Completed projects

  • LexCauc - A lexical databasefor the languages of the Caucasus

    Project leaders:
    Prof. Dr. Diana Forker & Dr. Oleg Belyaev

    PhD Student:
    Ilya Chechuro will be an associated PhD student. He will start in October 2019 as a member of the IMPRS at the MPI-SHH Jena

    Research assistants:
    Felix Anker
    Tamar Khutsishvili
    Elguja Dadunashvili

    Funding:
    BMBF Kleine Fächer, große PotenzialeExternal link (2017–2020)

    The preliminary database can be accessed hereExternal link


    Cooperation partners and language experts

    • Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution at the MPI for the Science of Human History, Jena (DLCEExternal link)
    • Felix Anker (FSU Jena)
    • Ayten Babaliyeva, Baku
    • Viacheslav Chirikba (University of Suchum)
    • Marina Chumakina (University of Surrey)
    • Elguja Dandunashvili (FSU Jena)
    • Mikhail Daniel (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Linguistic Convergence Laboratory, Moscow)
    • Nina Dobrushina (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Linguistic Convergence Laboratory, Moscow)
    • Konstantin Filatov (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Linguistic Convergence Laboratory, Moscow)
    • Dmitrii Ganenkov (University of Bamberg & Humboldt University of Berlin)
    • Zaira Khalilova (Russian Academy of Science, Makhachkala & Moscow)
    • Solmaz Merdanova (Russian Academy of Science, Moscow)
    • Zarina Molochieva (University of Kiel)
    • George Moroz (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Linguistic Convergence Laboratory, Moscow)
    • Rasul Mutalov (Russian Academy of Science, Moscow)
    • Monika Rind-Pawlowski (University of Frankfurt)
    • Kristian Roncero (MPI-SHH & FSU Jena)
    • Nina Sumbatova (Russian State University for the Humanities)
    • Jesse Wichers Schreur (University of Frankfurt)


    Project description    :
    The Caucasus has been known since antiquity as the “Mountain of tongues” and as a unique area of linguistic, ethnic and cultural diversity. The investigation of this diversity through linguistic data is the goal of this project. We are building up a comprehensive lexical database of the languages of the Caucasus. It will contain the following information for every lexeme: transcription (IPA, standard orthography), precise English translation, grammatical information, audio recording, and metadata. The database will be open-access and presented by means of a website that will also contain maps of the region.

    During the second stage of the project we will use quantitative statistical and phylogenetic tools for inferring the origins, dispersal and timing of the expansions of the Caucasian languages and evaluate the results in comparison with the existing literature (e.g. Nikolayev & Starostin 1994, Koryakov 2006). A key component will be to employ cutting-edge phylogeographic models to infer the geographic patterning of the underlying expansions through the region. In addition, our study will allow for a very detailed representation of linguistic data that allows us to apply pioneering techniques for sequence comparison, high-level annotation, including full and partial cognates inside and across the same concepts in our dataset, and will in this way also contribute to cross-disciplinary studies by integrating, for example, the names that the languages give to the physical objects to artifacts in archaeological records, or early attestations of domestication.

    The project is conducted by Oleg Belyaev and Diana Forker. The project closely cooperates with the Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution at the MPI for the Science of Human History in Jena (DLCEExternal link), in particular with Prof. Russel Gray, Dr. Cormac Anderson, Dr. Mattis List and Dr. Simon Greenhill. In October 2019, Ilya Chechuro will join the team as an associated a PhD student from the International Max Planck Research School for the Science of Human History (IMPRS-SHHExternal link).

    At the moment, an international consortium of experts is gathering data for East Caucasian and West Caucasian languages. In the first expert workshop on April 12–13, 2018, around 20 researchers from the Caucasus, Moscow, the UK and Germany participated. The second workshop took place June 5–7, 2019. Due to the current emergency related to Covid-19, the third LexCauc Workshop planned for May 14-15, 2020 is postponed for indefinite time. The new date will be announced in summer 2020.

  • Documenting Dargwa languages in Daghestan – Shiri and Sanzhi

    Project leader:
    Prof. Dr. Diana Forker

    Project members:
    Prof. Dr. Rasul Mutalov
    Dr. Oleg Belyaev
    Dr. Iwona Kaliszewska

    Student assistants:
    André Müller
    Felix Anker
    Teresa Klemm

    Funding:
    Volkswagenstiftung (2012–2019)

    Project HomepageExternal link

    Final project reportpdf, 180 kb · de

    Project description:
    In this project, three linguists (Diana Forker, Rasul Mutalov and Oleg Belyaev) and one ethnographer (Iwona Kaliszewska) document and analyze Shiri and Sanzhi and the culture of the Shiri and Sanzhi people. Shiri and Sanzhi belong to two different Dargwa languages (East Caucasian), spoken in the central part of Daghestan in the Caucasus (Russian Federation). The languages are heavily endangered. We estimate that there are only about 200 Shiri families and about 50 Sanzhi families.

    In the linguistic documentation and analysis of Shiri and Sanzhi we pay special attention to those features that are unusual for the East Caucasian language family and of broader typological interest. Two of these features are person agreement, which is based on the person hierarchy and not determined by grammatical roles, and extraordinarily rich tense/aspect/mood and evidentiality paradigms.

    The project provides a detailed and in-depth documentation of Shiri and Sanzhi through the collection of texts from a wide range of genres. At the moment, Diana Forker is finalizing a comprehensive grammar of Sanzhi Dargwa and Oleg Belyaev is working on a grammar of Shiri Dargwa. Forker and Belyaev have also compiled electronic dictionaries of both languages that are available through the project website.

    Major publications

    Other materials

    • Sanzhi-English-Russian electronic dictionary with almost 5,500 entries, published with DICTIONARIA access onlineExternal link
    • Sanzhi corpus (analyzed, glossed, partially translated, around 44,000 tokens)
    • Diana Forker & Gadzhimuard Gadzhimuradov. 2017. Sanzhi tales and legends. With a Sanzhi-Russian and a Russian-Sanzhi dictionary. Makhachkala. [In Russian] download bookpdf, 18 mb · de
    • Iwona Kaliszewska (in collaboration with Agnieszka Krzyk and Iwa Kołodziejska). 2019. Plants from the village of Shiri, Dagestan. [In Russian] download bookpdf, 35 mb · de
  • CASCADE – Exploring the Security-Democracy Nexus in the Caucasus

    Period: 
    2014–2017

    Project leader: 
    Fondation Maison des Sciences de l'Homme (FMSH), Paris
    Scientific coordination: Dr. Laure Delcour, FMSH

    Project members:
    Dr. Florian Mülfrid
    Weronika Zmiejewski, PhD student
    Tamar Khutsishvili, PhD student

    Student assistant:
    Annika Jooß

    Funding:
    EU FP7 "Security and Democracy in the Neighbourhood: The Case of the Caucasus

    Project description:
    The project will de-compartmentalize research on the Caucasus by exploring linkages between societal challenges, political developments and conflicts and investigating the interactions between the North and South Caucasus, as well as between the Caucasus and its wider neighborhood. On the basis of a strong comparative and interdisciplinary approach, CASCADE will seek to provide a more accurate understanding of how democracy and security are perceived, understood, experienced and exploited as political and social resources by Caucasus actors and other actors involved in the region. Drawing upon extensive fieldwork in the North and South Caucasus, including in the conflict areas and de facto States, CASCADE will generate a wealth of empirical data as well as new and important insights into security and democracy in the Caucasus. The project’s outcomes will also be largely policy-driven and CASCADE’s impact will be considerable in terms of shaping EU policy toward the Caucasus. The project will act as a knowledge hub to spur debate and bring together academic and policy communities from Europe and the Caucasus.

  • Transformations of Sacred Spaces, Pilgrimages and Conceptions of Hybridity in the Post-Soviet Caucasus

    Period: 
    2013–2016

    Project leader: 
    Prof. Dr. Kevin Tuite

    Project member:
    Dr. Tsypylma Darieva

    Student assistent:
    Michael Stürmer

    Funding:
    Volkswagen Stiftung (01.02.2013–31.07.2016)

    Project description:
    The focus of the research project was the role played by sacred sites in the construction and maintenance of social networks, and their function as social nodes, where connections are negotiated, forged, enacted and reinforced; but also contested, ruptured and erased. The prominence of shrines and sacred places all over the Caucasus, including North and South, transcending the nominal religious boundaries of Christianity and Islam creates a social sphere of interrelated spaces. As a consequence, the investigation of regimes related to shrines such as offerings or pilgrimages may provide a corrective to a stereotypical image of the Caucasus as primarily a region of conflict.

    Based on anthropological and ethno-historical methods, the purpose of the project was to undertake a multi-sited long term investigation and comparative analysis of sacred sites - shrines, churches, mosques, graves, trees, springs, and other types of pilgrimage sites - in the contemporary North and South Caucasus. The six research teams cover different regions in the Caucasus and cooperate closely with local colleagues and experts. The geographical spectrum of selected sites covers both lowland and mountain areas in Armenia, Georgia, Russian Federation and Azerbaijan. Given the growing urbanization and migration process, we have included a set of sacred sites located in smaller and larger urban centers.

    Sacred spaces under investigation are defined as ziyara (Arabic for place of pilgrimage), pir (Persian synonym), salotsavi, xat'i (Georgian), matur, surb (Armenian) svyatie mesta, svyatilisha (Russian). A preliminary typology of sacred places divides them into the following types: 'Traditional' shrines, many of which are associated with medieval religious figures and missionaries venerated as saints in Islam and Christianity (Daghestan, Georgia, Armenia); shrines and natural places, landscapes and objects related to local heroes and events (health, death and regeneration rituals, national celebrities) in Georgia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Armenia, Daghestan; and newly emerged or re-established pilgrimage centers and holy places (shrines of 19-20th centuries Sufi sheikhs in Daghestan, oligarch churches and monuments in Armenia, sacred sites of diasporic importance).

    Not all sacred sites under study are shared by different confessions, in some areas like Daghestan and Armenia religious landscapes are more homogenous. In North-West Caucasus however sacred spaces are more mosaic and hybrid in terms of their confessional belonging. For example, the Choana-Church in Karachay-Cherkessia is shared by Russian-orthodox Ossetians, Pontic Greeks and Karachay Muslims.