Ethnicity Èrs people ISO 639-3 None (mis) | Era antiquity Glottolog None | |
Region Caucasus modern Azerbaijan Language family Northeast Caucasian?
Nakh?
Èrsh | ||
The Èrsh language was the language of the Èr or 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.
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). 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 (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. 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).