Caucasian Albanian language

Aghwan
Old Udi
Gargarian
Caucasian Albanian
𐕒𐕡𐔳𐔼𐕎 𐕌𐕒𐕡𐔵
A 7th-century column capital with Caucasian Albanian text
Native toCaucasian Albania
Era6th–8th century AD. Developed into Udi[1]
Caucasian Albanian
Language codes
ISO 639-3xag
xag
Glottologaghw1237

Caucasian Albanian (also called Old Udi, Aluan or Aghwan)[2] is an extinct member of the Northeast Caucasian languages. It was spoken in Caucasian Albania, which stretched from current day south Dagestan to Azerbaijan. Linguists believe it is an early linguistic predecessor to the endangered Northeast Caucasian Udi language.[3] The distinct Caucasian Albanian alphabet used 52 letters.

Caucasian Albanian possibly corresponds to the "Gargarian" language identified by medieval Armenian historians. Despite its name, Caucasian Albanian bears no linguistic relationship whatsoever with the Albanian language spoken in Albania, which belongs to the Indo-European family.

  1. ^ "Aghwan". LINGUIST List. Archived from the original on 26 December 2014. Retrieved 29 May 2024. 6th-8th Centuries AD.
  2. ^ Gippert, Jost; Schulze, Wolfgang (2007). "Some remarks on the Caucasian Albanian palimpsests". Iran and the Caucasus. 11 (2): 201–211. doi:10.1163/157338407X265441.
  3. ^ Zaza Aleksidze, "Udi Language: Comparing Ancient Albanian with Contemporary Udi," in Azerbaijan International, Vol. 11:3 (Autumn 2003), p. 43.

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