Èrsh language

Èrsh
Region Caucasus modern Azerbaijan
Ethnicity Èrs people
Era antiquity
Language codes
ISO 639-3 None (mis)
Glottolog None

The Èrsh language was the language of the Èr or Èrs people.

According to placenames, it was a Nakh language, a kin to the language of the historical Malkh nation, as well as modern Chechen, Ingush and Batsbi, and possibly others.[1]

Examples of placenames

The capital of the Èrs (which was later turned into a fortress by Urartu) was called Èribuni (later turned into and used as a fortress by the Urartian state). Buni is a from Nakh root, meaning shelter or home, which was probably around /bun/ (giving rise to the modern Chechen word bun, a cabin, or small house). Hence, Èribuni meant "the home of the Èrs". It corresponds to modern Yerevan [2] (which was spelled Erivan until relatively recently; van is a common Armenian rendering for the root /bun/).

In the Georgian Chronicles, Leonti Mroveli refers to Lake Sevan as "Lake Ereta". The name of the Arax is also attributed to the Èrs.[1] It is also called the Yeraskhi. The Armenian name is "Yeraskhadzor" (which Jaimoukha identifies as Èr + khi a Nakh water body suffix + Armenian dzor gorge).[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Jaimoukha, Amjad. The Chechens: A Handbook. Routledge Curzon: Oxon, 2005.
  2. See Israelyan, Margarit A (1971). Էրեբունի: Բերդ-Քաղաքի Պատմություն (Ēryebowni: Byerd-Kaghaki Patmowt'hown, Erebuni: The History of a Fortress-City) (in Armenian). Yerevan, Armenian SSR: Hayastan Publishing Press. pp. 8–15.


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