Languages of the Caucasus

{{short description|Diverse languages between the Black and Caspian seas}}

File:Caucasus-ethnic en.svgs in the Caucasus region (1995)]]

The Caucasian languages comprise a large and extremely varied array of languages spoken by more than ten million people in and around the Caucasus Mountains, which lie between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

Linguistic comparison allows the classification of these languages into several different language families, with little or no discernible affinity to each other. However, the languages of the Caucasus are sometimes mistakenly referred to as a family of languages.Tuite, Kevin. (1999). The myth of the Caucasian Sprachbund: The case of ergativity. Lingua. 108. 1-29. [https://doi.org/10.1016/S0024-3841(98)00037-0] According to Asya Pereltsvaig, "grammatical differences between the three groups of languages are considerable. [...] These differences force the more conservative historical linguistics to treat the three language families of the Caucasus as unrelated."{{cite book |last=Pereltsvaig |first=Asya |author-link=Asya Pereltsvaig |title=Languages of the World: An Introduction|year=2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|page=65}}

Families indigenous to the Caucasus

{{Infobox language family

| name = Caucasian

| familycolor = caucasian

| acceptance = areal

| family = Not a single family

| region = Caucasus

| glotto = none

}}

Three of these families have no current indigenous members outside the Caucasus, and are considered indigenous to the area. The term Caucasian languages is generally restricted to these families, which are spoken by about 11.2 million people.{{cite book|last=Krishnan|first=K. S.|author-link=K. S. Krishnan|date=12 August 2019|title=Origin of Vedas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O6SoDwAAQBAJ|publisher=Notion Press|page=|isbn=9781645879817}}

Kartvelian, also known as the South Caucasian or Iberian language family, with a total of about 4.3 million speakers. Includes Georgian, the official language of Georgia, with four million speakers, Svan with 14,000 speakers, Mingrelian with 345,000 speakers, and Laz with 22,000 speakers.
Northeast Caucasian, also called the Nakh-Daghestanian or Caspian family, with a total of about 4.3 million speakers. Includes Chechen with 1.7 million speakers, Avar with 1 million speakers, Dargwa with 590,000 speakers, Ingush with 500,000 speakers, Lezgian with 800,000 speakers, and others.
Northwest Caucasian, also called the Abkhazo-Adyghean, Circassian, or Pontic family, with a total of about 2 million speakers. Includes Kabardian, with one million speakers, Adyghe with 610,000 speakers, Abkhaz with 190,000 speakers, and Abaza with 85,000 speakers.

The Northeast and Northwest Caucasian families are notable for their high number of consonant phonemes (inventories range up to the 80–84 consonants of Ubykh). The consonant inventories of the South Caucasian languages, however, are not nearly as extensive, ranging from 28 (Georgian) to 32 (Svan) – comparable to languages like Russian (up to 37 consonant phonemes, depending on definition), Arabic (28 phonemes), and Western European languages (often more than 20 phonemes).

The autochthonous languages of the Caucasus share some areal features, such as the presence of ejective consonants and a highly agglutinative structure, and, with the sole exception of Mingrelian, all of them exhibit a greater or lesser degree of ergativity. Many of these features are shared with other languages that have been in the Caucasus for a long time, such as Ossetian (which has ejective sounds but no ergativity).

= External relations =

Since the birth of comparative linguistics in the 19th century, the riddle of the apparently isolated Caucasian language families has attracted the attention of many scholars, who have endeavored to relate them to each other or to languages outside the Caucasus region.Schulze, Wolfgang. "11. The comparative method in Caucasian linguistics". Volume 1 Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics, edited by Jared Klein, Brian Joseph and Matthias Fritz, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton, 2017, pp. 105-114. [https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110261288-011] The most promising proposals are connections between the Northeast and Northwest Caucasian families and each other or with languages formerly spoken in Anatolia and northern Mesopotamia.Arkadiev, Peter & Maisak, Timur. (2018). Grammaticalization in the North Caucasian languages. [https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198795841.003.0007]

== North Caucasian languages ==

Linguists such as Sergei Starostin see the Northeast (Nakh-Dagestanian) and Northwest (Abkhaz–Adyghe) families as related and propose uniting them in a single North Caucasian family, sometimes called Caucasic or simply Caucasian. This theory excludes the South Caucasian languages, thereby proposing two indigenous language families.Nikolayev, S., and S. Starostin. 1994 North Caucasian Etymological Dictionary. Moscow: Asterisk Press. [http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/query.cgi?flags=eygtnnl&basename=%5Cdata%5Ccauc%5Ccaucet&recode=yes&hiero=gif Available online]. While these two families share many similarities, their morphological structure, with many morphemes consisting of a single consonant, make comparison between them unusually difficult, and it has not been possible to establish a genetic relationship with any certainty.

== Ibero-Caucasian languages ==

There are no known affinities between the South Caucasian and North Caucasian families. Nevertheless, some scholars have proposed the single name Ibero-Caucasian for all the Caucasian language families, North and South, in an attempt to unify the Caucasian languages under one family.

== Hattic ==

Some linguists have claimed affinities between the Northwest Caucasian (Circassian) family and the extinct Hattic language of central Anatolia. See the article on Northwest Caucasian languages for details.

== Alarodian ==

Alarodian is a proposed connection between Northeast Caucasian and the extinct Hurro-Urartian languages of Anatolia.

== Dené–Caucasian macrofamily ==

Linguists such as Sergei Starostin have proposed a Dené–Caucasian macrofamily, which includes the North Caucasian languages together with Basque, Burushaski, Na-Dené, Sino-Tibetan, and Yeniseian. This proposal is rejected by most linguists.

Families with wider distribution

Other languages historically and currently spoken in the Caucasus area can be placed into families with a much wider geographical distribution.

= Indo-European =

The predominant Indo-European language in the Caucasus is Armenian, spoken by the Armenians (circa 6.7 million speakers). The Ossetians, speaking the Ossetian language, form another group of around 700,000 speakers. Other Indo-European languages spoken in the Caucasus include Greek (Pontic Greek), Persian (including Tat Persian), Kurdish, Talysh, Judeo-Tat, and the Slavic languages, such as Russian and Ukrainian, whose speakers number over a third of the total population of the Caucasus.

= Semitic =

Two dialects of Neo-Aramaic are spoken in the Caucasus: Assyrian Neo-Aramaic, with around 30,000 speakers, and Bohtan Neo-Aramaic, with around 1,000 speakers. Both of these were brought to the Caucasus by ethnic Assyrians fleeing the Sayfo or Assyrian genocide during World War I.

A dialect of Arabic known as Shirvani Arabic was spoken natively in parts of Azerbaijan and Dagestan throughout medieval times until the early 20th century.{{cite book|last=Owens|first=Jonathan|title=Arabic As a Minority Language|year=2000|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=9783110165784|pages=89–101}}{{cite book|last=Zelkina|first=Anna|title=In Quest for God and Freedom: The Sufi Response to the Russian Advance in the North Caucasus|year=2000|publisher=C. Hurst & Co.|isbn=9781850653844|page=31}} In the nineteenth century, it was considered that the best literary Arabic was spoken in the mountains of Dagestan.{{cite book|last=Bryan|first=Fanny. E.B.|editor-last=Bennigsen-Broxup|editor-first=Marie|editor-link=Marie Bennigsen-Broxup|title=The North Caucasus Barrier: The Russian Advance Towards the Muslim World|year=1992|publisher=C. Hurst & Co.|isbn=9781850653059|page=210}}

= Turkic =

Several Turkic languages are spoken in the Caucasus. Of these, Azerbaijani is predominant, with around 9 million speakers in Azerbaijan and more than 10 million in North Western Iran. Other Turkic languages spoken include Karachay-Balkar, Kumyk, Nogai, Turkish, Turkmen and Urum.

= Mongolic =

Kalmyk Oirat, spoken by descendants of Oirat-speakers from East Asia, is a Mongolic language.

Vocabulary comparison

Below are selected basic vocabulary items for all three language families of the Caucasus.

class="wikitable sortable" ! gloss !! Proto-NE CaucasianNichols, Johanna. 2003. The Nakh-Daghestanian consonant correspondences. In Dee Ann Holisky and Kevin Tuite (eds.), Current Trends in Caucasian, East European and Inner Asian Linguistics: Papers in honor of Howard I. Aronson, 207-264. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. {{doi\|10.1075/cilt.246.14nic}} !! Proto-NW CaucasianChirikba, Viacheslav. 1996. Common West Caucasian: The Reconstruction of its Phonological System and Parts of its Lexicon and Morphology. Leiden: Research School CNWS, School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies. ISBN 978-9073782716. !! Proto-Kartvelian{{cite book \|last=Klimov \|author-link=Georgy Klimov \|first=G. \|year=1998 \|title=Etymological Dictionary of the Kartvelian Languages \|publisher=Mouton de Gruyter \|place=Berlin}} !! Georgian
eye	{{lang\|mis\|(b)ul, (b)al}}	{{lang\|mis\|*b-la}}	{{lang\|mis\|*twal-}}	{{lang\|ka\|tvali}}
tooth	{{lang\|mis\|*cVl-}}	{{lang\|mis\|*ca}}	GZ {{lang\|mis\|*ḳb-il-}}	{{lang\|ka\|k’bili}}
tongue	{{lang\|mis\|*maʒ-i}}	{{lang\|mis\|*bza}}	{{lang\|mis\|*nena-}}	{{lang\|ka\|ena}}
hand, arm	{{lang\|mis\|kV, kol-}}	{{lang\|mis\|*q’a}}	{{lang\|mis\|*qe-}}	{{lang\|ka\|xeli}}
back (of body)	{{lang\|mis\|*-uqq’}}	{{lang\|mis\|*pxá}}		{{lang\|ka\|zurgi}}
heart	{{lang\|mis\|rVk’u / Vrk’u}}	{{lang\|mis\|*g°ə}}	{{lang\|mis\|*gul-}}	{{lang\|ka\|guli}}
meat	{{lang\|mis\|*(CV)-(lV)ƛƛ’}}	{{lang\|mis\|*Lə}}	GZ {{lang\|mis\|*qorc-}}	{{lang\|ka\|xorci}}
sun	{{lang\|mis\|*bVrVg}}	{{lang\|mis\|*dəɣa}}	{{lang\|mis\|*mz₁e-}}	{{lang\|ka\|mze}}
moon	{{lang\|mis\|baʒVr / buʒVr}}	{{lang\|mis\|*məʒa}}	{{lang\|mis\|*tute-}}	{{lang\|ka\|mtvare}}
earth	{{lang\|mis\|*(l)ončči}}	{{lang\|mis\|*č’ə-g°ə}} (P-Circassian)		{{lang\|ka\|dedamiʦ’a}}
water	{{lang\|mis\|*ɬɬin}}	{{lang\|mis\|*psə}} (P-Circassian)	GZ {{lang\|mis\|*c̣q̣a-}}	{{lang\|ka\|ʦ’q’ali}}
fire	{{lang\|mis\|c’ar(i), c’ad(i)}}	{{lang\|mis\|*məć’°a}}	GZ {{lang\|mis\|*ʓec₁xl-}}	{{lang\|ka\|cecxli; xanʒari}}
ashes	{{lang\|mis\|rV-uqq’ / rV-uƛƛ’}}	{{lang\|mis\|*tq°a}}	{{lang\|mis\|*ṭuṭa-}}	{{lang\|ka\|perpli}}
road	{{lang\|mis\|-eqq’ / -aqq’}}	{{lang\|mis\|*məʕ°á}}	GZ {{lang\|mis\|*gza-}}	{{lang\|ka\|gza}}
name	{{lang\|mis\|cc’Vr, cc’Vri}}	{{lang\|mis\|*(p’)c’a}}	{{lang\|mis\|*ʓ₁ax-e-}}	{{lang\|ka\|saxeli; gvari}}
kill	{{lang\|mis\|*-Vƛ’}}	{{lang\|mis\|*ƛ’ə́}}		{{lang\|ka\|k’vla}}
burn	{{lang\|mis\|*-Vk’}}	{{lang\|mis\|ca; bla/ə}}	{{lang\|mis\|*c₁x-}}	{{lang\|ka\|ʦ’va}}
know	{{lang\|mis\|*(-)Vc’}}	{{lang\|mis\|*ć’a}}		{{lang\|ka\|codna}}
black	{{lang\|mis\|alč’i- (ʕalč’i-)}}	{{lang\|mis\|*ć’°a}}		{{lang\|ka\|šavi}}
round	{{lang\|mis\|goRg / gog-R-}}			{{lang\|ka\|mrgvali}}
dry	{{lang\|mis\|-aqq’(u) / -uqq’}}	{{lang\|mis\|*ʕ°ə́}}	{{lang\|mis\|šwer-, šwr-}}	{{lang\|ka\|mšrali}}
thin	{{lang\|mis\|*(C)-uƛ’Vl-}}	{{lang\|mis\|*č’°a}}	GZ {{lang\|mis\|*ttx-el-}}	{{lang\|ka\|txeli}}
what	{{lang\|mis\|*sti-}}	{{lang\|mis\|sə-tʰə; śə-da}} (P-Circassian)	{{lang\|mis\|*ma-}}	{{lang\|ka\|ra}}
one	{{lang\|mis\|cV (cʕV ?)}}	{{lang\|mis\|*za}}	GZ {{lang\|mis\|*ert-}}	{{lang\|ka\|erti}}
five	{{lang\|mis\|(W)-ƛƛi / ƛƛwi}}	{{lang\|mis\|*txᵒə}}	{{lang\|mis\|*xut-}}	{{lang\|ka\|xuti}}

References

External links

TITUS: Caucasian languages [http://titus.uni-frankfurt.de/didact/karten/kauk/kaukasm.htm map by Jost Gippert] & projects [http://armazi.uni-frankfurt.de/ Armazi]& [http://titus.fkidg1.uni-frankfurt.de/ecling/ecling.htm Ecling]
[http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/commonwealth/ethnocaucasus.jpg CIA ethnolinguistic map]
[http://linguistics.buffalo.edu/people/faculty/dryer/dryer/map.caucasus.GIF language-family map by Matthew Dryer]
[http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/languages.html Caucausian section of the Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20061217214014/http://www.ling.lu.se/persons/Arthur/caucprojreport.pdf The Iberian-Caucasian Connection in a Typological Perspective] – An in-depth linguistic study of Basque, Georgian, and other ergative languages, concluding that the similarities are not strong enough to prove a genetic link.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070917141516/http://linguarium.iling-ran.ru/publications/caucas/alw_cau_content.shtml Atlas of the Caucasian Languages with very detailed Language Guide (by Yuri B. Koryakov)]
[http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/pies/pdfs/IESV/1/VVI_Horse.pdf Comparative Notes on Hurro-Urartian, Northern Caucasian and Indo-European] by V. V. Ivanov
[https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110261288-011/pdf 11. The comparative method in Caucasian linguistics] by Wolfgang Schulze
[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/223781662_The_myth_of_the_Caucasian_Sprachbund_The_case_of_ergativity The myth of the Caucasian Sprachbund: The case of ergativity] by Kevin Tuite
[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233510214_The_Rise_and_Fall_and_Revival_of_the_Ibero-Caucasian_Hypothesis The Rise and Fall and Revival of the Ibero-Caucasian Hypothesis] by Kevin Tuite
[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329819214_Grammaticalization_in_the_North_Caucasian_languages Grammaticalization in the North Caucasian languages] by Peter Arkadiev and Timur Maisak
[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263175145_Areal_Typology_of_Proto-Indo-European_The_Case_for_Caucasian_Connections Areal Typology of Proto‐Indo‐European: The Case for Caucasian Connections] by Ranko Matasovic
[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344330212_The_Northwest_Caucasian_languages The Northwest Caucasian languages] by Peter Arkadiev and Yury Lander
[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/234147412_Mountain_of_Tongues_The_Languages_of_the_Caucasus Mountain of Tongues: The Languages of the Caucasus] by J. C. Catford
[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357223924_Mountain_of_Tongues_The_Languages_of_the_Caucasus_in_Arabic-Islamic_Sources_The_Languages_of_the_Caucasus_in_Arabic-Islamic_Sources “Mountain of Tongues” The Languages of the Caucasus in Arabic-Islamic Sources] by Andrii Danylenko
[https://www.routledgehandbooks.com/doi/10.4324/9781351055628-3 Routledge Handbook of the Caucasus] by John Colarusso
[https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/cambridge-handbook-of-areal-linguistics/caucasus/D26A5236E4ACD4BC99B747242422DE31 13 - The Caucasus from Part II - Case Studies for Areal Linguistics] by Sven Grawunder
[https://dlc.hypotheses.org/507 Ejectives, Altitude, and the Caucasus as a Linguistic Area] by Thomas Wier
[https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=531 The languages of the Caucasus]
[https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/24/weekinreview/24barry.html Barriers That Are Steep and Linguistic] by Ellen Barry
[https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199772810/obo-9780199772810-0057.xml Caucasian Languages] by Marina Chumakina
[https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/28/10/2905/973568 Parallel Evolution of Genes and Languages in the Caucasus Region]
[https://www.ijhcs.com/index.php/ijhcs/article/download/1424/1297 North Caucasian languages: comparison of three classification approaches] by Valery Solovyev
[https://www.languagesoftheworld.info/uncategorized/linguistic-genetic-mosaic-northwest-caucasus.html The linguistic and genetic mosaic of the Northwest Caucasus] by Asya Pereltsvaig
[https://www.jstor.org/stable/30022477 Languages of the World: Ibero-Caucasian and Pidgin-Creole Fascicle One] by C. F. Voegelin and F. M. Voegelin on JSTOR
[https://www.jstor.org/stable/30028646 A Case of Taboo-Motivated Lexical Replacement in the Indigenous Languages of the Caucasus] by Kevin Tuite and Wolfgang Schulze on JSTOR
[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2949334 Mountain of Tongues: The Languages of the Caucasus] by J. C. Catford on JSTOR
[https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED010355.pdf Languages of the World: Ibero-Caucasian and Pidgin-Creole Fascicle One] by C. F. Voegelin and F. M. Voegelin
[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/313227059_A_case_of_taboo-motivated_lexical_replacement_in_the_indigenous_languages_of_the_Caucasus A case of taboo-motivated lexical replacement in the indigenous languages of the Caucasus] by Kevin Tuite and Wolfgang Schulze on ResearchGate
[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358511334_From_North_to_North_West_How_North-West_Caucasian_Evolved_from_North_Caucasian_In_MOTHER_TONGUE_Journal_of_the_Association_for_the_Study_of_Language_in_Prehistory_Issue_XXI_2016_p_1-27 From North to North West: How North-West Caucasian Evolved from North Caucasian] by Viacheslav Chirikba
[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290503561_2_The_problem_of_the_Caucasian_Sprachbund 2. The problem of the Caucasian Sprachbund] by Viacheslav Chirikba
[http://lingvarium.org/raznoe/publications/caucas/alw_cau_over.shtml Overview of Caucasian languages and Caucasus]
[https://www.mustgo.com/worldlanguages/caucasian-language-families/ Caucasian Language Families]
[https://aratta.wordpress.com/2013/03/19/caucasians/ The Caucasians - Cradle of Civilization]
[https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/1346186 Northwest Caucasian Languages and Hattic] on Dergi Park
[https://repository.arizona.edu/bitstream/handle/10150/290541/azu_td_8102239_sip1_m.pdf BASQUE AND CAUCASIAN: A SURVEY OF THE METHODS USED IN ESTABLISHING ANCIENT GENETIC AFFILIATIONS] on repository by the University of Arizona
[https://books.google.com/books?id=lbLbAAAAQBAJ The History of Basque]
[https://www.iias.asia/the-review/endangered-languages-caucasus-and-beyond Endangered Languages of the Caucasus and Beyond] on IIAS
[https://omniglot.com/conscripts/pca.htm The Pan-Caucasian alphabet by Vazgen R. Ghazaryan] at Omniglot

Category:Agglutinative languages

class="wikitable sortable" ! gloss !! Proto-NE CaucasianNichols, Johanna. 2003. The Nakh-Daghestanian consonant correspondences. In Dee Ann Holisky and Kevin Tuite (eds.), Current Trends in Caucasian, East European and Inner Asian Linguistics: Papers in honor of Howard I. Aronson, 207-264. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. {{doi\|10.1075/cilt.246.14nic}} !! Proto-NW CaucasianChirikba, Viacheslav. 1996. Common West Caucasian: The Reconstruction of its Phonological System and Parts of its Lexicon and Morphology. Leiden: Research School CNWS, School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies. ISBN 978-9073782716. !! Proto-Kartvelian{{cite book \|last=Klimov \|author-link=Georgy Klimov \|first=G. \|year=1998 \|title=Etymological Dictionary of the Kartvelian Languages \|publisher=Mouton de Gruyter \|place=Berlin}} !! Georgian
eye	{{lang\|mis\|(b)ul, (b)al}}	{{lang\|mis\|*b-la}}	{{lang\|mis\|*twal-}}	{{lang\|ka\|tvali}}
tooth	{{lang\|mis\|*cVl-}}	{{lang\|mis\|*ca}}	GZ {{lang\|mis\|*ḳb-il-}}	{{lang\|ka\|k’bili}}
tongue	{{lang\|mis\|*maʒ-i}}	{{lang\|mis\|*bza}}	{{lang\|mis\|*nena-}}	{{lang\|ka\|ena}}
hand, arm	{{lang\|mis\|kV, kol-}}	{{lang\|mis\|*q’a}}	{{lang\|mis\|*qe-}}	{{lang\|ka\|xeli}}
back (of body)	{{lang\|mis\|*-uqq’}}	{{lang\|mis\|*pxá}}		{{lang\|ka\|zurgi}}
heart	{{lang\|mis\|rVk’u / Vrk’u}}	{{lang\|mis\|*g°ə}}	{{lang\|mis\|*gul-}}	{{lang\|ka\|guli}}
meat	{{lang\|mis\|*(CV)-(lV)ƛƛ’}}	{{lang\|mis\|*Lə}}	GZ {{lang\|mis\|*qorc-}}	{{lang\|ka\|xorci}}
sun	{{lang\|mis\|*bVrVg}}	{{lang\|mis\|*dəɣa}}	{{lang\|mis\|*mz₁e-}}	{{lang\|ka\|mze}}
moon	{{lang\|mis\|baʒVr / buʒVr}}	{{lang\|mis\|*məʒa}}	{{lang\|mis\|*tute-}}	{{lang\|ka\|mtvare}}
earth	{{lang\|mis\|*(l)ončči}}	{{lang\|mis\|*č’ə-g°ə}} (P-Circassian)		{{lang\|ka\|dedamiʦ’a}}
water	{{lang\|mis\|*ɬɬin}}	{{lang\|mis\|*psə}} (P-Circassian)	GZ {{lang\|mis\|*c̣q̣a-}}	{{lang\|ka\|ʦ’q’ali}}
fire	{{lang\|mis\|c’ar(i), c’ad(i)}}	{{lang\|mis\|*məć’°a}}	GZ {{lang\|mis\|*ʓec₁xl-}}	{{lang\|ka\|cecxli; xanʒari}}
ashes	{{lang\|mis\|rV-uqq’ / rV-uƛƛ’}}	{{lang\|mis\|*tq°a}}	{{lang\|mis\|*ṭuṭa-}}	{{lang\|ka\|perpli}}
road	{{lang\|mis\|-eqq’ / -aqq’}}	{{lang\|mis\|*məʕ°á}}	GZ {{lang\|mis\|*gza-}}	{{lang\|ka\|gza}}
name	{{lang\|mis\|cc’Vr, cc’Vri}}	{{lang\|mis\|*(p’)c’a}}	{{lang\|mis\|*ʓ₁ax-e-}}	{{lang\|ka\|saxeli; gvari}}
kill	{{lang\|mis\|*-Vƛ’}}	{{lang\|mis\|*ƛ’ə́}}		{{lang\|ka\|k’vla}}
burn	{{lang\|mis\|*-Vk’}}	{{lang\|mis\|ca; bla/ə}}	{{lang\|mis\|*c₁x-}}	{{lang\|ka\|ʦ’va}}
know	{{lang\|mis\|*(-)Vc’}}	{{lang\|mis\|*ć’a}}		{{lang\|ka\|codna}}
black	{{lang\|mis\|alč’i- (ʕalč’i-)}}	{{lang\|mis\|*ć’°a}}		{{lang\|ka\|šavi}}
round	{{lang\|mis\|goRg / gog-R-}}			{{lang\|ka\|mrgvali}}
dry	{{lang\|mis\|-aqq’(u) / -uqq’}}	{{lang\|mis\|*ʕ°ə́}}	{{lang\|mis\|šwer-, šwr-}}	{{lang\|ka\|mšrali}}
thin	{{lang\|mis\|*(C)-uƛ’Vl-}}	{{lang\|mis\|*č’°a}}	GZ {{lang\|mis\|*ttx-el-}}	{{lang\|ka\|txeli}}
what	{{lang\|mis\|*sti-}}	{{lang\|mis\|sə-tʰə; śə-da}} (P-Circassian)	{{lang\|mis\|*ma-}}	{{lang\|ka\|ra}}
one	{{lang\|mis\|cV (cʕV ?)}}	{{lang\|mis\|*za}}	GZ {{lang\|mis\|*ert-}}	{{lang\|ka\|erti}}
five	{{lang\|mis\|(W)-ƛƛi / ƛƛwi}}	{{lang\|mis\|*txᵒə}}	{{lang\|mis\|*xut-}}	{{lang\|ka\|xuti}}