Also Known As: Batsaw,Tsova-tush,Batsbiitsy,Tush,Bac,Batsbi,Batsi
Description:
Bats (also Batsi, Batsbi, Batsb, Batsaw, Tsova-Tush) is the language of the Bats people, a Caucasian minority group, and is part of the Nakh family of Caucasian languages. It had 2,500 to 3,000 speakers in 1975.
There is only one dialect. It exists only as a spoken language, as the Bats people use Georgian as their written language. The language is not mutually intelligible with either Chechen or Ingush, the other two members of the Nakh family.
The Bats are Georgian Orthodox Christians. Ethnographically they are Tushetians, an ethnographical group of Georgians, living in the north-east of Georgia. Tushetia is divided into 4 clans, and one of them is Tsovata clan, the clan of Bats. Tsovata clan was in the Tsova Gorge, but now all members of it, all Tsova-Tushs live in the village of Zemo-Alvani.
Until the middle of the 19th century, the Bats lived in Tushetia, the mountain region of Northeast Georgia. The Tsova Gorge in Tushetia was inhabited by four Bats communities: the Sagirta, Otelta, Mozarta and Indurta. Later they settled on the Kakhetia Plain, in the village of Zemo-Alvani, where they still live. Administratively they are part of the Akhmeta district of Georgia. There are..... full article at Wikipedia |