Bats people
|
| Total population |
|---|
| 3,000 approx. at most[1] |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Tusheti (Georgia), Kakheti (Georgia) |
| Languages |
| Religion |
| Related ethnic groups |
|
Other Nakh peoples: Chechens, Ingushs, and Kists |
The Bats people (Georgian: ბაცი) or the Batsbi (ბაცბი) are a small Nakh-speaking community in the country of Georgia who are also known as the Ts’ova-Tush (წოვა-თუშები) after the Ts’ova Gorge in the historic Georgian province of Tusheti (known to them as "Tsovata"), where they are believed to have settled after migrating from the North Caucasus in the 16th century (see debate). The group should not be confused with the neighbouring Kists – also a Nakh-speaking people, migrants from Chechnya – who live in the nearby Pankisi Gorge.
The first reference to the Batsbi in European ethnographical literature is in the chapter on the Tush and Tusheti in Johannes Güldenstädt's Reisen durch Rußland und im Caucasischen Gebürge ["Travels through Russia and in the Mountains of the Caucasus"], published posthumously by Peter Simon Pallas between 1787 and 1791[2], although Güldenstädt does not mention them by name, merely pointing out instead that "Kistian and Georgian are spoken equally in the 4 first-named villages [in the Ts'ova Gorge]. Their inhabitants could also more easily be descendants of the Kists than the other Tush" ["In den 4 erstgennanten Dörfern wird kistisch mit georgischen untermengt gesprochen. Die Einwohner können auch leicht mehr als die übrigen von Kisten gern abstammen."].
Most of the Batsbi currently live in the village of Zemo ("Upper") Alvani in the eastern Georgian province of Kakheti, close to the town of Akhmeta (at the mouth of the Pankisi Gorge). In the early nineteenth century, following the destruction of two of their villages by landslides and an outbreak of the plague, the Batsbi abandoned their villages in the Ts'ova Gorge in Tusheti and migrated down to the valley of the Alazani river, where they live to this day.
[edit] Language
Part of the community still retain their own Bats language, "batsbur mott", which has adopted many Georgian loan-words and grammatical rules, and is mutually unintelligible with the two other Nakh languages, Chechen and Ingush. This language is unwritten and the Batsbi have used Georgian as a language of literacy and trade for centuries. Their customs and traditions now resemble those of other eastern Georgian mountaineers, particularly those of the Tush; the Batsbi have retained very little of their cultural traits (although it is probable that Batsbur customs have had a profound influence on the particularities of Eastern Georgian customs). Batsbur is not a Vainakh language (as Chechen and Ingush are) and forms a separate branch among the Nakh languages. It is the last remnant of the non-Vainakh branches of the Nakh family, all the others having gone extinct.
All Batsbi speak Georgian (usually with a Tushetian or Kakhetian accent). Only some speak Batsbur.
[edit] External links
- Batsav.Com, a site mainly dedicated to the Tsova-Tush with significant information on other Caucasian peoples.
- YouTube, a video recording of a song in Batsbur.
[edit] References
- ^ Viires, Ants. The Red Book of Peoples of the Russian Empire. Bats entry. Available online: http://www.eki.ee/books/redbook/bats.shtml
- ^ Güldenstädt, Johann Anton. Reisen durch Rußland und im Caucasischen Gebürge. 2 Volumes, Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg: 1787. pp. 376-378 of Volume 1. (An updated, re-edited version of Güldenstädt's Reisen was also published by Julius Klaproth in the "Verlage der Stuhrschen Buchhandlung" in 1834, under the title Dr. J.A. Güldenstädts Beschreibung der kaukasischen Länder — Aus seinen Papieren gänzlich umgearbeitet, verbessert herausgegeben und mit erklärenden Anmerkungen begleitet von Julius Klaproth.)
