Re: Oltak

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Miguel Carrasquer <mcv@...> wrote:

> On Sat, 05 Apr 2003 14:20:45 +0000, tolgs001 <gs001ns@...> wrote:
>
> >gknysh wrote:
> >
> >>ancestors of the modern Adyge (whose
> >>language is related to Abkhazian), also known (later)
> >>as Circassians (and by other names).
> >
> >BTW: what kind of language are these -- of the
> >Adygeis, Circassians & Abkhazians? IE or else?
>
> Not IE, but North-West Caucasian. The group consists of Circassian
> (Adyghe + Kabardian), Abkhaz + Abaza and Ubykh. Some specialists
> think there is a connection between NW Caucasian and NE Cucasian
> (incluiding Chechen and various Daghestanian languages), others are
> not convinced.
>

Correct me if I'm wrong; I believe there are now three "Caucasian"
language groups: NW Caucasian, NE Caucasian and Kartvelian (of which
Geoargian is a member). Kartvelian languages used to be spoken much
further north, along the Black Sea coast, I seem to recall (and it
has the 'dan' "water" word). The thing that worry me most is the
ancient reports of Greeks (?) needing one hundred interpreters to
travel in the Caucasus; several languages (the last one was Ubykh)
and whole language groups might have died out without a trace.

Torsten