Langenesis

Northwest Caucasian family

Ubykh

c. 1500 CE – 1992 CE Extinct

Ubykh (c. 1500 CE – 1992 CE) is an extinct Northwest Caucasian language. Lineage: Proto-Northwest Caucasian → Ubykh.

See Ubykh on the interactive map
ISO 639-3
uby
Glottocode
ubyk1235

Famous for having 80+ consonants and only two or three vowels. Speakers were expelled to the Ottoman Empire in 1864; the last fluent speaker, Tevfik Esenç, died in 1992.

Lineage

  1. Proto-Northwest Caucasianc. 3,000 BCE – 1,000 BCE
  2. Ubykhc. 1500 CE – 1992 CE

Sister languages 2

Also descended from Proto-Northwest Caucasian.

Sources