The Nakh languages were historically classified as an independent North-Central Caucasian family, but are now recognized as a branch of the Northeast Caucasian family. The separation of Nakh from common Northeast Caucasian has been tentatively dated to the Neolithic. The Nakh language family consists of:
The Nakh languages are relevant to the glottalic theory of Indo-European, because the Vainakh branch has undergone the voicing of ejectives that has been postulated but widely derided as improbable in that family. In initial position, Bats ejectives correspond to Vainakh ejectives, but in non-initial position to Vainakh voiced consonants.
Many obscureancient languages or peoples have been postulated by scholars of the Caucasus as Nakh, many in the South Caucasus. None of these have been confirmed; most are classified as Nakh on the basis of placenames.
Èrsh
The Èrsh language, language of the Èrs who inhabited Northern Armenia, and then, later, mainly Hereti in Southeast Georgia and Northwest Azerbaijan. This is considered to be more or less confirmed as Nakh. They were assimilated eventually, and their language was replaced by Georgian or Azeri.
Malkh
The language of the Malkhs in the North Caucasus, who lived in modern dayKabardino-Balkaria, Karachay–Cherkessia, and once briefly conquered Ubykhia and Abkhazia. They were conquered first by Scythian-speaking Alan tribes and then by Turkic tribes, and seem to have largely abandoned their homeland and found shelter among the Chechens, leading to the formation of a teip named after them. Those who stayed behind were either wiped out or assimilated.
Kakh
The language of the Kakh, old inhabitants of Kakheti and Tusheti in Eastern Georgia. The Kakh apparently called themselves Kabatsas and their territory Kakh-Batsa. They may or may not be ancestral to the modern Bats, and they may or may not be closely related to them. They were assimilated by the Kartlians to speak Georgian.
Gligvic
Gligvs, a mysterious people in the North Caucasus attributed by Georgian historians to be a Nakh people. They may be ancestral to the Ingush, but the term used by Georgians consistently for the Ingush is "Kist", causing large amounts of confusion.
Tsanar
The language of the Tsanars in historical Georgia is thought by many historians to be Nakh, based on place names, geographic location, and other such information.
Dval
The language of the Dvals is thought to be Nakh by many historians, though there is a rivaling camp arguing for its status as a close relative of Ossetic. Various backing for the Nakh theory includes the presence of Nakh placenames in former Dval territory, evidence of Nakh–Svan contact which probably would've required the Nakh nature of the Dvals or people there before them, and the presence of a foreign-origin Dval clan among the Chechens, seemingly implying that the Dvals found shelter among the Chechens from the conquest of their land by foreign invaders. The Dvals were assimilated by the Georgians and conquered by the Ossetes in the north. It is thought that Dval did not go fully extinct until the 18th century, making the Dvals the most recent Nakh people known to have died out.
Tsov
According to Georgian scholars I.A. Javashvili and Giorgi Melikishvili, the Urartian state of Supani was occupied by the ancient Nakh tribe Tsov, whose state is called Tsobena in ancient Georgian historiography. The Tsov language was the dominant language spoken by its people, and was thought by these Georgian historians to be Nakh. Tsov and its relatives in the area may have contributed to the Hurro-Urartian substratum in the Armenian language.
