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  The Northwest Caucasian Languages A Phonological Survey

  By John Colarusso 

  Year 1988

  ISBN 9781138998001

  Published February 28, 2016 by Routledge

  520 Pages

 



Book Description

Perhaps more than any other group of languages those of the Caucasus are famous for their enormous and difficult consonantal systems. It is by no means exceptional for one of these languages to have as many as 50 consonants, and of these languages those from the Northwest Caucasus have the largest and most complex consonantal systems. The extensive use of the articulatory regions of the mouth together with the occurrence of secondary modifications at many of these points is unequalled by any other known group of languages. This detailed study examines the languages of the Northwest Caucasus and provides an essential guide to this most complicated group of languages.

Table of Contents

1. The Northwest Caucasian Language Family  2. The West Circassian or ‘Kyakh’ Languages  3. The East Circassian Languages  4. Ubykh  5. Abkhaz  6. Abaza  7. The Palatalized and Pharyngealized Uvulars  8. The Vowels.  Appendix: The Phonological Systems of the Northwest Caucasian Languages and Dialects