| Aghwan | |
|---|---|
| Old Udi Gargarian Caucasian Albanian | |
 A 7th-century column capital with Caucasian Albanian text | |
| Native to | Caucasian Albania |
| Era | 6th–8th century AD. Developed into Udi[1] |
| Caucasian Albanian | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | xag |
xag | |
| Glottolog | aghw1237 |
Caucasian Albanian (also called Old Udi, Aluan or Aghwan)[2] is an extinct member of the Northeast Caucasian languages. It was spoken in Caucasian Albania, which stretched from current day south Dagestan to Azerbaijan. Linguists believe it is an early linguistic predecessor to the endangered Northeast Caucasian Udi language.[3] The distinct Caucasian Albanian alphabet used 52 letters.
Caucasian Albanian possibly corresponds to the "Gargarian" language identified by medieval Armenian historians. Despite its name, Caucasian Albanian bears no linguistic relationship whatsoever with the Albanian language spoken in Albania, which belongs to the Indo-European family.
- ^ "Aghwan". LINGUIST List. Archived from the original on 26 December 2014. Retrieved 29 May 2024.
6th-8th Centuries AD.
- ^ Gippert, Jost; Schulze, Wolfgang (2007). "Some remarks on the Caucasian Albanian palimpsests". Iran and the Caucasus. 11 (2): 201–211. doi:10.1163/157338407X265441.
- ^ Zaza Aleksidze, "Udi Language: Comparing Ancient Albanian with Contemporary Udi," in Azerbaijan International, Vol. 11:3 (Autumn 2003), p. 43.