Re: [tied] obscure languages - Kaskian, Hattic, Abkhaz etc.

Whilst I am a would-be Caucasologist with a passing familiarity
with Georgian, I have little or no detailed knowledge of the North-
West (Adygho-Abkhaz) Caucasian language grouping. However,
V. Ardzinba has concluded that the prefixal structure of
Hattic/Kaskian (there are a number of important assumptions
here, most importantly that a large proportion of the vocabulary
of Hittite is in fact 'Hattic') bear a similarity with Abkhaz and
'Circassian' (Adyge,Kabardian, Ubykh) [Abkhaz is not mutually
intelligible with Adyghe and Ubykh, the other languages in the
group. Ubykh, which was a 'bridge' between the two branches,
is now extinct, the last speaker having died in 1992.]

Most of the original range of dialects (some refer to these as
'languages') were lost in the diaspora following the mass emigration
into the Ottoman Empire in the years after 1864 at the end of the
Great Caucasian War.

People of North Caucasian origin are referred to as 'Cherkess'
in Turkey, but under Turkish law are not allowed to hold any
legal Circassian (Cherkess) identity (as also the Kurds). Other
sizeable groupings of Circassians live in Jordan and Israel.
There is now a repatriation movement in favour of return to the
North Caucasus, though it has been very slow to catch on.

The arguments favouring Ardzinba's conclusions are inevitably
complex - and we are dealing here with language groupings
that are generally unfamiliar to those living in the West.

If you wish to pursue this line of enquiry, I can recommend,
in addition to the works already quoted, 'The Indigenous Lan-
guages of the Caucasus (in 3 parts) -ed. Alice C. Harris
[Caravan Books] with George (B.G.) Hewitt and Rieks Smeets
as other major contributors. (I believe Part 4 is not yet available).
Rather expensive books, I'm afraid! Most other research
is available only in Russian or Georgian.

In my view these linguistic theories must rely to some degree
on the 'consequences' of the now well-documented Black Sea
event. One might presuppose a pre-historic language group-
ing which reached around the eastern shore of the Black Sea
from the North Pontic area through ancient Colchis (W. Georgia)
and the western ranges of the Caucasus to the Sea of Azov
(Taman Peninsula). Toponyms suggest that this language
grouping extended in pre-historic times into the Eastern Ukraine.
Precursors of the Circassians were the civilisations of Sindica
and Maeotia 7-4 centuries B.C. where there were extensive cultural
and economic links with the classical Greek and Hellenic world.

Alternatively, if one ignores the effects of the Euxine Lake 'flood'',
there must have been long-standing ethnic, cultural and economic
links between the north and south shores of the Black Sea,
possibly ignoring (though this is unlikely) ancient Colchis (the valley
of the River Rioni which is now W. Georgia/Mingrelia).

I hope this information answers, at least in part, your query, and
I apologise that I cannot come forward with more language-specific
information.

Geoff Powers