Caucasian Languages Research Articles

Термин «уздень» в северокавказском историческом контексте

The data of language dictionaries provide grounds for distinguishing two main historical meanings of the term “uzden”: 1) feudal nobility (uzden) and 2) personally free peasants (“uzden”). A methodologically important position for analyzing the existence of the term “uzden” in North Caucasian societies of the Middle Ages and modern times is the thesis on the need to separate the class origin and service status of princely vassals. The Mongolism “uzden”, borrowed into North Caucasian languages at different times and for various extralinguistic reasons, changed its semantics depending on the historical era and the social realities of a particular society. But ultimately, the diverse interpretations of the term “uzden” turn out to be closely related to the ideas of the eras under consideration about the idea of freedom.

The emergence of clausal nominalizations in Laz

Abstract This paper presents a survey of complementation strategies that are employed in Pazar and Ardesheni dialects of Laz, an endangered South Caucasian language that has been in contact with Turkish for decades. Our survey reveals strong signatures of contact in that nominalization patterns not present in cognate systems but present in Turkish seem to have been transferred into Laz. An intriguing asymmetry concerning the two dialects is that the Turkish noninalization pattern seems to have been directly copied into Pazar Laz whereas Ardesheni Laz seems to have developed a novel complementation pattern that mixes finite complementation with nominalization. Furthermore, in both dialects, complement clauses that denote propositions remain untouched by the dominant nominalization strategy in Turkish, raising questions on grammatical asymmetries in susceptibility to contact effects.

Параллели древнееврейского корня כפר к-п-р (к-ф-р) «покрытие» в лексике семитских и кавказских языков

<p>In the 8<sup>th</sup> century BC the Israelites were expelled from northern Israel by the Assyrians, according to historians, some to Media (Armenia). Later, in the 6<sup>th</sup> century BC, the southern tribe of Israel, Judah (“Jews”) was expelled by the Babylonians, later many of them migrated to the regions of the Caucasus. There are numerous references to the stay of Jews in the Caucasus in scientific and popular science literature, which makes us expect that evidence of these connections could and should have been preserved in the Caucasian languages. However, the problem of searching for Hebraisms and lexical evidence of the influence of one language on another is complicated by the fact that from the 7<sup>th</sup> century, Arabic penetrated into the Caucasian languages along with religion, and since Arabic and Hebrew are related languages, it becomes more difficult to establish from which language (Hebrew or Arabic) the term penetrates into Caucasian languages. This study is devoted to the analysis of Arabic and Hebrew uses in the Caucasian languages. The comparative-historical and etymological research methods used in the work will help, in our opinion, to determine the source of some lexical units in the Dagestan languages that are part of the Iberian-Caucasian family of languages.</p>

Case system in learning Russian as a first and second foreign language

The task of creating innovative technologies for teaching Russian as a native, as a non-native and as a foreign language, taking into account the age of students, their cognitive abilities and features of the first language, is relevant. The solution of this problem requires a fundamental psycholinguistic study of the processes accompanying the formation of the language mechanisms of children and adults. The aim of this research is to specify the ideas about mastering the category of Russian case in various conditions of language acquisition. The method of comparative analysis of the processes of mastering Russian case in monolingualism, simultaneous child bilingualism, studying Russian as a foreign language and Russian language acquisition by a foreign-speaking child in the process of communication, was used. The material was collected during longitudinal observation of the speech of primary school students from St. Petersburg, who were native speakers of Turkic and Caucasian languages. The classification of errors in selecting and constructing case forms is proposed. The ways of access to the mental lexicon and the mechanisms of procedural grammar rules formation are described. The conclusion is that there is the imbalance between the cognitive and communicative development of a foreign child and the level of language proficiency, which leads to a detailed, but grammatically unformed statement, characteristic of a successive natural bilingual. When Russian-speaking child resorts to retrieving ready-made frameworks of prepositional case constructions from memory, the foreign child independently constructs them in speech, preferring to use basic and reduced forms. In the future, it is necessary to develop a unified toolkit for studying grammar mechanisms formation and to increase the empirical base of the study. The information about speech ontogenesis obtained as a result of the study must be taken into account for developing scientifically based methods of teaching Russian as a non-native language and as a foreign language.

Review of: Polinsky, Maria (ed.). 2021. Oxford handbook of the languages of the Caucasus

Abstract This paper presents a general review of the Oxford Handbook of the Languages of the Caucasus. It summarizes over four dozen different typological rarities found in Caucasian languages, and examines what explanations have been given for their presence, and what roles phylogeny, contact and human geography play in their appearance in these languages.

Study of the lipid status and indicators of hemostasis among young men of different ethnic groups to assess thrombogenic risk

The aim of the study was to investigate the lipid status and indicators of the system of hemostasis in healthy young men of different linguistic families of the North Caucasus region to assess the risk of development of thrombogenic states.. Material and methods. A survey of young men aged 18 to 21 years was carried out with the subsequent establishment of region of residence and nationality to form ethnic groups. Based on the information received during the survey, 62 people were selected: 32 young men of the Indo-European language family (Russians, Greeks, Armenians) and 30 young men of the North Caucasian language family (Chechens, Ingush, Avars, Dargins). The assessment of lipid status was carried out by the photocolorimetric method on a biochemical analyzer, and the analysis of indicators of the hemostasis system was carried out by the clotting method on an automatic coagulometer analyzer. Homocysteine levels were determined by chemiluminescent immunoassay on a microplate device. Genetic polymorphisms of the hemostatic system were identified using the real-time PCR. Results. Young men of the Indo-European language family have significantly more low density lipoprotein, triglyceride, homocysteine and antithrombine III content, than representatives of the North Caucasian language family (p < 0.001), and less total number and average platelet volume, prothrombin index, prothrombin concentration according to Quick (p < 0.001). There was also a significantly more frequent occurrence of mutations of the gene encoding fibrinase (p < 0.05) in young men of the Indo-European language family. Conclusions. A comprehensive study among young men of different ethnicities illustrates ethnic differences in lipid status and homocysteine level. Analysis of the main indicators of coagulogram and genetic polymorphism of the hemostasis system allowed us to establish a higher risk of thrombogenic conditions and atherosclerosis in young men of the North Caucasian language family

System of future tense forms In the Dargin Languages

The article is devoted to the study of the future tense forms in the Dargin languages which belong to the Nakh-Dagestan language group. The relevance of the issue is that the languages of the small nations of Dagestan are rapidly disappearing for recent decades, while the younger generation mainly uses the Russian language for communication. Meanwhile, it is known that the morphological system of the East Caucasian languages is quite rich and consists of numerous paradigms of inflectional categories. Particularly, there is an extensive system of aspectual, tense and modal forms in the Dargin languages. The main purpose of the article is to study the semantic peculiarities of four verb forms that express - futurum, progressive, possibilitative and obligatory meanings of the future tense. The objectives of the work is to study the ways of their formation and also reveal the differences in the functioning of future tense forms in the Northern Dargin and the Southern Dargin languages. To solve these problems, the methods of field linguistics, as well as the method of descriptive analysis are used. In description of the forms of the future tense, the main meaning, methods of formation, examples are given, and the designations of these forms in the works of predecessors are also given. As a result of the study, all forms of the future tense functioning in the Dargin languages are described, the peculiarities of their formation are considered, semantic differences and the terms for their functioning are revealed. Some ways of development of futurum in the Dargin languages are also identified. A hypothesis is put forward according to which this form existed in the proto-Dargin state, but then disappeared in the Northern Dargin languages. Habitualis started to function as the future tense in them.

The time and place of origin of South Caucasian languages: insights into past human societies, ecosystems and human population genetics

This study re-examines the linguistic phylogeny of the South Caucasian linguistic family (aka the Kartvelian linguistic family) and attempts to identify its Urheimat. We apply Bayesian phylogenetics to infer a dated phylogeny of the South Caucasian languages. We infer the Urheimat and the reasons for the split of the Kartvelian languages by taking into consideration (1) the past distribution ranges of wildlife elements whose names can be traced back to proto-Kartvelian roots, (2) the distribution ranges of past cultures and (3) the genetic variations of past and extant human populations. Our best-fit Bayesian phylogenetic model is in agreement with the widely accepted topology suggested by previous studies. However, in contrast to these studies, our model suggests earlier mean split dates, according to which the divergence between Svan and Karto-Zan occurred in the early Copper Age, while Georgian and Zan diverged in the early Iron Age. The split of Zan into Megrelian and Laz is widely attributed to the spread of Georgian and/or Georgian speakers in the seventh-eighth centuries CE. Our analyses place the Kartvelian Urheimat in an area that largely intersects the Colchis glacial refugium in the South Caucasus. The divergence of Kartvelian languages is strongly associated with differences in the rate of technological expansions in relation to landscape heterogeneity, as well as the emergence of state-run communities. Neolithic societies could not colonize dense forests, whereas Copper Age societies made limited progress in this regard, but not to the same degree of success achieved by Bronze and Iron Age societies. The paper also discusses the importance of glacial refugia in laying the foundation for linguistic families and where Indo-European languages might have originated.

The Origin of Differential Object Marking and Tripartite Alignment in Udi (East Caucasian)

AbstractThanks to the discovery in Mount Sinai Monastery of the Albanian palimpsest, which contains fragments of the Bible in an ancient form of Udi, this language has become the earliest attested member of the East Caucasian family. However, due to its long evolution in contact with unrelated languages, both old and modern Udi show many characteristics unknown to their closest relatives, including Differential Object Marking. Combined with ergative case marking, this feature results in a rare ‘tripartite alignment’. After describing the case marking of arguments in Lezgian, modern dialects of Udi and the three non‐East Caucasian languages of the area (Tat, Azeri and Armenian) showing Differential Object Marking, we examine the available Old Udi / Caucasian Albanian data, compare them with data from Old Armenian, Old Turkic and Middle Iranian, and try to assess the best candidate for the source of the Udi phenomenon in the light of what is known about its history in terms of contact and sociolinguistic dominance.

Language Policies and Minority Language Maintenance: The Case of Circassian in Turkey

Guided by language maintenance and shift (Fishman, 1991) as a theoretical construct, this study explored the sociolinguistic situation and the maintenance of Circassian, a Northwest Caucasian language, spoken in Turkey since the Ottoman Era. To explore the impacts of official language ideologies and policies on the maintenance of Circassian, five participants from different age groups and regions of Turkey were interviewed using linguistic life story interviews (Atkinson 1998). As part of its socio-historical focus, the study first highlights some of the Circassian initiatives that played an important role in maintaining the language during the Ottoman Era and addresses the changes in language ideologies and policies after the declaration of the Turkish Republic. Similar to other ethnolinguistic minorities' experiences in Turkey (Aslan, 2007; Seloni & Sarfati, 2013), the life story interviews revealed the impacts of assimilationist language policies in educational and social settings. Findings also revealed the long-lasting impact of the Citizen Speak Turkish policy (1928-1945) on the maintenance of Circassian and its negative impact on the generational transfer which has not been explored by former research. The findings have implications for language policymakers, Circassian NGOs, and Circassian speakers in Turkey to maintain and transfer the language to future generations.

Особенности образования и структурно-семантический анализ деепричастия и конверба в рутульском языке

<p>The verb in the Caucasian languages is a complex formation which determines a sentence’s actants form, i.e. its central part. The Rutul verb is also distinguished by the complexity of education, the development of forms, grammatical categories and features of functioning, however, verboids have not received proper here, the functional properties and syntactic features of adverbial participles and adverbial turns, which relate to a simple complicated sentence, then qualify as a subordinate clause, have not been studied either. Our work is devoted to the problems of forming the adverbial participle and the converb in the Rutul language. Rutul verb forms, lexico-semantic and functional properties of adverbs and converbs served as research material. Descriptive, component and distributive analysis were the main research methods.</p>

Applicative Constructions in Abzakh - a West Circassian Dialect [Batı Çerkesçesinin Abzah Lehçesinde Aplikatif Yapılar

This paper analyses the applicative constructions in Abzakh dialect spoken in the Yeleme village in Antalya, Turkey. Abzakh is a dialect of West Circassian which belongs to the Northwest Caucasian language family (NWC). The present paper focuses on the morphosyntactic properties of the applicative constructions in Abzakh, which are also attested in the standardized West Circassian spoken in the Caucasus. The analysis shows that Abzakh has seventeen applicative markers, thirteen of which are locative applicatives. The applicative constructions in Abzakh are non-direct applicative constructions in that they do not promote an adjunct argument to a direct object position but to an indirect object position. Abzakh makes a wide use of applicative markers, i.e. in reciprocal & reflexive constructions, in relativisation and in factive complementation. Thus, compared to the applicative constructions in standard West Circassian, Abzakh spoken in the Yeleme village stays conservative in terms of morphosyntactic and semantic properties.

Древнееврейские корни Ветхого Завета в аваро-андо-цезских языках Дагестана

<p>Throughout the history of their development, the Caucasian languages encountered many other languages, all of which left their traces, through which also genetic and areal connections can be traced. Persian, Arabic, Georgian, Russian, Turkic borrowings have been subjects to detailed studies, but the earlier period of language contact has generally not been covered. This study is devoted to the search for traces of Hebrew vocabulary in the Avar-Andi-Tsez languages of northern Dagestan on the basis of comparative historical, etymological and descriptive methods of linguistic analysis.</p>

THE ROLE OF THE GAPSHIMA DIALECT IN THE SYSTEM OF THE DARGIN LANGUAGES AND DIALECTS: MORPHOLOGICAL DATA

The Gapshima dialect is one of the least studied dialects of the Dargin language group of the East Caucasian languages and that is the reason why its role in the system of the Dargin languages and dialects still remains undefined. Meanwhile, there are many peculiar linguistic phenomena, revealed both in phonetics and in grammar and vocabulary. The article deals with the morphological peculiarities of the Gapshima dialect. Nominal parts of speech and verbal categories and auxiliary parts of speech are studied. The method of synchronous description of linguistic phenomena and methods of field linguistics are used in the study. In the course of the research, the grammatical categories of case, person, tense and mood, and also various forms of the verb were studied. With the aim of identifying the peculiarities of the dialect and its role in the linguistic classification, all the presented data is compared with the data of the other Dargin dialects - Akusha, Tsudahar, Sirkhya. As a result of the study, it was established that the Gapshima speech is close to the dialects of the Akusha type by its grammatical characteristics. The results of the study can be contributed to the further work of establishing the classification of the language units of the Dargin area and can be applicable to the teaching courses of the Dargin morphology and dialectology at the universities.

On Criticism of S. L. Nikolayev/S. A. Starostin, A North Caucasian Etymological Dictionary

It has been noticed that the most comprehensive etymological dictionary of North Caucasian languages (NCED) has repeatedly been disparaged, and even totally ignored, due to alleged deficiencies of the lexicon. One also finds that some critics who dismiss this dictionary do not enumerate the shortcomings of the book themselves, but simply cite two reviews, one by J. Nichols and another by the late W. Schulze. Moreover, we find that the Nichols review has not been published and is not accessible to the examination of scholars, and the Schulze review, while citing a number of disagreements, is far from advocating the disregard of this volume but instead claims that it “belongs in the bookcase of anyone interested in etymological research”. It is also observed that more positive reviews, for example those by J. C. Catford (pre-publication), M. E. Alekseev, Ja. G. Testelec, and V. Chirikba (Čirikba) are overlooked by the detractors. These circumstances are examined in this paper, with the conclusion that the NCED, like any pioneering work, is not a permanent solution but a set of hypotheses that will have to be tested and modified, where necessary, over the coming decades. It does not deserve to be dismissed or ignored, but rather engaged with and discussed in the pursuit of better solutions to etymological problems of North Caucasian languages.

Morphology of the Caucasian Languages: A Typological Overview

The indigenous languages of the Caucasus (Nakh-Daghestanian, Abkhazo-Agyghean and Kartvelian) present a remarkable degree of diversity in their morphological systems, both between and within larger genealogical units and even closely-related varieties. This article is an attempt to present a theoretically and typologically informed overview of the major parameters of morphological variation of the Caucasian languages and to highlight a number of non-trivial and rare phenomena found in their morphology. The phenomena discussed include locus of marking, types of affixal and non-affixal exponence, non-trivial form-meaning relations, and manifestations of polysynthesis.

Verbal plural allomorphy in Hunzib and its implications for the cyclicity of the morphosyntax-phonology interface

This paper investigates morphosyntactic and phonological aspects of the verbal plural in the Northeast Caucasian language Hunzib (van den Berg 1995). Verbal plural marking in Hunzib may be infixal or suffixal, and interacts in illuminating ways with morphological and phonological aspects of the verbal complex, especially with respect to establishing ordering among operations. In particular, we will see (i) that suppletive allomorphy of the verbal plural must be adjudicated at the rightmost edge of the stem, before both infixation of the infixal exponent and (morpho)phonology targeting that exponent, and (ii) that infixation of this exponent must take place after the stem of the verbal plural is fully built and has undergone a cycle of (morpho)phonology. This case study has a number of implications for modeling the morphosyntax-phonology interface, in particular, providing evidence for the precedence of exponent choice over infixation and (morpho)phonology within a cycle (Paster 2006; Bye & Svenonius 2012; Pak 2016; Kalin 2020; To appear a; Kalin & Rolle To appear; Stanton 2021, i.a.), and for bottom-up cycles in the realization of a morphosyntactic structure (Bobaljik 2000; Embick 2010; Myler 2017, i.a.).

“Other” Strategies in the Eastern Caucasus (Part II): Typology

The paper describes expressions with the meaning ‘other’ in East Caucasian (Nakh-Daghestanian) languages. It is shown that four main strategies can be distinguished: i) the ‘one’-based strategy: ‘other’ includes the numeral ‘one’; ii) the demonstrative-based strategy: ‘other’ includes a demonstrative pronoun; iii) the mixed demonstrative-based + ‘one’- based strategy: ‘other’ includes both a demonstrative and the numeral ‘one’; and iv) the lexical strategy: ‘other’ is a dedicated adjective (pronoun), not necessarily derived from any other clearly discernable source.

Согласование прилагательных по числу в нахско-дагестанских языках: генеалогические и ареальные закономерности

This paper provides a survey of number agreement in the East Caucasian languages and languages of other language families in contact with East Caucasian. For a sample of 59 idioms I considered number agreement strategies of adjectives in the attributive position and established what factors license agreement in these idioms. Besides, I assessed the weight of genealogical and areal factors in the distribution of number agreement patterns across the East Caucasian languages. Although the genealogical factor was found to prevail, instances of features shared due to contact were also found, mainly between Avar and the contacting languages.

Geography and language divergence: The case of Andic languages.

We study the correlation between phylogenetic and geographic distances for the languages of the Andic branch of the East Caucasian (Nakh-Daghestanian) language family. For several alternative phylogenies, we find that geographic distances correlate with linguistic divergence. Notably, qualitative classifications show a better fit with geography than cognacy-based phylogenies. We interpret this result as follows: The better fit may be due to implicit geographic bias in qualitative classifications. We conclude that approaches to classification other than those based on cognacy run a risk to implicitly include geography and geography-related factors as one basis of genealogical classifications.