Editing Abkhaz language (section)

== Classification ==
Abkhaz is a [[Northwest Caucasian languages|Northwest Caucasian language]]<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Catford|first=J. C.|date=October 1977|title=Mountain of Tongues: The Languages of the Caucasus|url=http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev.an.06.100177.001435|journal=Annual Review of Anthropology|language=en|volume=6|issue=1|pages=283–314|doi=10.1146/annurev.an.06.100177.001435|issn=0084-6570|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref name=:13>{{Cite book|title=Atlas of Caucasian Languages|year=2002|pages=13–14}}</ref> and is thus related to [[Adyghe language|Adyghe]]. The language of Abkhaz is especially close to [[Abaza language|Abaza]], and they are sometimes considered dialects of the same language,<ref name="ReferenceA">''B. G. Hewitt Abkhaz 1979;'' page 1.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Viacheslav A.|first=Chirikba|title=A Dictionary Of Common Abkhaz|publisher=Leiden|year=1996|pages=2}}</ref> [[Abazgi]], of which the literary dialects of Abkhaz and Abaza are simply two ends of a [[dialect continuum]]. Grammatically, the two are very similar; however, the differences in phonology are substantial, it also contains elements characteristic of [[Kabardian language|Kabardian]];<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire|url=https://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/abazians.shtml|access-date=9 August 2021|website=www.eki.ee}}</ref><ref name="Viacheslav A. 2003 11">{{Cite book|last=Viacheslav A.|first=Chirikba|title=Abkhaz|year=2003|pages=11}}</ref> these are the main reasons for many others<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Allen|first=W. S.|title=Structure and System in the Abaza Verbal Complex|date=November 1956|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-968X.1956.tb00566.x|journal=Transactions of the Philological Society|language=en|volume=55|issue=1|pages=127–176|doi=10.1111/j.1467-968X.1956.tb00566.x|issn=0079-1636|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=N.|first=Genko, A.|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/977702574|title=Абазинский язык.|date=1955|publisher=Izd-vo Akademii nauk SSSR|oclc=977702574}}</ref> to prefer keeping the two separate, while others<ref name="Viacheslav A. 2003 11"/><ref name="ReferenceA"/> still refer to it as the Tapanta dialect of Abkhaz. Chirikba<ref>{{Cite book|last=Viacheslav A.|first=Chirikba|title=Abkhaz|year=2003|pages=10–11}}</ref> mentions that there are possible indications that [[Proto-Northwest Caucasian language|proto-Northwest Caucasian]], could have divided firstly into [[Proto-Circassian language|proto-Circassian]] and to proto-Ubykh-Abkhaz; [[Ubykh language|Ubykh]] then being the closest relative to Abkhaz, with it only later on being influenced by Circassian.