 the nakh languages are a small family of languages spoken chiefly by the nakh peoples, in russia (chechnya and ingushetia), in georgia, and in the chechen diaspora (mainly in europe, middle east and central asia). the nakh languages were historically classified as an independent north-central caucasian family, but are now recognized as a branch of the northeast caucasian family. they are believed to have split off some 5,000â6,000 years ago.russia confronts chechnya â roots of a separatist conflict, cambridge university press ==classification== * vainakh languages, a dialect continuum with two literary languages: ** chechen â approximately 1,330,000 speakers (2002).ethnologue report for chechen ** ingush â approximately 413,000 speakers (2002).ethnologue report for ingush * bats or batsbi â approximately 3,420 (2000),ethnologue report for bats spoken mostly in zemo-alvani, georgia. not mutually intelligible with chechen or ingush. ==the voicing of ejective consonants== the nakh languages are relevant to the glottalic theory of indo-european, as the veinakh branch has undergone the voicing of ejectives that has been postulated but widely derided as improbable in that family. in initial position, bats ejectives correspond to veinakh ejectives, but in non-initial position to veinakh voiced consonants. (the exception is , which remains an ejective in veinakh.) {| class="wikitable ipa" !bats!!chechen!!gloss!!dagestanian cognate |- |nÊapÊ¼||naËb||'sleep'|| |- |ÊwetÊ¼||Êad||'whip'||gigatil chamalal: tsatÊ¼Ã¡n |- |pÊ°akÊ¼al||pÊ°aÉ¡al||'hare'||andi: tÉ¬Ê¼ankÊ¼ala |- |dokÊ¼||dwoÉ¡||'heart'||andi: rokÊ·Ê¼o |- |matsÊ¼||mezi||'louse'||chadakolob avar: natsÊ¼ |- |ÊartsÊ¼iâ¿||ÊÃ¤rÊa-||'black'||gigatil chamalal: -etÊÊ¼Ã¡r |- |jopÊ¼qÊ¼||juqÊ¼||'ashes'|| |} a similar change has taken place in some of the other dagestanian languages.paul fallon, 2002. the synchronic and diachronic phonology of ejectives, p 245. ==extinct nakh languages== many obscure ancient languages or peoples have been postulated by schola
Languages_of_Russia Northeast_Caucasian_languages