Èrsh | |
---|---|
Ethnicity | Èrs people |
Extinct | antiquity |
Language family |
Northeast Caucasian?
|
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | None |
The Èrsh language was the language of the Èr aka Èrs people.
According to placenames, it was a Nakh language, a kin to the language of the historical Malkh nation, as well as modern Chechen, Ingush and Batsbi, and possibly others.[1]
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). Buni is a from Nakh root, meaning shelter or home, which was probably around /bun/ (giving rise to the modern Chechen word bun, a cabin, or small house). Hence, Èribuni meant "the home of the Èrs". It corresponds to modern Yerevan [2] (which was spelled Erivan until relatively recently; van is a common Armenian rendering for the root /bun/).
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]