DOBES

The linguistic diversity of present-day Caucasia

Prof. Dr. Jost GippertVergleichende SprachwissenschaftUniversität Frankfurtgippert@em.uni-frankfurt.de

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UDI

Udi belongs to the Lezgian (or Southern) branch of the East Caucasian language family. Today, it is spoken in three villages in Transcaucasia as well as in a number of diaspora places scattered throughout the Russian Federation, Armenia and Kazakhstan. The original habitat of the ethnic Udis in Northern Azerbaijan is now confined to the village of Nidzh. Here, the ethnic Udis represent a rather compact unity of roughly 4,500 people. Before autumn 1989, Vartashen (now Oghuz) was the second Azerbaijani village which hosted a significant number of ethnic Udis. By virtue of the Armenian-Azerbaijani clashes in 1989, most of the roughly 3,000 Vartashen Udis were expelled. Today, some 35 ethnic Udi families still live in Oghuz. A third settlement of ethnic Udis was founded in Eastern Georgia in 1922 when a considerable number of Vartashen Udis left their original habitat for economic reasons. This village, called Oktomberi (formerly Zinobiani), today hosts some 80 Udis, living in a totally "Georgian" environment.

SVAN

The Svan language is located in the high mountain region of North West Georgia along the gorges of the rivers Enguri, Tskhenis-tskali and Kodori. It consists of five dialects: The so-called "Upper Svan" dialects Upper and Lower Bal, distributed in the Enguri valley, and the "Lower Svan" dialects Lashkh, Lentekhian and Cholurian spoken along the Tskhenis-tskali river. The main differences between the dialects and sub-dialects are observable in their sound systems, but there are also considerable divergences in morphology and syntax.

According to the most recent statistics, the number of speakers of Svan does not exceed 30,000 people today, with ca. 15,000 speakers of Upper Svan and less than 12,000 speakers of Lower Svan dialects. All speakers of Svan are bilingual speaking Georgian alongside Svan, with the latter being used as a familiar means of communication only while Georgian is the language of administration and school teaching everywhere in the Svan speaking areas.

TSOVA-TUSH

Together with Chechen and Ingush which are mostly spoken North of the Caucasus, the Tsova-Tush language (also called Bats or Batsbi) belongs to the so-called Nakh subfamily of the North-East-Caucasian stock. Its speakers live in a close community within one village of North-East Georgia, viz. Zemo-Alvani, which is situated in a region where otherwise the Tush and Kakhetian dialects of Georgian are spoken. According to recent statistics, the number of speakers has been reduced to less than 1,600.All speakers of Tsova-Tush are bilingual, speaking Georgian alongside the Tsova-Tush language. While Georgian has been used as the primary means of communication, Tsova-Tush has kept its status as a living language in familiar environments for centuries.

The Caucasus region has been renowned since antiquity as an area with an extra-ordinarily high number of distinct languages. The linguistic diversity of yore has not only survived until the present but has even been considerably extended by the migration of speakers of Indo-European, Turkic, Mongol-ian, Semitic, and other languages into the area. Today, the linguistic map of the Caucasus area comprises appr. 40 indigenous languages, pertaining to three groups which have not been proved to be genetically related with each other, but also Indo-European languages such as Armenian, Russian, Ossetic, or Tati, Turkic languagessuch as Azeri, Karachay-Balkar, Kumyk, or Trukhmen, the East-Aramaic Semitic language Aysor, and Mongolian Kalmyk. Furthermore, there are minor communities of speakers of languages such as Estonianor German.

The ECLinG project focusses on three endangered Caucasian languages spoken in present-day Georgia, viz. Tsova-Tush, Svan, and Udi.

Tsova-Tush, Svan, Udi

Endangered Caucasian Languages in Georgia (ECLinG)

Derbent

Dzhek

Dzhek

Andi

Karata

Tindi

Akhvakh

KhunzalKapucha

Hinukh

Lak

Botlikh

Bagulal

Khvarshi

Xasavjurt

(Iron)Vladikavkaz

Digora

TatischSuxumi

BlackOÄamÄire

Gagra

SoÄi

Caspian

Sea

RussianPrikumsk

Blagodarnyj

Majkop Stavropol'

AbazaKubanKabardian

Adyghe

Abaza¨erkessk

BesleneiKabardian

Kabardian

KabardianMozdok-

Nal'Äik

Mineral'nyje Vody

Noghay

KumaNeftekumsk

Dargwa

Avar

Georgian

Lak

Avar

Georgian

Georgian

Juúno-Suxokumsk

Avar

KoÄubej

Kalmyk

Kizljar

KumykMaxaÄkalaKiziljurt

BujnakskManaskent

Enguri

Zugdidi

Rioni

(Racha)

Poti

Kutaisi(Marïvili)

GegeÅÖori

(Adzhar)AxalcixeBatumi

Armenian

Trabzon

Rize

Atina (Pazar)

Xoåa (Hopa)Arxavi (Arhavi)

Vice (Féndéklé)

Turkic

Caucasian Languages(C) Jost Gippert, 1993-2004

Ossetian

Axalkalaki

Gori

Tbilisi

Georgian

Armenian

UdiBalak„n

Telavi

Udi

Tati

Achvach.

Vartaêen

Nidú

Zagatala RutulCaxur

GaxUdiRutul

BudukhKhinalug

Guba

GonagkentD„v„Äi

Tati

Tati

LahydúKil„zi

Dzhek

¸amaxy

ArmenianM„dr„s„

Azeri Turkic

Lezgian

Armenian

Kirovabad

Gazax

Azeri Turkic

(Tual)

Cxinvali

Tuapse

SeaBats

Kostek

Tati

(Kist)

Kuban

Tabas

aran

Karachay

(Bzyb') Abkhaz

(Abzh

ui)

Mingrelian

Min

grelia

n

(Khevsu

r)

(Tush

)

(Pshav)

(Mtiulian)

(Mokhev)

Laz€oroh Kura

(Mes

khian)

Karap

apak

(Imeretian)

(Guri)

(Digor)

KabardianBalkar

Ossetian

Terek

Dargwa

Lak

Avar

LakDargwa

(Kartlian)

(Kakhetian)

Kura

(Ingilo)

Svan(Lower)

(Upper)

Ava

r

Lak

Tsahkur

Aghul

Lezgian

TatiArc

hi

Azeri-T.

Kurdish

Sergokala

Kuba iÄ

Darg

wa

Dargwa

Chechen

Mozdok

Groznyj

GodoberiChamalal

Dido

Ingu

sh

Chechen

LeninakanKirovakan

Armenian

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