Èrsh language


The Èrsh language was the language of the Èr or Èrs people, hypothetical people that may have lived in the Caucasus region.
According to placenames, it was a Nakh language, akin 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 was called Èribuni. Amjad Jaimoukha argued that "buni" is from a Nakh root, meaning shelter or home. According to him, Erebuni meant "the home of the Èrs". It corresponds to modern Yerevan However, this theory is not accepted by mainstream linguists and is considered problematic, namely because Chechen "bun" initially derives from the Armenian word buyn for "nest" or "lair", from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeuH-no-, from *bʰeuH-. Cognates include Sanskrit भुवन, Albanian bun and Middle Persian بن 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". However, according to Urartologist Paul Zimansky, Hurro-Urartian -khi is a plural/tribal denotation and not a hydronym, rendering Jaimoukha's theory incorrect.