 The term "Nakh(o)-Dagestanian" can be taken to reflect a primary division of the family into Nakh and Dagestanian branches, a view which is no longer widely accepted, or "Dagestanian" can subsume the entire family.The rare term "North Caspian" (as in bordering the Caspian Sea) is only used in opposition to the use of "North Pontic" (as in bordering the Black Sea) for the Northwest Caucasian languages.Historically, Northeast Caucasian phonemic inventories were thought to be significantly smaller than those of the neighboring Northwest Caucasian family.