K. Tuite — Caucasus [Encycl. of cultural anthro.] — juillet 5, 2006 — p. 1 The Caucasus — article for the Encyclopedia of cultural anthropology

A medieval Arab geographer once referred to the Caucasus as “a mountain of languages, ” and indeed we find in this small region a greater linguistic diversity than that of all Western Europe. Over forty indigenous languages, grouped into three linguistic families, are spoken in the North and South Caucasus, along with representatives of the Indo-European and Turkic families