 | Languages of the Caucasus: Encyclopedia II - Languages of the Caucasus - Possible affinities with other languages
Languages of the Caucasus - Possible affinities with other languages
Since the birth of comparative linguistics in the 19th century, the riddle of the apparently isolated Caucasian language families has attracted the attention of many scholars who have strenuously tried to relate them to other languages outside the Caucasus region. While most linguists do not accept these proposals, there may be connections between the Northwest and Northeast Caucasian families and some extinct languages formerly spoken in Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia.
Languages of the Caucasus - Hattic
Some linguists have claimed affinities between the Northwest Caucasian (Circassian) family and the extinct Hattic language. See the article on Northwest Caucasian languages for details.
Languages of the Caucasus - Hurrian and Urartian
Other linguists have claimed similarities between the Northeast Caucasian (Nakh-Dagestan) family and the extinct languages Hurrian and Urartian. See the article on Northeast Caucasian languages for details.
Languages of the Caucasus - Basque
Many of the Caucasian languages have case systems (noun inflection rules) of a particular kind, known as ergative, which sets them apart from most European languages. The fact that Basque, an isolated language spoken in the Pyrenees, also has an ergative case system has led many scholars to propose it as a displaced member of some Caucasian family. However, the resemblances between the case systems of Basque and of the Caucasian languages have been found to be rather superficial. In fact, linguists claim that the underlying structure of Georgian is not ergative.
Languages of the Caucasus - Western Iberian language
It has been speculated that the South Caucasian languages may be related to the exinct Iberian language, spoken until the 1st century BC in the Iberian peninsula (which is known as "Western Iberia" in the Caucasus, to distinguish it from the Caucasian Iberia). There seems to be no evidence for this relationship other than the coincidence of the names; however, the few surviving Iberian inscriptions suggest a genetic relationship to Basque, so any links with one language may also apply to the other.
Languages of the Caucasus - Dene-Caucasian family
Recently, some linguists — for instance, Merritt Ruhlen and John Bengtson — have proposed a Dene-Caucasian superfamily including, among others, Caucasian languages, Na-Dené languages, and Basque. In Sarostin's more recent Sino-Caucasian hypothesis, in particular, Hurro-Urartian and Northeast Caucasian are related only at a higher level within the Dene-Caucasian family.
Other related archivesAltaic, Armenian, Azeri, Balkar, Basque, Black Sea, Caspian Sea, Caucasian Iberia, Caucasus, Chechen language, Dene-Caucasian, Eastern Europe, Georgia, Georgian, Greek, Hattic language, Hurrian, Iberian Peninsula, Iberian language, Iberian peninsula, Ibero-Caucasian languages, Indo-European, Iranian languages, John Bengtson, Judeo-Tat, Kabardian language, Kalmyk, Karachay, Kumyk, Language family, Merritt Ruhlen, Mongolian languages, Na-Dené languages, Nogai, North Caucasian languages, Northeast Caucasian, Northeast Caucasian languages, Northwest Caucasian, Northwest Caucasian languages, Ossetian, Pontic, Pyrenees, Russian, Slavic languages, South Caucasian, Soviet Union, Turkic languages, Urartian, case systems, ergative, isolated language, language families
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