Bats language

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Bats
batsba motjiti
Spoken in	Georgia
Region	Zemo-Alvani in Kakheti
Total speakers	3,420 (2000 WCD) [1]
Language family	Northeast Caucasian Nakh Bats
Language codes
ISO 639-1	None
ISO 639-2	cau
ISO 639-3	bbl
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

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 one of tush people sub groups. Even though Tushs are an ethnographical group of Georgians, living in the north-east of Georgia, there is subgroup of tush known as Tsovians who are known to be of Bats origin. 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.

Contents 1 History 2 Classification 3 Geographic distribution 4 Phonology 4.1 Vowels 4.2 Consonants 5 Grammar 6 References 7 External links

[edit] History

Until the middle of the 19th century, the Tsovians lived in Tushetia, the mountain region of Northeast Georgia. They were expected to have come settled with Tush people in mid centuries later became assimilated with other Tush people and now are known as one of four tush subgroups. 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 some families of Bats in Tbilisi and other bigger towns in Georgia.

[edit] Classification

Bats belongs to the Nakh family of Caucasian languages.

[edit] Geographic distribution

Most speakers of Bats live in the village of Zemo-Alvani, on the Kakhetia Plain, in the Akhmeta district of Georgia. There are some families of Bats in Tbilisi and other bigger towns in Georgia.

[edit] Phonology

[edit] Vowels

This section requires expansion.

[edit] Consonants

Consonant phonemes of Bats^[2]

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar		Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Epi- glottal	Glottal
				central	lateral
Nasal		m	n
Plosive	voiced	b	d				ɡ		ʡ	ʔ
	voiceless	p	t				k
	ejective	pʼ	tʼ				kʼ
Affricate	voiced		(d͡z)	(d͡ʒ)
	voiceless		t͡s	t͡ʃ				q͡χ
	ejective		t͡sʼ	t͡ʃʼ				q͡χʼ
Fricative	voiceless		s	ʃ	ɬ			χ	ʜ
	voiced	v	z	ʒ				ʁ	ʢ	ɦ
Trill				r
Approximant					l	j

• Note that the source is rather ambiguous in its using the term laryngeal that includes a voiced plosive. A voiced glottal plosive canʼt be made, as the glottis needs to be closed. Pending clarification, the glottal stop has been put in the voiced plosives row.
• Further note that the source names the epiglottal series ″pharyngeal″ indiscriminately in all the tables, also when it includes a plosive and thus clearly isn´t a true pharyngeal (like in the case of Bats).

[edit] Grammar

The first grammar of Bats – Über die Thusch-Sprache – was compiled by the German orientalist Anton Schiefner (1817-1879) making it into the first grammar of any indigenous Caucasian languages based on sound scientific principles.^[3]

Bats has eight noun classes, the highest number among the Caucasian languages. Bats also has explicit inflections for agentivity of a verb; it makes a distinction between as woʒe I fell down (sc. through no fault of my own) and so woʒe I fell down (sc. and it was my own fault).

This section requires expansion.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Red Book of Peoples of the Russian Empire: The Bats
• Ethnologue report on Bats
• Languages of the World report