz; , os, Цӕгат Кавказ, Cægat Kavkaz, inh, ...
.
Bats
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bir ...
is the endangered language of the
Bats people
The Bats people ( ka, ბაცი, tr) or the Batsbi (ბაცბი), are Nakh-speaking Tushetians in the country of Georgia. They are also known as the Ts’ova-Tush (წოვათუშები) after the Ts’ova Gorge in the historic Ge ...
, an ethnic minority in Georgia.
The Chechen, Ingush and Bats peoples are also grouped under the ethno-linguistic umbrella of
Nakh peoples
The Nakh peoples, also known as ''Vainakh peoples'' (Chechen/Ingush: , apparently derived from Chechen , Ingush "our people"; also Chechen-Ingush), are a group of Caucasian peoples identified by their use of the Nakh languages and other cult ...
.
Classification
The Nakh languages were historically classified as an independent North-Central Caucasian family, but are now recognized as a branch of the
Northeast Caucasian
The Northeast Caucasian languages, also called East Caucasian, Nakh-Daghestani or ''Vainakh-Daghestani'', is a family of languages spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia and in Northern Azerbaijan as well as ...
family.
The separation of Nakh from common Northeast Caucasian has been tentatively dated to the
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
(ca. 4th millennium BC).
The Nakh language family consists of:
*
Vainakh languages, a
dialect continuum
A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...
with two literary languages:
**
Chechen – approximately 1,330,000 speakers (2002).
[Ethnologue report for Chechen](_blank)
/ref>
** Ingush – approximately 413,000 speakers (2002).[Ethnologue report for Ingush](_blank)
/ref>
* Bats
Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bir ...
or Batsbi – approximately 3,420 (2000),[Ethnologue report for Bats](_blank)
/ref> spoken mostly in Zemo-Alvani, Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
. Not mutually intelligible with Chechen or Ingush.
The voicing of ejective consonants
The Nakh languages are relevant to the glottalic theory
The glottalic theory is that Proto-Indo-European had ejective stops, , instead of the plain voiced ones, as hypothesized by the usual Proto-Indo-European phonological reconstructions.
A forerunner of the theory was proposed by the Danish lingu ...
of Indo-European, because the Vainakh branch has undergone the voicing of ejectives that has been postulated but widely derided as improbable in that family. In initial position, Bats ejectives correspond to Vainakh ejectives, but in non-initial position to Vainakh voiced consonants. (The exception is , which remains an ejective in Vainakh.)
A similar change has taken place in some of the other Dagestanian languages.
Proposed connections to extinct languages
Many obscure ancient languages or peoples have been postulated by scholars of the Caucasus as Nakh, many in the South Caucasus. None of these have been confirmed; most are classified as Nakh on the basis of placenames.
Èrsh
The Èrsh language
The Èrsh language was the language of the Èr or Èrs people, hypothetical Nakh-speaking people argued for by Amjad Jaimoukha in his book ''The Chechens: A Handbook''.
Examples of placenames
The capital of the Èrs (which was later turned int ...
, language of the Èrs who inhabited Northern Armenia, and then, (possibly) later, mainly Hereti
The Kingdom of Hereti ( ka, ჰერეთის სამეფო ''heretis samepo'') was a medieval monarchy which emerged in Caucasus on the Iberian- Albanian frontier. Nowadays it roughly corresponds to the southeastern corner of Georgia's K ...
in Southeast Georgia and Northwest Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
. This is considered to be more or less confirmed as Nakh.[Jaimoukha, Amjad. ''The Chechens: A Handbook''. Routledge Curzon: Oxon, 2005.] They were assimilated eventually, and their language was replaced by Georgian or Azeri.
Malkh
The language of the Malkh {{about, the Nakh people, the Vainakh midwinter festival, Malkh festival
The Malkh were supposedly an ancient nation, living in the Western/Central North Caucasus. They are usually regarded as the westernmost Nakh people,Jaimoukha, Amjad. ''The Ch ...
s[ (whose name, malkh, refers to the sun) in the North Caucasus, who lived in modern day ]Kabardino-Balkaria
The Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (russian: Кабарди́но-Балка́рская Респу́блика, ''Kabardino-Balkarskaya Respublika''; kbd, Къэбэрдей-Балъкъэр Республикэ, ''Ķêbêrdej-Baĺķêr Respublik ...
, Karachay–Cherkessia
The Karachay-Cherkess Republic (russian: Карача́ево-Черке́сская Респу́блика, ''Karachayevo-Cherkesskaya Respublika''; krc, Къарачай-Черкес Республика, ''Qaraçay-Çerkes Respublika''; Cir ...
, and once briefly conquered Ubykhia
Ubykhia (; ady, Убых Хэгъэгу, russian: Убыхия) was a commonwealth of Ubykh tribe of Circassians and a province of Circassia in the 14th–19th centuries. It was situated in what is today Sochi, Krasnodar Krai, Russia.
Ubykhs s ...
and Abkhazia
Abkhazia, ka, აფხაზეთი, tr, , xmf, აბჟუა, abzhua, or ( or ), officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, recognised by most countries as part of Georgia, which vi ...
. They were conquered first by Scythian-speaking Alan tribes and then by Turkic tribes, and seem to have largely abandoned their homeland and found shelter among the Chechens
The Chechens (; ce, Нохчий, , Old Chechen: Нахчой, ''Naxçoy''), historically also known as ''Kisti'' and ''Durdzuks'', are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group of the Nakh peoples native to the North Caucasus in Eastern Europe. "Eu ...
, leading to the formation of a teip
Teips (also taip, teyp; Nakh тайпа ''taypa'' : ''family, kin, clan, tribe''Нохчийн-Оьрсийн словарь (Chechen-Russian Dictionary, A.G. Matsiyev, Moscow, 1961), ''also available online:'Чеченско-Русский сл ...
named after them. Those who stayed behind were either wiped out or assimilated.
Gligvic
Gligvs, a mysterious people in the North Caucasus attributed by Georgian historians to be a Nakh people. They may be ancestral to the Ingush, but the term used by Georgians consistently for the Ingush is "Kist", causing large amounts of confusion (as the Nakh people in Georgia who speak Chechen are also called "Kists").
Dval
The language of the Dvals
The Dvals ( ka, დვალები, ''Dvalebi''; os, Туалтæ, ''Twaltæ'') were a ethnographic group of Georgians, their lands lying on both sides of the central Greater Caucasus mountains, somewhere between the Darial and Mamison gorge ...
is thought to be Nakh by many historians, though there is a rivaling camp arguing for its status as a close relative of Ossetic
Ossetian (, , ), commonly referred to as Ossetic and rarely as Ossete (), is an Eastern Iranian language that is spoken predominantly in Ossetia, a region situated on both sides of the Greater Caucasus. It is the native language of the Ossetia ...
.[ Various backing for the Nakh theory (different scholars use different arguments) includes the presence of Nakh placenames in former Dval territory,][ evidence of Nakh–Svan contact which probably would've required the Nakh nature of the Dvals or people there before them,][ and the presence of a foreign-origin Dval clan among the Chechens,][Melikishvilli] seemingly implying that the Dvals found shelter (like the Malkhs are known to have done) among the Chechens from the conquest of their land by foreign invaders (presumably Ossetes).
Tsov
According to Georgian scholars I. A. Javashvili and Giorgi Melikishvili Giorgi Melikishvili ( ka, გიორგი მელიქიშვილი; russian: Гео́ргий Алекса́ндрович Меликишви́ли; December 30, 1918 – March 27, 2002) was a Georgian historian known for his fundamenta ...
, the Urartian
Urartian or Vannic is an extinct Hurro-Urartian language which was spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Urartu (''Biaini'' or ''Biainili'' in Urartian), which was centered on the region around Lake Van and had its capital, Tushpa, ...
state of Supani was occupied by the ancient Nakh tribe Tsov, whose state is called Tsobena in ancient Georgian historiography.[Гаджиева В. Г. Сочинение И. Гербера Описание стран и народов между Астраханью и рекою Курой находящихся, М, 1979, page.55.] The Tsov language was the dominant language spoken by its people, and was thought by these Georgian historians (as well as a number of others) to be Nakh. Tsov and its relatives in the area may have contributed to the Hurro-Urartian
The Hurro-Urartian languages are an extinct language family of the Ancient Near East, comprising only two known languages: Hurrian and Urartian.
Origins
It is often assumed that the Hurro-Urartian languages (or a pre-split Proto-Hurro-Urartian ...
substratum in the Armenian language
Armenian ( classical: , reformed: , , ) is an Indo-European language and an independent branch of that family of languages. It is the official language of Armenia. Historically spoken in the Armenian Highlands, today Armenian is widely spoken t ...
.
See also
* Languages of the Caucasus
The Caucasian languages comprise a large and extremely varied array of languages spoken by more than ten million people in and around the Caucasus Mountains, which lie between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.
Linguistic comparison allows th ...
* Northeast Caucasian languages
The Northeast Caucasian languages, also called East Caucasian, Nakh-Daghestani or ''Vainakh-Daghestani'', is a family of languages spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia and in Northern Azerbaijan as well as in ...
* North Caucasian languages
The North Caucasian languages, sometimes called simply Caucasic, is a proposed language family consisting of a pair of well established language families spoken in the Caucasus, predominantly in the north, consisting of the Northwest Caucasian ...
* Alarodian languages
References
External links
Proto-Nakh (and Chechen, Ingush, Bats) basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nakh Languages
Northeast Caucasian languages
Languages of Russia