Anatolia, Caucasus, Iran, Mesopotamia have been the melting pot of cultures and languages of various families (Altaic, East and West Caucasian, Indo-European, Kartvelian, Semitic, among else) for millenia. Understanding these languages, the sources of variation, the areas of contact in this geographical region opens insights to the human past, sharpens our perspective towards the Orient.

The aim of the present resource is to provide a general linguistic audience with snippets of the languages/grammars of this region, with a focus on contemporary language use, on the understanding of interactions between languages and the creation of areal profiles in grammar. This resource is addressed to linguistics students and linguists, as well as to linguistically informed scholars of the humanities who wish to learn more about the languages of this region.

The present resource is a collaborative product of the LACIM network, a European research network on linguistics and languages of the Anatolia, Caucasus, Iran and Mesopotamia.

EDITORS

Christiane Bulut, University of Cyprus, Nicosia

Anaïd Donabédian-Demopoulos, Inalco, Paris

Geoffrey Haig, University of Bamberg

Geoffrey Khan, University of Cambridge

Pollet Samvelian, Université Paris III - Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris

Stavros Skopeteas, University of Göttingen

Nina Sumbatova, Russian Academy of Science