Dene-Caucasian Language Family: Indo-European's Imposing Neighbor

Ah yes, Dene-Caucasian—a controversial language family hypothesis driven forward in recent years by the likes of Sergei and George Starostin, Sergei Nikolaev, and John Bengtson. Dene-Caucasian conventionally links five language families of the Old World: Basque, North Caucasian, Sino-Tibetan, Burushaski, and Yeniseian, with one of the New World, Na-Dene.

Sometimes other languages are included too, like Etruscan and Sumerian, for example. It seems like a motley crew of languages, and it often comes in for heavy criticism online. But what is the evidence behind it? Well, that is what we will look at today. Join me as we go through an introduction to Dene-Caucasian, a language family typified by noun classes, complex verb structures, and even more complex phonologies.

If you haven’t already, check out my video on Dene-Yeniseian (some see this as a kind of sub-branch of Dene-Caucasian, others do not) and the YouTube short on Sino-Caucasian (a stripped-down version of Dene-Caucasian).

My final opinion on Dene-Caucasian? I believe there may be some genetic connections between certain languages within the group. The similarities with Burushaski could be due to areal influence, while Basque may only exhibit structural resemblances to Dene-Caucasian.

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📚 Selected References (Full references are stated in-video) 📚

Bengtson, J. (1994). Edward Sapir and the "Sino-Dene" hypothesis. Anthropological Science, 102(3), 207-230.

Bengtson, J. (2020). Some notes about Dene-Caucasian. Mother Tongue, 22(1), 133-150.

⭐ Shevoroshkin, V. (Ed.). (1991). Dene-Sino-Caucasian languages. Brockmeyer.

Bengtson, J., & Starostin, G. (2015). The Dene–Sino–Caucasian hypothesis: State of the art and perspectives. Discussion draft posted on Academia.edu.

Starostin, S., & Ruhlen, M. (1994). Proto-Yeniseian reconstructions, with extra-Yeniseian comparisons. In M. Ruhlen (Ed.), On the origin of languages: Studies in linguistic taxonomy (pp. 70-92). Redwood City: Stanford University Press.

Bengtson, J. D. (2008). Materials for a comparative grammar of the Dene–Caucasian (Sino-Caucasian) languages. Aspects of Comparative Linguistics, 3, 45–118. RSUH Publishers.

Ruhlen, M. (2000). The Basque language is included in the Dene-Caucasian language family. In A. Arnaiz-Villena, J. Martínez-Laso, & E. Gómez-Casado (Eds.), Prehistoric Iberia (pp. 123-137). Springer.

Orel, V. E., & Starostin, S. A. (1990). Etruscan as an Eastern Caucasian language. In V. Shevoroshkin (Ed.), Proto-languages and proto-cultures (pp. 60-66). Brockmeyer.

Bradley, D. (2023). Ancient connections of Sinitic. Languages, 8(2), 176-190.

Van Driem, G. (2005). Sino-Austronesian vs. Sino-Caucasian, Sino-Bodic vs. Sino-Tibetan, and Tibeto-Burman as default theory. In Y. P. Yadava, G. Bhattarai, R. R. Lohani, B. Prasain, & K. Parajuli (Eds.), Contemporary issues in Nepalese linguistics (pp. 285–338). Linguistic Society of Nepal.

Ruhlen, M. (2023). The origin of language: Tracing the evolution of the mother tongue. Gorgias Press.