Arnold Stephanes dze Chikobava (Georgian: არნოლდ სტეფანეს ძე ჩიქობავა; March 14 (26), 1898 – November 5, 1985[1]) was a Georgian linguist and philologist best known for his contributions to Caucasian studies and for being one of the most active critics of Nicholas Marr's controversial monogenetic "Japhetic" theory of language.

[2] Chikobava was born in the small village of Sachikobavo in the Samegrelo region of western Georgia, then part of Imperial Russia.

[3] He graduated from the recently established Tbilisi State University in 1922 and earned a degree there, later serving as a docent (1926–33) and professor (1933-85).

[4] He authored a series of Georgian dictionaries and influential works on the structure and history of Caucasian languages.

Most of his fame, however, came through his criticism of Marr's speculative linguistic theory that had been adopted, for a while, as an official ideology by Soviet scholars.