Morphology of the Caucasian Languages: A Typological Overview

Abstract

The indigenous languages of the Caucasus (Nakh-Daghestanian, Abkhazo-Agyghean and Kartvelian) present a remarkable degree of diversity in their morphological systems, both between and within larger genealogical units and even closely-related varieties. This article is an attempt to present a theoretically and typologically informed overview of the major parameters of morphological variation of the Caucasian languages and to highlight a number of non-trivial and rare phenomena found in their morphology. The phenomena discussed include locus of marking, types of affixal and non-affixal exponence, non-trivial form-meaning relations, and manifestations of polysynthesis.