Chakobsa

{{Short description|Northwest Caucasian language}}

{{About|the language of the Caucasus|the fictional language from the novel Dune|Chakobsa (Dune)}}

Chakobsa is a Northwest Caucasian language, possibly in the Circassian subgroup. According to linguist John Colarusso, Chakobsa is also known as shikwoshir or the 'hunting language' and was originally a secret language used only by the princes and nobles, and is still used by their descendants. An informant of Colarusso has asserted that Chakobsa is based on the Circassian languages, encrypted by reordering words and changing phonemes, rather like Pig Latin but more complex. This assertion is as yet unconfirmed.{{cite book |last1= Colarusso |first1=John |author-link1=John Colarusso |title=The Northwest Caucasian Languages: A Phonological Survey |date=1988 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781317918172 |page=11 |edition=Jan 21, 2014 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=qqysAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA11&dq=ISBN+9781317918172 |access-date=8 February 2018|chapter=1, note 3}}

The 18th century adventurer Jacob Reineggs renders the name of the language as Sikowschir (note the -ow- instead of -wo-), calling it a "court-language", and records the following 18 word glossary: Paphle 'eye', Brugg 'head', Baetāŏ 'ear', Wũp 'rifle', Kaepe 'horse', Ptschakoaentsche 'camel', Ptschakokaff 'cow', Tkemeschae 'goat', Fogabbe 'sheep', Naeghune 'fire', Scheghs 'water', Uppe 'woman', Aelewsae 'child', Paschae 'money', Naekuschae 'bread', Schuwghae 'raincoat', Schufae 'fur' and Tewrettgllo 'to steal'.{{cite book|editor-last=Schröder|editor-first=Friedrich Enoch|title=Dr. Jacob Reineggs (...) Allgemeine historisch-topographische Beschreibung des Kaukasus|date=1796|publisher=Gerstenberg und Dittmar|page=248|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Lx1DAAAAcAAJ&pg=248|access-date=12 November 2021}}

According to the German orientalist and linguist Julius Klaproth, who traveled in the Caucasus and Georgia between 1807 and 1808, the Circassians use secret languages on their raids, the two most common of which are called Schakobsché (rather than Sikowschir, as Klaproth expressly states) and Farschipsé. Of the first, which he describes as having no relation to the Circassian languages, he could not obtain any samples besides the ones given by Reineggs. The second, he says, is created by inserting ri or fé between each syllable, but from the nine examples he gives it is clear that it is more complicated than that, e.g. Circassian schah 'head' and tdl'e 'foot' which in "Farschipsé" become irisch'chari and tl'arukqari.{{cite book|last=Klaproth|first=Heinrich Julius|title=Reise in den Kaukasus und nach Georgien unternommen in den Jahren 1807 und 1808 (...)|volume=I|date=1812|publisher=Buchhandlungen des Hallischen Waisenhauses|location=Halle and Berlin|pages=588-589|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=44_KRCDfyyoC&pg=PA588|access-date=12 November 2021}}

In his book Twelve Secrets of the Caucasus, first published in German in 1930, Lev Nussimbaum, writing under his pen name Essad Bey, also mentions a secret language called Chakobsa spoken by the inhabitants of the citadels, palaces and robbers' strongholds. He gives the following five words, stating that they were the only ones known to science: shapaka 'horse', amafa 'blood', ami 'water', asaz 'gun', and ashopshka 'coward'.{{cite book|last=Essad Bey|title=Twelve Secrets of the Caucasus|date=1931|publisher=Nash & Grayson|page=16|url=https://archive.org/details/dli.ministry.06892/page/16/mode/2up|access-date=12 November 2021}} (Note that the words for 'horse', 'water' and 'gun/rifle' differ from those given by Reineggs.)

In her book The Sabres of Paradise (1960), Lesley Blanch also makes mention of the "mysterious tongue" and "hunting language" Chakobsa.{{cite book|author-link=Lesley Blanch|first=Lesley|last=Blanch|title=The Sabres of Paradise|url=https://archive.org/details/sabresofparadise0000unse/page/21|date=1960|page=21|access-date=12 November 2021}}