Northwest Caucasian languages: Encyclopedia II - Northwest Caucasian languages - Classification

Northwest Caucasian languages - Classification

There are five recognized languages in the Northwest Caucasian family: Abkhaz, Abaza, Kabardian or East Circassian, Adyghe or West Circassian, and Ubykh. They are classified as follows:

• Abkhaz-Abaza dialects
  • Abaza (45,000 speakers)
  • Abkhaz (Abxaz) (110,000)
• Circassian dialects (Cherkess)
  • Adyghe (Adyge) (500,000)
  • Kabardian (1,000,000)
• Ubykh (Ubyx) (extinct)

Northwest Caucasian languages - Circassian dialect continuum

Circassian (or Cherkess) is a cover term for the series of dialects that include the literary languages of Adyghe and Kabardian.

The Adyghe (Adyge, Adyg) language is one of the more widely spoken Northwest Caucasian languages. It has 500,000 speakers spread thoughout 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, and 20,000 in Iraq. There is even a small community in the United States. Four main dialects are recognised: Temirgoy, Abdzakh, Bzhedugh and Shapsugh, as well as many minor ones such as the Turkish dialect Hakuchi spoken by the last speakers of Ubykh. Adyghe has three phonemic vowels, and its consonants are less complex than the Abkhaz-Abaza dialects.

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 least number of consonants of any North-Western Caucasian language, with 48, including some rather unusual ejective fricatives and a small number of vowels. It has two major dialects, called Kabardian and Cherkess (Circassian); Kabardian itself has several dialects, including Terek, the literary standard, and Besney, which is intelligible with both Terek and Adyghe.

Northwest Caucasian languages - Abkhaz-Abaza dialect continuum

The Abkhaz (Abxaz) language has 100,000 speakers in Abkhazia, where it is the official language, and maybe 5000 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 palatalized or labialized consonants, /a/ is realized as [e] or [o], and /ə/ as [i] or [u]. There are three major dialects: Abzhuy and Bzyp in Georgia and Sadz Turkey.

The Abaza language 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. There are three major dialects, T’ap’anta, Ashkar, and Bezshagh. Some are partially intelligible with Abkhaz.

Northwest Caucasian languages - Ubykh Ubyx language

The Ubykh (Ubyx) language is more closely related to Abkhaz and Abaza than to Adyghe and Kabardian. The population switched to speaking Adyghe, and Ubykh became extinct on October 7, 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 consonants, Ubykh has one of the largest inventories in the world, and probably the largest outside the Khoisan languages. There are pharyngealised consonants and a four-way place contrast among sibilants. It was the only Northwest Caucasian language never to have a literary form.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Classification", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki