The Daghestanian languages are the traditional name for most of the Northeast Caucasian languages spoken in and around the Russian republic of Dagestan, as well as in parts of Azerbaijan and Georgia, distinguished from that family's other branch, Nakh. Rather than forming one clean unified branch, what is traditionally called Daghestanian actually comprises several independent subdivisions: the Avar-Andic languages of the northwest Dagestan highlands, the Dargic or Dargin dialect continuum of central and southern Dagestan, the Lezgic languages of the southeast Dagestan highlands, the Tsezic or Didoic languages of the southwest, and the Lak and Khinalug language isolates. Reconstructions of the shared Northeast Caucasian protolanguage suggest that Nakh is not actually more distinct from these Daghestanian branches than the Daghestanian branches are from one another, so the Daghestanian and Nakh division is better understood as a traditional geographic grouping than as a demonstrated genealogical split.
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