Re: CHAT: Grozny (was: Re: Support/Oppression of Conlanging)

Hello,
[Myself:]
> >Yes. [Grozny was built] against the Chechens, the Avars,
> >and the Ingushs.
[Andreas:]
> A little coincidence is good for you ...
:-)

> Just today, I found "Avar" given as an alternative name of
> "Daghestani" in _An Introduction to the Languages of the
> World_,
_Daghestani_ is a whole language family. It is subdivided into
Avaro-Ando-Tsez, Nakh, Lak-Darghin (these are sometimes regarded as two
separate groups), Lezghin (and possibly Hinalugh as a one of a kind).
Avaro-Ando-Tsez is really the largest one in terms of number of
speakers, though it owes it mostly to Avar, which has IIRC more than
150,000 speakers, in contrast with, say, Bagwalal (1500-2000 speakers).
Though even the smaller languages aren't going to die out just yet,
since they have fixed areas, and stable reproduction rates.

> if there's any connection between these Avars and those
> who dominated the Balkans for part of the early Middle Ages.
AFAIK the two are absolutely unrelated.

Pavel
--
Pavel Iosad               pavel_iosad@mail.ru

'I am a philologist, and thus a misunderstood man'
                 --JRR Tolkien, _The Notion Club Papers_