What Is the Hardest Language in Caucasus?

The Caucasus languages are traditionally considered to be among the hardest in the world. Russian linguists include one of them - the Tabasaran language - into the three hardest languages in the world. Tabasaran is one of the languages spoken in Daghestan. It is considered to be one of the hardest languages of the world because it has many grammar cases.

Tabasaran has 46 or 52 cases. This is considered to be the biggest number in the world. Each case has its own ending added to nouns, some pronouns, and other words. However, the fact is that the Tabasaran language has a very logical structure of the cases and case endings.

There are 4 main cases and 42 or 48 local cases. The main cases are:
1) Nominative which is used as a subject with an intransitive verb and as a direct object with a transitive verb;
2) Genitive which denotes possession and equals "of" with a noun in English;
3) Dative which is used as an indirect object and equals "to" with a noun in English;
4) Ergative which is used as a subject with a transitive verb.

Nominative does not have an ending. Ergative has an ending that forms the indirect stem. The endings of all the other cases are joined to this stem.

The local cases mainly denote either static positions or movement directions. However, they also have some abstract meanings. The 42 or 48 local cases are divided into 7 or 8 series. Each of them contains 6 cases. The 7 series can be described by English prepositions:
1) in,
2) at or in front of,
3) on,
4) behind,
5) under,
6) between,
7) above.

The second series may be considered as two series because each case there may have two endings that have two different meanings:
1) at,
2) in front of.

In each group (series), each of the 6 cases denotes either position or direction:
1) Essive that denotes static position;
2) Ablative that denotes movement from something;
3) Lative that denotes movement to something;
4) Comitative that denotes movement through something;
5) Elative that denotes movement, directed from something (but it does not necessary begin from that exact place);
6) Allative that denotes movement, directed toward something (but it does not necessary ends in that exact place).

Each of the 7 or 8 series has its own ending. It is used to form Essives. Other cases have special endings depending on what they denote. All the cases that denote the same kind of movement have the same additional endings. Elatives and Allatives add one more ending (the same for both kinds of movement). Elatives add the ending of Ablatives and then this additional ending. Allatives add the ending of Latives and then the same additional ending.

So, the Tabasaran case system is very logical and orderly. Other Daghestan languages have less cases (around 20), but they are also quite orderly.

For example, the Avar language has 24 cases. The main cases are the same as in Tabasaran. They are formed in the same way. There are 20 local cases. They are divided into 5 series:
1) "on"
2) "at"
3) "inside of the substance or object"
4) "under"
5) "inside of the container"

The names of the cases are:
1) Locative which denotes static position;
2) Allative which denotes movement to something;
3) Ablative which denotes movement from something;
4) Translative which denotes movement through something.
Sometimes, Translative is substituted by Ablative. Thus, sometimes it is considered that there are 19 cases in Avar.

Each series has its own endings. Locative does not have an ending. So, the series endings are joined to the indirect stem (the form of Ergative). Allative, Ablative, and sometimes Transitive have their own endings which are joined to the indirect stem. The series endings follow them. Avar local cases also can have abstract meanings. So, the Avar case system is also very logical and orderly.

The Dargin language has 28 cases. 8 of them are main and 20 are local. The main cases are: nominative, genitive, dative, ergative, factitive, comitative, instrumentalis, and temative. The first four of them have the same functions as in Avar and Tabasaran. Factitive is used as a case of predicate. Comitative has the same function as the English preposition "with (somebody)." Instrumentalis is used as a case of a tool, like the English preposition "with (something)." Temative denotes an object of speech, like the English preposition "about."

There are 5 series of local cases:
1) "on"
2) "between," "inside a substance or an object"
3) "under"
4) "inside of a container"
5) "at," "near"

There are 5 cases in each series:
1) Lative;
2) Essive;
3) Allative;
4) Ablative.

Each series has its own endings. Lative does not have a special ending, only the series endings. Essive, Allative, and Ablative have their own endings which are joined to the series endings. Dargin local cases also can have abstract meanings. So, the Dargin case system is also very logical and orderly. The Dargin local case system is similar to the Avar system.

The Wainakh languages (Chechen, Ingush, and Batsbi) (I use the common linguistic terminology here) have about 20 cases each, but they are not so orderly.

For example, the Chechen language has 17 regular cases and also many postpositional constructions. 8 of the cases are local - the main local case and 7 derivative local cases (though the last of them is used quite seldom). Postpositions that denote "in", "on", and "under" can add endings of 7 derivative cases. Thus 8 local cases and 24 postpositional constructions can be viewed as 4 series of 8 cases/postpositional constructions. In the grammar of Wainakh and Daghestani languages the definitions of the series do not match.

The 7 series denote:
1) movement to something (Lative);
2) static position somewhere (Essive);
3) movement from something (Ablative);
4) movement directed toward something (Allative);
5) movement directed from something (Elative);
6) movement through something (Transitive I);
7) movement directed through something (Transitive II);
8) reaching something (Limitative).

The local cases and postpositional constructions (4 in each series) can be described by English prepositions:
1) "at" (local cases);
2) "in" (postpositions);
3) "on" (postpositions);
4) "under" (postpositions).

The endings are joined to the stem of the noun or postposition. The endings are formed in the following way:
1) the ending of Lative is -e or -ga; all the other endings are joined to the ending of Lative, however, postpositions do not have any ending in Lative and the endings of other cases are joined to their stem instead of the ending of Lative;
2) the ending of Essive is -kh;
3) the ending of Ablative is -ra;
4) the ending of Allative is -kha;
5) the ending of Elative is -khara;
6) the ending of Transitive I is -khula;
7) the ending of Transitive II is -khahula;
8) the ending of Limitative is -ts.

So, the ending of Elative is composed of the endings of Allative and Ablative; the ending of Transitive is composed of the endings of Allative and Translative.

In addition, some words have other two series of locative cases (these series are used very seldom):
1) comparative case (ending -l) that can be followed by the endings of locative cases;
2) substantive case (ending -kh) that also can be followed by the endings of local cases.
The first of these series is used with nouns that denote substances, materials, and liquids. The second series is used with nouns that denote entities of bigger objects.

There is no difference between the case endings and postpositions in the pronunciation. Both are unstressed. The difference is only in writing. So, postpositional constructions can be viewed as cases. This makes the number of cases in Chechen equal 55.

The Chechen language has Nominative, Genitive, Dative, and Ergative. There are also other cases:
1) Instrumental that equals the English prepositions "by" and "with";
2) Comparative that denotes comparison;
3) Substantive that equals the English preposition "about"; it can also have a meaning similar to Essive.

Comparative and Substantive have derivative forms. The derivative form of Comparative is Equative that denotes that two things have the same quantity of something. The derivative form of Substantive has a meaning that is similar to Translative.

There are also other postpositional constructions with other postpositions. This makes the number of the Chechen cases not less than the number of the Tabasaran cases. In general, the Chechen case system is less orderly than the Tabasaran case system.

Chechen, Tabasaran, and other Caucasus languages have other difficulties as well. So, it is quite hard to tell which of them is the hardest. In my opinion, the Caucasus languages have about the same level of difficulty.