Caucasian languages
From UniLang Wiki
- Northwest Caucasian
- Abkhaz-Abaza
- Ubykh
- Circassian
- Northeast Caucasian
- Vey-Nakh: Chechen, Ingush, Bats
- Avar-Andi-Dido
- Lak-Dargwa
- Lezgian
- South Caucasian (Kartvelian)
- Georgian
- Mingrelian and Laz
- Svan
It has often been claimed that the three Caucasian families are related to each other, but their common features (e.g., ergative constructions and the occurence of uvular and glottalized consonants) can be explained as areal features. Kartvelian differs greatly in vocabulary: e.g. Kar. *me, N.Cauc. *zwo "I"; Kar. *sen, *šwen, NE.Cau. *we, NW.Cau. ɢu "thou". Some scholars posit a distant relationship between Kartvelian and Indo-European languages, but evidence is sparse: e.g. Kar. *me, PIE *me "I"; Kar. *ma, PIE *mā "don't"; Kar. *min, PIE *mi interrogative.
