The term
Ibero-Caucasian (or
Iberian-Caucasian) was proposed by
GeorgianGeorgia Georgia Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Situated at the juncture of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the east by Azerbaijan...
linguist
Arnold ChikobavaArnold Stepanovich Chikobava was a Georgian linguist and philologist best known as for his contributions to the Caucasian studies as well as one of the most active critics of Nicholas Marr's controversial monogenetic "Japhetic" theory of language.Chikobava was born in the small village...
for the union of the three language families that are specific to the Caucasus area, namely
- South Caucasian (Kartvelian)
The South Caucasian languages are spoken primarily in Georgia, with smaller groups of speakers in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and Israel. There are approximately 5.2 million speakers of this language family group worldwide.It is not known to be related to any other language group in the world...
- Northwest Caucasian
The Northwest Caucasian languages, also called Abkhazo-Adyghean, or sometimes Pontic as opposed to Caspian , are a group of languages spoken in the Caucasus region, chiefly in Russia , the disputed territory of Abkhazia, and Turkey, with smaller communities scattered throughout the...
, also called Abkhaz/Adygh or Circassian;
- Northeast Caucasian
The Northeast Caucasian languages, also called East Caucasian, Nakh'-Dag'estanian, or Caspian, constitute a language family spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia, in northern Azerbaijan, and in Georgia, as well as in diaspora populations in Russia, Turkey, and the...
, now called Nakh-Dagestanian.
The Northeast family is assumed to include the
Nakh languagesThe Nakh languages are a small family of languages spoken chiefly by the Nakh peoples, in Russia , in Georgia, and in the Chechen diaspora ....
(
BatsbiBats is the language of the Bats people, a Caucasian minority group, and is part of the Nakh family of Caucasian languages. It had 2,500 to 3,000 speakers in 1975....
,
ChechenThe Chechen language is spoken by more than 1.3 million people, mostly in Chechnya and by Chechen people elsewhere. It is a member of the Northeast Caucasian languages.-Classification:...
, and
IngushIngush is a language spoken by approximately 415,000 people , known as the Ingush, across a region covering Ingushetia, Chechnya, Kazakhstan and Russia. In Ingush, the language is called ГІалгІай Ğalğaj .-Classification:...
), which were formerly classified as a separate
North-central Caucasian family.
The Ibero-Caucasian group would also include three extinct languages:
HatticHattic was a language spoken by the Hattians in Asia Minor between the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC. Scholars call this language 'Hattic' to distinguish it from the Hittite language--the Indo-European language of the Hittite Empire....
, which has been connected by some linguists to the Northwest (Circassian) family, and
HurrianHurrian is a conventional name for the language of the Hurrians , a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly vanished by 1000 BC. Hurrian was the language of the Mitanni kingdom in northern Mesopotamia, and was likely spoken at least initially in Hurrian settlements in...
and
UrartianUrartian, Vannic, and Chaldean are conventional names for the language spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Urartu that was located in the region of Lake Van, with its capital near the site of the modern town of Van, in the Armenian Highland, modern-day Eastern Anatolia region of...
, which have been connected to the Northeast (Nakh-Dagestanian) family.
The term
Ibero-Caucasian (or
Iberian-Caucasian) was proposed by
GeorgianGeorgia Georgia Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Situated at the juncture of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the east by Azerbaijan...
linguist
Arnold ChikobavaArnold Stepanovich Chikobava was a Georgian linguist and philologist best known as for his contributions to the Caucasian studies as well as one of the most active critics of Nicholas Marr's controversial monogenetic "Japhetic" theory of language.Chikobava was born in the small village...
for the union of the three language families that are specific to the Caucasus area, namely
- South Caucasian (Kartvelian)
The South Caucasian languages are spoken primarily in Georgia, with smaller groups of speakers in Turkey, Azerbaijan, Iran, Russia and Israel. There are approximately 5.2 million speakers of this language family group worldwide.It is not known to be related to any other language group in the world...
- Northwest Caucasian
The Northwest Caucasian languages, also called Abkhazo-Adyghean, or sometimes Pontic as opposed to Caspian , are a group of languages spoken in the Caucasus region, chiefly in Russia , the disputed territory of Abkhazia, and Turkey, with smaller communities scattered throughout the...
, also called Abkhaz/Adygh or Circassian;
- Northeast Caucasian
The Northeast Caucasian languages, also called East Caucasian, Nakh'-Dag'estanian, or Caspian, constitute a language family spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia, in northern Azerbaijan, and in Georgia, as well as in diaspora populations in Russia, Turkey, and the...
, now called Nakh-Dagestanian.
The Northeast family is assumed to include the
Nakh languagesThe Nakh languages are a small family of languages spoken chiefly by the Nakh peoples, in Russia , in Georgia, and in the Chechen diaspora ....
(
BatsbiBats is the language of the Bats people, a Caucasian minority group, and is part of the Nakh family of Caucasian languages. It had 2,500 to 3,000 speakers in 1975....
,
ChechenThe Chechen language is spoken by more than 1.3 million people, mostly in Chechnya and by Chechen people elsewhere. It is a member of the Northeast Caucasian languages.-Classification:...
, and
IngushIngush is a language spoken by approximately 415,000 people , known as the Ingush, across a region covering Ingushetia, Chechnya, Kazakhstan and Russia. In Ingush, the language is called ГІалгІай Ğalğaj .-Classification:...
), which were formerly classified as a separate
North-central Caucasian family.
The Ibero-Caucasian group would also include three extinct languages:
HatticHattic was a language spoken by the Hattians in Asia Minor between the 3rd and the 2nd millennia BC. Scholars call this language 'Hattic' to distinguish it from the Hittite language--the Indo-European language of the Hittite Empire....
, which has been connected by some linguists to the Northwest (Circassian) family, and
HurrianHurrian is a conventional name for the language of the Hurrians , a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly vanished by 1000 BC. Hurrian was the language of the Mitanni kingdom in northern Mesopotamia, and was likely spoken at least initially in Hurrian settlements in...
and
UrartianUrartian, Vannic, and Chaldean are conventional names for the language spoken by the inhabitants of the ancient kingdom of Urartu that was located in the region of Lake Van, with its capital near the site of the modern town of Van, in the Armenian Highland, modern-day Eastern Anatolia region of...
, which have been connected to the Northeast (Nakh-Dagestanian) family. See the articles on the two families for more discussion.
Family status
The affinities between the three families above are still disputed. A connection between the Northeast and Northwest phyla is seen as likely by many linguists; see the article on the
North Caucasian languagesNorth Caucasian languages is a blanket term for two language phyla spoken chiefly in the north Caucasus and Turkey: the Northwest Caucasian family and the Northeast Caucasian family North Caucasian languages (sometimes called simply Caucasic as opposed to Kartvelian, and to avoid confusion with...
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 Greenberg's deep classification of the world's languages. "Ibero-Caucasian" therefore remains at best a convenient geographical designation, not a linguistic phylum.
Family name
The "Iberian" in the family name refers to
Caucasian IberiaIberia , also known as Iveria , was a name given by the ancient Greeks and Romans to the ancient Georgian kingdom of Kartli , corresponding roughly to the eastern and southern parts of the present day Georgia...
— a kingdom centered in Eastern
GeorgiaGeorgia Georgia Georgia is a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Situated at the juncture of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the south by Turkey and Armenia, and to the east by Azerbaijan...
which lasted from the 4th century BC to the 5th century AD, and is not related to the
Iberian PeninsulaThe Iberian Peninsula, or Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes modern-day Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar and a very small area of France. It is the westernmost of the three major southern European peninsulas—the Iberian, Italian, and Balkan peninsulas...
.
Main research centers
- Chikobava Institute of Linguistics of the Georgian Academy of Sciences
The Georgian National Academy of Sciences is a main learned society of the Georgia. It was named Georgian SSR Academy of Sciences until November 1990...
(TbilisiTbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form Tp'ilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
).
- Department of Caucasiology at the University of Jena (Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
).
- Faculty of Philology at the Tbilisi State University
Tbilisi Ivane Javakhishvili State University, better known as Tbilisi State University , is a university established on 8 February, 1918 in Tbilisi, Georgia. TSU is the oldest university in the whole Caucasus region...
(Tbilisi).
Main publications
- The Yearbook of the Iberian-Caucasian Linguistics (Tbilisi).
- Revue de Kartvelologie et Caucasologie (Paris
Paris is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
).