Alphabet

Grammar
. The Chechen language U California, Berkeley New.

. Chechen grammar materials New. . Чеченский язык, описание
. Chechen language grammar - грамматика чеченского языка

Dictionaries
. Chechen-Russian dictionary - Чеченско-Русский словарь (Chechen-Russian)
. Chechen dictionary and phrasebook by Nicholas Awde

. The Ingush Language New. at Univ. California at Berkeley
. The Ingush Language Alternative Address. . Ingush_grammar New. . Ингушский язык, описание (Russian) Grammar of Ingush, in Russian. . Indigenous Language of the Caucasus (Ingush) Book, in .gif form.

The Caucasian languages all come from the Caucasus mountain region between the Caspian and the Black Sea -- hence, the name, Caucasian, meaning "from, of, or relating to, the Caucasus".

Just to clarify, there are three groups of languages spoken in the Caucasus mountain region: those belonging to the Indo-European language family, those belonging to the Turkic language family, and those that are neither Indo-European nor Turkic. This last group of languages has a presence in the Caucasus that is historically prior to that of the Indo-European and Turkic languages and they are therefore considered the native languages of the Caucasus. Because of this -- and only because of this -- they are classed together as the Caucasian languages. (Actually, there is a fourth group of languages, the Semitic, spoken in this region, and represented by Arabic and Aramaic, but the number of Semitic speakers in this region is tiny in comparison with the other three groups of languages.)

Again, when applied to languages, the term, Caucasian, is purely a geographical reference. That is, as a whole, the Caucasian languages are not an actual language family, though the smaller subgroups listed on this page are considered separate language families in their own right.
















 

The Georgian alphabet is called the anbani (ანბანი). That, at least, is what Georgians call their alphabet, in everyday speech. (In colloquial usage it is also referred to by the elided form, anban.)

The Georgian alphabet comes, however, in three styles or scripts : one modern, and two old. The modern script is called Mkhedruli ('martial', 'military', or secular, script) and the two older scripts are collectively known as Khutsuri ('ecclesiastical' or 'church' script).

The Mkhedruli script has been the official Georgian script for decades. In recent years, however, the two Khutsuri scripts have experienced a resurgence of use in certain kinds of text and as calligraphic type, and thus may have to be learned in order, at least, to read parts of certain texts -- to read book titles, for example.

The two Khutsuri scripts also have descriptive names. The older of the two scripts has large, round characters, and is therefore also called Asomtavruli ("majuscule" script) or Mrgvlovani ("rounded" script) -- which explains why, outside of Georgia, it has been called the Georgian capital or uppercase alphabet -- while the younger of the two scripts has small, sharply angled characters, and is known as Nuskhuri ("minuscule" script), K'utkhovani ("angular" script), or Nuskha-khutsuri ("church minuscule", or "ecclesiastical minuscule", script).