Ibero-Caucasian languages
| Ibero-Caucasian | |
|---|---|
| Caucasian | |
| (controversial) | |
| Geographic distribution | Caucasus |
| Ethnicity | Caucasian peoples |
Native speakers | c. 10 million (2020) |
| Linguistic classification | Proposed language family |
| Proto-language | Proto-Caucasian language |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | None |
 The distribution of the Caucasian languages | |
 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (July 2025) |
Ibero-Caucasian (or Iberian-Caucasian) is a proposed language family suggested by Georgian linguist Arnold Chikobava of the three language families that are specific to the Caucasus mountains region of Eurasia.
- Ibero-Caucasian languages would include:
- South Caucasian, also called Kartvelian.
- Northwest Caucasian, also called Abkhazo-Adyghean.
- Northeast Caucasian, also called Nakh–Dagestanian.
The Ibero-Caucasian phylum would also include three extinct languages: Hattic, connected by some linguists to the Northwest (Circassian) family, and Hurrian and Urartian, connected to the Northeast (Nakh–Dagestanian) family as Alarodian languages.
Family status
[edit]The affinities between the three families are disputed. A connection between the Northeast and Northwest families is seen as likely by some linguists.
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.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- Tuite, Kevin (2008). "The Rise and Fall and Revival of the Ibero-Caucasian Hypothesis". Historiographia Linguistica Vol. 35, No. 1-2. pp. 23–82.
Further reading
[edit]Main publications
[edit]- The Yearbook of the Iberian-Caucasian Linguistics (Tbilisi).
- Revue de Kartvelologie et Caucasologie (Paris).
