Èrsh language

Èrsh
Region	Caucasus modern Armenia
Ethnicity	Èrs people
Era	antiquity
Language family	Northeast Caucasian? Nakh? Èrsh; ;
Language codes
ISO 639-3	None (mis)
Glottolog	None

The Èrsh language was the language of the Èr or Èrs people, hypothetical people that may have lived in the Caucasus region (although there is no proof of their existence).

According to placenames, it was a Nakh language, akin 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). Amjad Jaimoukha argued that "buni" is from a Nakh root, meaning shelter or home (giving rise to the modern Chechen word bun, a cabin, or small house). According to him, Erebuni meant "the home of the Èrs". It corresponds to modern Yerevan[2] However, this theory is not accepted by mainstream linguists and is considered problematic, namely because Chechen "bun" initially derives from the Armenian word buyn (բույն) for "nest" or "lair", from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeuH-no-, from *bʰeuH- (“to be; to grow”). Cognates include Sanskrit भुवन (bhúvana, "world"), Albanian bun ("shepherd's hut") and Middle Persian بن bun ("bottom").

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] However, according to Urartologist Paul Zimansky, Hurro-Urartian -khi is a plural/tribal denotation and not a hydronym, rendering Jaimoukha's theory incorrect.

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References

Jaimoukha, Amjad. The Chechens: A Handbook. Routledge Curzon: Oxon, 2005.
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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[Jaimoukha-1] 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.