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Languages of the Caucasus | ||
Tags: Caucasian languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| chucknorrisman Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5450 days ago 321 posts - 435 votes  Speaks: Korean*, English, Spanish Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Lithuanian, French | Message 1 of 14 22 March 2010 at 12:34am | IP Logged | ||
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Does anyone have any resources for some languages of the Caucasus? I'm interested in Avar, Chechen, Adyghe, and Tsez. I couldn't find anything at all for them in English, and I could only find stuff for Avar and Chechen in Russian (meaning nothing at all for Adyghe and Tsez). I'm planning to learn them just for fun when I become better at Russian, but I just want to search for these resources when I can (I've also found that going into Russian websites and trying to find materials for them kind of helped my Russian a bit as well, although not that much at this point, and I'm kind of digressing here). Edited by chucknorrisman on 22 March 2010 at 12:38am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6441 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 2 of 14 22 March 2010 at 6:09am | IP Logged | ||
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Omniglot's tsez page may get you started. It links to a page on the tsez which gives references:
1. A. Dirr, Einführung in das Studium der kaukasischen Sprachen, Leipzig 1928 2. М. А. Агларов, Сельская община в Нагорном Дагестане в XVII -- начале XIX в., Москва 1988 3. Е. А. Бокарев, Цезские (дидойские) языки Дагестана, Москва 1959 4. А. В. Булатова, Традиционные праздники и обряды народов Горного Дагестана в ХIХ -- начале ХХ века, Ленинград 1988 5. Г. Д. Даниялов, Строительство социализма в Дагестане 1918--1937, Москва 1988 6. В. Г. Гаджиев, Сочинение И. Гербера "Описание стран и народов между Астраханью и рекой Курой находящихся", Москва 1979 7. И. В. Мергелидзе, Дидойцы и название "Дидо". -- Труды пед. института им. Пушкина. Т. П, Тбилиси 1942 Using the first book on the list as a search term to find serious pages rather than copies of wikipedia or pages on a few basic phrases, some more links of interest can be found. One of the first hits is The Kabardian Language: A Bibliography (In Western European Languages. Arranged alphabetically according to the title), which is closely related to Adyghe. This in turn links to a North Caucasian bibliography. On the simpler side, just looking at the Adyghe wikipedia page offers up a link to ZIHIA / Circassian language online lessons. If you're looking for an introductory taste, this might be more along the lines of what you want. If you have further/more specific questions, I'll see if I can find anything. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5483 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 3 of 14 22 March 2010 at 3:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Learn Georgian if you wish to learn any of those languages. It is the most spoken of any of
the Caucasian languages, so resources will be easier to come by. Even if it is South Caucasian, there must be at least a few similarities between it and Northeast Caucasian languages (as I can see most of those up there are Northeast Caucasian). English resources for Georgian are not plenty, but the few are very good, and if you learn Georgian, you can have access to materials for most other Caucasian languages. Russian will open you up to a bunch of resources as well, but learning Georgian will give you more resources, and a similar language so that learning them will be much easier. Edited by ruskivyetr on 22 March 2010 at 3:28pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Wilco Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6332 days ago 160 posts - 247 votes Speaks: French*, English, Russian | Message 4 of 14 22 March 2010 at 4:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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What about Dargwa? Are there any textbooks?
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| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6441 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 5 of 14 22 March 2010 at 5:10pm | IP Logged | ||
Are you sure about the above? The following reflects my understanding; if there are any errors, I'd appreciate corrections. Georgian is the most widely spoken Caucasian language, as you said. As far as I know, the North and South branches are quite different from each other. English resources for Georgian are ok, as are Russian ones, but the best are in German. The resource situation for Tsez doesn't appear to suggest learning Georgian would be a plus. Searching for "დიდოური" on google, I get less than 800 results. I'd fully expect German and Russian to have better resources for Tsez than Georgian does. If there are useful resources in Georgian for the smaller Caucasian languages, I'd love to hear about them. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6441 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 6 of 14 22 March 2010 at 5:36pm | IP Logged | ||
If there are, I've been unable to find them despite finding a while looking. This doesn't necessarily mean much - they may exist and simply not be referenced on the internet, or my search queries may have been ineffective (my ability to search in Russian is painfully weak). You probably already know that Dargwa is one of the more documented languages, and that there are plenty of books on it, including grammars. It looks like the diversity of Dargwa is a problem for resources, though - the wikipedia page says it's actually at least 17 languages, which differ from each other about as much as the Germanic languages, and Russian forum posts discussing learning it also mention the diversity of varieties of the language(s) as an obstacle. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| chucknorrisman Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5450 days ago 321 posts - 435 votes Speaks: Korean*, English, Spanish Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Lithuanian, French | Message 7 of 14 22 March 2010 at 5:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm open to suggestions for German resources as well... German is on my list of languages to learn after Russian and Mandarin.
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| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5483 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 8 of 14 22 March 2010 at 6:47pm | IP Logged | ||
Even if they are different, I'm sure that belonging to the same language family and being relatively close location-wise. After some research, it seems that they (North Caucasian and South Caucasian) are classified as two separate language groups even though their name is the same. My information was wrong, and I apologize. However some of the Northwest Caucasian languages such as Abkhaz (well, in a disputed region) are spoken in Georgia and in the surrounding areas which belong to Russia. I'd imagine that Georgian would be quite useful in order to learn some of the languages in Georgia. But to sum it up, there is still dispute between the linguistic relationships between Caucasian languages, even though there are some similarites. The dispute is mainly south and north, while n east and n west are generally seen as somewhat connected. As for the best resources for Georgian being German, I can agree with you. Lehrbuch der georgischen Sprache seems very good as does Einführung in die georgische Schrift (both on Amazon.de). Perhaps in Germany this summer I will research German- Georgian learning books, as Georgian is definitely a language on my hitlist, and I have already started to dabble in it. Most internet searches for Georgian resources to other Caucasian languages will yield little result. I'd assume that Georgian bookstores do not have online sites, and that any books from Georgian-Northern Caucasian languages would only be available in Georgia. But hey, if you learn Georgian, and you travel there to get books and immerse in the language, it's only a step away from the other regions of the Caucasus where the other languages you are interested in are spoken. I am not aware of any resources for the smaller Caucasian languages in German. However, if you find some (or any others for Georgian) please do share as it would be a fascinating way to delve into that linguistic region. Edited by ruskivyetr on 22 March 2010 at 6:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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