Ibero-Caucasian languages
Ibero-Caucasian is a proposed language family suggested by Georgian linguist Arnold Chikobava of the three language families that are specific to the Caucasus mountains region of Eurasia. Ibero-Caucasian languages would include:
- * South Caucasian, also called Kartvelian.
- * Northwest Caucasian, also called Abkhazo-Adyghean.
- * Northeast Caucasian, also called Nakh–Dagestanian.
Family status
The affinities between the three families are disputed. A connection between the Northeast and Northwest families is seen as likely by some linguists.On the other hand, there are no known affinities between South Caucasian and the northern languages, which are two unrelated phyla even in Greenberg's deep classification of the world's languages. "Ibero-Caucasian" therefore remains at best a convenient geographical designation.
Main publications
The Yearbook of the Iberian-Caucasian Linguistics.Revue de Kartvelologie et Caucasologie.Main research centers
- of the Georgian Academy of Sciences.
- at the University of Jena.
- at the Tbilisi State University.