Northeast Caucasian, also called Nakh-Dagestanian, is a family of roughly thirty languages indigenous to the eastern Caucasus, concentrated in Russia's Dagestan republic and in Chechnya and Ingushetia. Its members include Chechen, Avar and Lezgian, and the family is known for languages with unusually large case-marking systems, some analyzed as having dozens of grammatical cases.
Facts
Partially Attested
Speaker CountConfirmed: Chechen, the largest Northeast Caucasian language, is listed at 1,350,000 speakers in the cited source family breakdown; Avar (761,960) and Lezgian (655,000) are also individually listed there. Open: no combined total across all Northeast Caucasian languages is given in this source. Proto-Language StatusPartially reconstructed as Proto-Nakh-Daghestanian (basic vocabulary), per Johanna Nichols 1 Reconstructed only at the level of selected basic vocabulary (Johanna Nichols), not a full published comparative reconstruction RegionDagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia in Russia, plus Northern Azerbaijan and Georgia, with diaspora in Western Europe and West Asia 1 Sources
1. Wikipedia: Northeast Caucasian Languages
WikipediaLead section, paragraph 1: geographic range clause
is a family of languages spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia and in Northern Azerbaijan as well as in Georgia and diaspora populations in Western Europe and West Asia.
Proto-language section: Nichols reconstruction sentence
Below are selected Proto-Northeast Caucasian reconstructions of basic vocabulary items by Johanna Nichols, which she refers to as Proto-Nakh-Daghestanian.
Nakh family section, Chechen speaker figure
Chechen (1,350,000)
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