Bookmark and Share

Open the online Arabic language course

Index / Languages / Caucasian /

North Caucasian language native to Georgia, spoken by a minority of 8,000 in Turkey.
The ethnic Abkhaz population in Turkey counts between 5 and 10 times the number using their native tongue.
Many texts mention that there are small groups of Abkhaz speakers in Syria, Iraq and Jordan, but there is no data on numbers. It could appear that ethnic Abkhaz to these countries have assimilated in terms of language.
It is spoken in two regions far apart, Coruh in the northeasrt and in Bolu and Sakarya provinces in the northwest.
Abkhaz has three dialects: Bzyb and Sadz are reported spoken in Turkey, while Abzhywa which is only spoken in the Abkhaz homeland.
Abkhaz language comes close to Abaza, the two are often considered variations of the same language, which then is called Abkhaz-Abaza. The two share largely the grammar, but pronunciation is quite different.
Abkhaz is recognized for its large number of consonants and few vowels; Abkhaz has more sounds than Abaza. Also there are no grammatical cases.

By Tore Kjeilen