11-06-25 The Caucasian languages, their relatives and neighbors • A. Long-range genetic relations • A1. Japhetic & Ibero-Caucasian Einführung in die kaukasische • A2. North Caucasian & Nostratic Sprachwissenschaft • A3. Relations to Near Eastern languages 12. The Caucasian languages in genetic and • B. The Caucasus as a Sprachbund, or multiple regional context mini-Sprachbünde? Kevin Tuite • C. Conclusion Universität Jena April-June 2011 The evolution of Caucasian Tsarist-period Caucasology comparative-historical linguistics • Johann Anton Güldenstädt (1745–1781) • Julius von Klaproth (1783-1835) • (i) Colonial period: ethnographic philology in the • Marie-Félicité Brosset (1802–1880) service of the Russian Empire: Güldenstädt, Klaproth, • Anton Schiefner (1817–1879) Brosset, Schiefner, Uslar • P. K. Uslar (1816–1875) • (ii) Indigenization and institutionalization: The emergence of the Ibero-Caucasian hypothesis in the historical projects of Nikolai Marr, Ivane Javaxishvili, • Research of peoples, languages, cultures of Caucasus Arnold Chikobava, and their disciples undertaken in context of Russian colonial expansion • (iii) Post-colonial period: Ethnographic philology and • First generation of Caucasologists largely from Germany, ethnic politics; Neogrammarians and long-rangers; later succeeded by Russians such as Uslar Ibero-Caucasianism • Motivated by Leibnizian program of deep historical ethnology 1 11-06-25 Dolgopolsky’s list of 15 words least susceptibIe to Güldenstädt’s 1773 classification replacement : Kartvelian, Abkhaz-Adyghean of the languages of the Caucasus • I. “Georgianische Mundarten” (= Kartvelian or South Caucasian family) • II. “Mizdschegische Mundarten” (= Nakh group of Northeast Caucasian family) • III. “Lesgische Sprache” (= Daghestanian group of Northeast Caucasian family) • IV. “Abchasetische oder Abasaische und Tscherkessische Sprache” (= Abkhaz- Adyghean or Northwest Caucasian family) Dolgopolsky list: Nakh-Daghestanian Caucasian studies in St. Petersburg • M.-F. Brosset (1837): French Orientalist, founded Georgian Studies program in St Petersburg • Brosset worked with Georgian diaspora in Russia, paved the way for Georgian academics • Davit Chubinashvili (1845): lexicographer • Aleksandre Tsagareli (1871): Kartvelian historical- comparative linguistics • Nikolai Marr (1900) 2 11-06-25 Indigenization and institutionalization of Marr’s Japhetidology Caucasian studies • Kartvelological period (1908–1916): Japhetic (= Kartvelian & “pre-Aryan” languages of Armenia) as • (1) the central importance of Caucasian languages to branch of Noetic family with Hamitic and Semitic Marr’s linguistic theories • Caucasological period (1916–1920): Japhetic “layers” • (2) the foundation of a Georgian-language university and the mixed heritages of the North and South in Tbilisi in 1918 Caucasian languages • (3) the Soviet policy of “indigenization” (korenizacia) • Mediterraneanist period (1920–1923): The “third ethnic • (4) institutional decentralization of Caucasology: element” (neither Indo-European nor Hamito-Semitic) in Leningrad, Tbilisi State University, Academy of the creation of Mediterranean culture: Etruscan, Basque, Sciences (Georgian Linguistic Institute; ASSR and AO Pelasgian etc. institutes of language, literature and history) • The New Theory of Language (1923-1950): Japhetic goes global as universal evolutionary stage or ‘system’ Japhetidology in 1930 ethnographic philology and Ivane Javaxishvili’s History of the Georgian People • The original nature and relation of the Georgian and Caucasian languages (1937) as second of three projected introductory volumes • First rigorous demonstration of the Ibero-Caucasian hypothesis • 44 etymologies supporting ancient • stages, systems replacing language families category of gender in Kartvelian • four-element theory and imaginative etymologizing of • Evidence that the distant ancestors of tribal & place names the Georgians and the other indigenous Caucasian peoples “were • language origins: gesture preceding oral language; closely-related tribes” (ɣvidzli modzme role of magical rituals & “master-mages”, etc. etc. t’omebi) 3 11-06-25 Arnold Chikobava and Ibero-Caucasian linguistics Ibero-Caucasian etymology? • Stalin’s advisor in 1950 Pravda discussion on Soviet linguistics • Javaxishvili (1937: 419) on *q’o/q’w “two”: • Revised Javaxishvili’s model of • Kartv. /or-/ “two” < *q’o=r- (/-r/ = Class IV suffix) Ibero-Caucasian • Same root in Geo. /t’q’ub-/ “twin”, /t’q’uč’-/ “twinned • Followed third “historicist” path fruit or nut” < *d=q’w- (/d-/ = inanimate class prefix); — neither Marrist paleontology cp. Ubykh /t’q’wa/ “two”, Ingush /tq’o/ “twenty” nor Neogrammarian sound laws — which took account of the • Favorable reception by Vogt (1942), Lomtatidze distinctive topography of the (1955), Kuipers (1963: 334), Shagirov (1977 II: 86-7); Caucasian cultural landscape Klimov (1969: 68) more sceptical • Ibero-Caucasian theory hardened into dogma, despite lack of new evidence “North Caucasian” = “North Caucasian” cognates Ibero-Caucasian lite? • Phase I: etymological analysis yields promising indications of relatedness (Javaxishvili, Trubetzkoy) • Phase II: further research fails to provide convincing proof (Chikobava et al., Starostin et al.) • Phase III: linguistic grouping proves useful in ethnopolitical polemics: pan-Caucasian unity vs. Russia-Georgia border 4 11-06-25 “Ibero-Caucasianism” and “Eurasianism” The Nostratic megafamily (Illitch-Svitych, Dolgopolsky, Bomhard, Greenberg) • organic, family-like relationship among diverse peoples in a geographic region • ethnopolitical unity transcending differences in language, religion • union in contrast to the dominant civilizations of the continent (Trubetzkoy’s Eurasians vs. “Romano-Germanic” Europe; Gamsaxurdia’s Ibero-Caucasians distinct from Russia, Western Europe, Iran and Turkey) Nostratic pronouns 5 11-06-25 Some Nostratic etymologies (Bomhard) The Déné-Caucasian mega-mega-family • Proposed by Starostin, Nikolaev, Bengtson, Ruhlen, et al. • Core group comprises Basque, (West & East) Caucasian, Burushaski • Recently, Edward Vajda published a convincing demonstration of a genetic link between Yeniseian and Na-Déné, but no comparable arguments have been made regarding relationship of other families Déné-Caucasian pronouns 6 11-06-25 The “Pontic” hypothesis of John Colarusso: Pontic pronouns West Caucasian & Indo-European Proto-Pontic would have existed around 9000 BC. Pontic etymologies The Alarodian hypothesis • I. Diakonoff & S. Starostin proposed that the languages of the Hurrians (c. 2200-1200 BC) and Urarteans (c. 1200-600 BC) are related to the East Caucasian family 7 11-06-25 Alarodian pronouns Alarodian etymologies The Hattic typological & etymological evidence linking Hattic to language of West Caucasian (Ardzinba, Dunaevskaia, Diakonoff) Anatolia and West Caucasian • (i) polypersonal verb with numerous prefixal slots, including directional/locative prefixes, reflexive morpheme preceding person marker; vowel alternations (ablaut?) in verb root • Hattic: language of ritual texts cited in Hittite documents • (ii) shared morphology between “nouns” and “verbs” (head- (14th-13th c. BC). Probably the language of the autochthonous marking languages with verb-like nominals) population of central Anatolia. • (iii) collective-plural morpheme /wa-/ • The philologist and Hittitologist V. Ardzinba (later first president • (iv) locative prefix /ta-/ “in” of Abkhazia) found intriguing parallels between Hattic and • (v) ethnonyms from Bronze-Age Anatolia: Kaška (cp. Old Geo Abkhaz. kašag “Circassian”), Abešla (cp. Gk Apsilai, Abkhaz Apš-wa) 8 11-06-25 The Caucasus as Sprachbund? Trubetzkoy’s 1928 definition of Sprachbund • Definition of Sprachbund • Features shared by all or most languages of the Caucasus: phonetics, morphology, syntax, lexicon • Caucasian linguistic diversity in historical perspective: the Near East and Europe before • Trubetzkoy applied the term Sprachbund to the emergence of the spread of Indo-European & Turkic common syntactic, morphological, phonetic and lexical features • Mini-Sprachbünde within the Caucasus through the longstanding contact of speech communities • Note that the definition includes negative as well as positive features, in order to exclude genetically-related language groups from consideration as Sprachbünde The Balkan Sprachbund The Caucasus as Sprachbund (Chirikba) • The Balkans as site of best-known Sprachbund • Diagnostic features shared by Balkan languages, but not their close relatives outside the region • Inventory of over 30 features said to be • Example of postposed articles: Other Romance languages shared by the three Caucasian language have prefixed articles, and most Slavic languages lack them families, and in some cases other languages altogether. Note that the articles are made of etymologically- spoken in the region unrelated morphemes. 9 11-06-25 Interpretation of shared features The spread of glottalization • All three Caucasian language families have a series of glottalized • 1. Truly areal features, shared by all languages of the (ejective) stops & fricatives, contrasted with voiced, aspirated and (in Caucasus region, including non-autochthonous (such as many East & West Cauc languages) plain or geminate obstruents. Armenian, Ossetic, Karachay-Balkar). Example: glottalized • Presence of glottalized obstruents in non-Caucasian languages: consonants. • Armenian (dialects of Tbilisi, Artvin, Artanuj, Agulis, etc.): • 2. Features shared by unrelated languages within