Language Centre Resources - Abaza

Abaza

A North Caucasian language and a member of the North-West group, spoken by some 45,000 people in the Russian autonomous republic of Karachay-Cherkessia and in Germany, Turkey and the USA. Its closest linguistic affiliation is with Abkhaz.

Like other Caucasian languages, Abaza has a large number of consonants (63) and few vowels. As a result, it is considered by linguists to be one of the most difficult Caucasian languages to learn. It is written in both the Roman and Cyrillic alphabets.

CLASSIFICATION = North Caucasian family    SCRIPT = Roman and Cyrillic