By Dr. Philol. Khibla Amichba

The territory of Abkhazia was populated from ancient times, and the richest archaeological excavations illustrate this. From antique times the different information on the history of Kolhida, especially about Abkhazia, was compiled from original sources of Ancient Greece (Aristotel, Strabon, Timosphen, Klaudi Ptolemei and others) and Rome (Dion Kassy, Appian, Phlavy Arrian, Plyni Secund etc.).

By the Middle Age History of Abkhazia the valuable information is contained in the works of Italian travelers and missionaries (Arkangelo Lamberty, Juseppe Judichi (XYIIc.), Dortelli D’Askoli, Barbaro (Venetian diplomat (XYc), George Interiano(XYIc), Tsampy, Raspony (XYIIc.)and others); Arabian and Persian travelers (Masudi (Xc.), Ibn-Haucal(Xc.), Abulfeda (XIYc.) and others).

From ancient times, side by side with legends about Prometheus, who was chained to the mountains and the golden fleece, wich was connected with the Caucasus, there were a lot of legends about an unusual polylingual of its inhabitants. About many tribes of the Caucasus is said by “Father of History” Herodot. The Rome historian Pliny Secund left his information, according to wich the Romes managed with the help of 130 interpreters in Dioskuria, that later was renamed in Sebastopolis /the modern Sukhum, the capital of Abkhazia/. Masudi, the author of X-th century, wrote: "There are about 72 tribes in these mountains, and each tribe has its own Tsar, its own language, which is quite different from all the others... Only Allah can count different peoples living in the Caacasus. The mountain Caucasus is a mountain of languages".

Nowadays, you will be quite right, if you call the Caucasus by the name “A mountain of languages”, in spite of the fact that both its languages and its speakers suffered greatly.

Today more than 50 languages are spoken in the Caucasus. Among them there are Indo-European (Russian, Ukrainian, Armenian, Ossetic), Turkic languages (Azerbaijani, Kumyc, Karachaevo-Balkarian), Semitic (Isorian) a.o.

The majority of the Caucasian languages are autochthonal /about 40/. They are divided into 4 groups: Abkhazo-Adygian, Nakh, Daghestan and Kartvelian.

Abkhazo-Adygian group in its turn is divided into two groups: Abkhazo-Abazian (Abkhazian and Abazian languages) and Adygian (Adygean, Kabardinian-Cherkessian languages). The intermediate position between them is occupied by the Ubykh language, which has already disappeared even in Turkey. All these languages, except Ubykh, are representeted in the Caucasus.

Abkhazians are the autochtonal population of the Caucasus, whose ancestors lived on the territory of Abkhazia from the ancient times. The documents of archeological excavations testify diversified economy and versatile spiritual life of ancient abkhazian tribes- Apsils, Abasgoos, Sanygoos, Misimians and others. The name of the Apsils tribe has been preserved to this day in the self-name of the Abkhazian people - Aps-ua, and the Abkhazian’s name for their country – Apsny. The names "Abkhaz", “Abaza”, “Apsua” are the modifications of the same ethnonyms, which go back to one root (ps, bz). The terms "Abkhaz", "Motherland", "Ancestor”, “Soul" have the same root “ps", in the Abkhazian language the word "Mother-country" /apsadgyl/ means "the Land of soul”, and the language of the Abkhazians /aps-shva/ - "the Song of Soul".

The Abkhazian language - is the native language of Abkhazians, which live in Republic of Abkhazia and it is also spoken in many countries of the world /Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Germany, USA and others/ by the descendants of makhadgers, which were exiled by force from Abkhazia in 19 century.

This article belongs to http://www.kapba.de/Language2.html

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