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94-612: Part of the community still retains its 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 . As Professor Johanna Nichols put it, "[the Batsbur] language is related to Chechen and Ingush roughly as Czech is related to Russian [and the Batsbi do] not belong to vai naakh nor their language to vai mott, though any speaker of Chechen or Ingush can immediately tell that

188-686: A Roman client state for most of its history. In 337, King Mirian III adopted Christianity as the state religion of Iberia, beginning the Christianization of the Western Caucasus region and solidly anchoring it in Rome's sphere of influence by abandoning the ancient Georgian polytheistic religion heavily influenced by Zoroastrianism . However, the Peace of Acilisene in 384 formalized the Sasanian control over

282-486: A Tushetian or Kakhetian accent). Only a handful speak Batsbur with any kind of proficiency. The Batsbi have retained very little of their separate cultural traits, and their customs and traditions now resemble those of other Eastern Georgian mountaineers , particularly those of the Tush. There are also deeper pagan-religious links between the Tush and the neighbouring Khevsur). According to some authors, Batsbi are descended from

376-479: A combination of transhumance and individual resettlements, and some time later there was a sizable migration into an established outpost. 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 ). Around half of Zemo Alvani's c.7,000 inhabitants are of Bats origin. The first reference to

470-628: A common ancestor. 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 eight villages in the Ts'ova Gorge in western Tusheti and began to migrate down to the lowlands on the left bank of the Alazani river in western Kakheti. A significant proportion of the village's women work in Europe and in America, sending money home to

564-581: A dominant regional group in ancient times. The name Sakartvelo ( საქართველო ) consists of two parts. Its root, kartvel-i ( ქართველ-ი ), specifies an inhabitant of the core central-eastern Georgian region of Kartli , or Iberia as it is known in sources of the Eastern Roman Empire . The official name of the country is Georgia per Article 2 of the Georgian Constitution . In Georgia's two official languages ( Georgian and Abkhaz ),

658-426: A large consonant inventory , relatively typical for a Nakh-Dagestanian language, containing ejectives , pharyngeals and uvulars . Unlike its close Nakh relatives, Chechen and Ingush , Batsbi has on the other hand retained the voiceless lateral fricative /ɬ/ . Also notable is the presence of two geminate ejectives, /tːʼ/ and /qːʼ/, which are cross-linguistically rare. The most common syllable type in Batsbi

752-578: A legacy of great cathedrals, romantic poetry and literature, and the epic poem The Knight in the Panther's Skin , considered a national epic. David IV suppressed dissent of feudal lords and centralized power in his hands to effectively deal with foreign threats. In 1121, he decisively defeated much larger Turkish armies during the Battle of Didgori and abolished the Emirate of Tbilisi . The 29-year reign of Tamar,

846-718: A major centre for textile goods. Joseph Stalin , an ethnic Georgian, was prominent among the Bolsheviks, ultimately becoming the de facto leader of the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death on 5 March 1953. Fellow Georgians such as Lavrentiy Beria and Vsevolod Merkulov likewise held powerful positions in the Soviet government. Stalin's Great Purge between 1936 and 1938 led to thousands of Georgian dissidents, intellectuals, and other presumed threats to Soviet authority being executed or sent to Gulag penal labor camps , severely truncating

940-476: A national revival movement led by Ilia Chavchavadze . This period also brought social and economic change to Georgia, with new social classes emerging: the emancipation of the serfs freed many peasants but did little to alleviate their poverty; the growth of capitalism created an urban working class in Georgia. Both peasants and workers found expression for their discontent through revolts and strikes, culminating in

1034-512: A new government. On 9 April 1991, shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Supreme Council of Georgia declared independence  [ ka ] after a referendum held on 31 March. Georgia was the first non- Baltic republic of the Soviet Union to officially declare independence, with Romania becoming the first country to recognize Georgia in August 1991. On 26 May, Gamsakhurdia

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1128-447: A personal union under the energetic king Heraclius II , who succeeded in stabilizing Eastern Georgia to a degree. In 1783, Russia and the eastern Georgian Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti signed the Treaty of Georgievsk , which made eastern Georgia a protectorate of Russia, guaranteed its territorial integrity and the continuation of its reigning Bagrationi dynasty in return for prerogatives in

1222-449: A result of incessant Ottoman–Persian Wars and deportations, the population of Georgia dwindled to 784,700 inhabitants at the end of the 18th century. Eastern Georgia , composed of the regions of Kartli and Kakheti , had been under Iranian suzerainty since the Peace of Amasya signed with neighboring rivalling Ottoman Turkey ( Safavid Georgia ). With the death of Nader Shah in 1747, both kingdoms broke free and were reunified through

1316-420: A third live in the capital and largest city , Tbilisi . Georgians , who are native to the region, constitute a majority of the country's population and are its titular nation . Georgia has been inhabited since prehistory , hosting the world's earliest known sites of winemaking , gold mining, and textiles. The classical era saw the emergence of several kingdoms, such as Colchis and Iberia , that formed

1410-442: A two-stage descent: first, abandonment of the original highland area in northern Tusheti, settling of villages lower in the mountains, and a period of transhumance plus permanent descents of a few families; then, complete abandonment of the highlands and year-round settlement in the lowlands after a flood destroyed one of the secondary mountain villages in the early nineteenth century. That is, Batsbi lowland outposts were established by

1504-479: Is CVC. However, Batsbi words commonly contain sequences of two consonants, the second of which is often a fricative. Stop-stop clusters often contain an ejective . Those two-consonant clusters can occur in any position within the word, although less commonly word-finally. Sequences of three consonants do occur as well, although many are borrowings from Georgian . Like many clusters in non- Indo-European languages, consonant sequences in Batsbi often fail to conform to

1598-560: Is a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and West Asia . It is part of the Caucasus region, bounded by the Black Sea to the west, Russia to the north and northeast, Turkey to the southwest, Armenia to the south, and Azerbaijan to the southeast. Georgia covers an area of 69,700 square kilometres (26,900 sq mi). It has a population of 3.7 million, of which over

1692-637: Is home to four tribes that consider themselves Tushetians : the Batsbi (also known as Tsovatush), the Gometsari, the Piriqiti, and the Chagma-Tush. Tsovatush people make up 50% of Tushetians. Only several hundred Tsovatush people speak Bats, whereas the other tribes (Gometsari, Piriqiti and Chagma-Tush) have lost the language. Evidence from toponymics indicates that the other three Tushetian tribes formerly spoke Bats, suggesting that all Tushetians once did and over time

1786-556: Is the endangered language of the Bats people , a North Caucasian minority group living in the Republic of Georgia . Batsbi is part of the Nakh branch of Northeast Caucasian languages . It had 2,500 to 3,000 speakers in 1975, with only one dialect. Batsbi is only used for spoken communication, as Bats people tend to use Georgian when writing. Tusheti, the northeastern mountainous region of Georgia,

1880-609: The Umm Leisun inscription found in the Old City of Jerusalem . The medieval Georgian Chronicles present an eponymous ancestor of the Kartvelians, Kartlos , a great-grandson of Japheth who medieval chroniclers believed to have been the root of the local name of their kingdom. However, scholars agree that the word Kartli is derived from the Karts , a proto-Kartvelian tribe that emerged as

1974-755: The 6th millennium BC , especially in Western Georgia, while the Mtkvari basin became stably populated in the 5th millennium BC , as evidenced with the rise of various cultures closely associated with the Fertile Crescent , including the Trialetian Mesolithic , the Shulaveri–Shomu culture , and the Leyla-Tepe culture . Archaeological findings show that settlements in modern-day Georgia were responsible for

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2068-622: The Argonauts . Archaeological evidence points to a wealthy kingdom in Colchis as early as the 14th century BC and an extensive trade network with Greek colonies on the eastern Black Sea shore (such as Dioscurias and Phasis ), though, the entire region would be annexed first by Pontus and then by the Roman Republic in the first century BC. Eastern Georgia remained a decentralized mosaic of various clans (ruled by individual mamasakhlisi ) until

2162-655: The Caucasus and benefiting from the Black Sea ecosystem, the region seems to have served as a refugium throughout the Pleistocene , while the first continuous primitive settlements date back to the Middle Paleolithic , close to 200,000 years ago. During the Upper Paleolithic , settlements developed mostly in Western Georgia, in the valleys of the Rioni and Qvirila rivers. Signs of agriculture date back to at least

2256-552: The Ingush . According to Sir Richard Phillips and E. N. Kusheva  [ ru ] , the Batsbi are an Ingush tribe. The origin of the Tsova-Tushins from the Ingush ( Galgai ) was also acknowledged by the first Tsova-Tushino writer I. Tsiskarov. The data of the Ingush and Batsbi folk legends also testify that the Batsbi came from the area of Vabua ( Fappi ) in mountainous Ingushetia. This

2350-544: The Kingdom of Imereti sent ambassadors to the Russian royal court, with Russia returning the favor in 1651. In the presence of these ambassadors, Alexander III of Imereti swore an oath of allegiance to Tsar Alexis of Russia on behalf of Imereti. Subsequent rulers also sought assistance from Pope Innocent XII but without success. The rulers of regions that remained partly autonomous organized rebellions on various occasions. As

2444-774: The Mongols , the Ottoman Empire , and Persia , before being gradually annexed into the Russian Empire starting in 1801. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, Georgia briefly emerged as an independent republic under German protection , but was invaded and annexed by the Red Army in 1921, becoming one of the Republics of the Soviet Union . In the 1980s, an independence movement grew quickly, leading to Georgia's secession from

2538-694: The Mushki , Laz , and Byzeres . Some historians have suggested that the collapse of the Hittite world in the Late Bronze Age led to an expansion of the influence of these tribes to the Mediterranean Sea , notably with the Kingdom of Tabal . The classical period saw the rise of a number of Georgian states, including Colchis in western Georgia, where Greek mythology located the Golden Fleece sought after by

2632-836: The Nakh branch of the Northeast Caucasian language family. The language is not mutually intelligible with either Chechen or Ingush , the other two Nakh languages. Most speakers of Bats live in the village of Zemo-Alvani , on the Kakheti Plain , in the Akhmeta Municipality of Georgia. There are some families of Bats in Tbilisi and other bigger towns in Georgia. Bats has a typologically common five-vowel system. Although some authors claim that all vowels but /u/ contrast in length , no minimal pairs are given in any studies of Batsbi, nor are examples of long vowels available in

2726-551: The Revolution of 1905 . Their cause was championed by the socialist Mensheviks , who became the dominant political force in Georgia in the final years of Russian rule. After the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic was established with Nikolay Chkheidze acting as its president. The federation consisted of three nations: Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. As

2820-511: The Russo-Georgian War of 2008 and continued Russian occupation of parts of Georgia . Georgia is a representative democracy governed as a unitary parliamentary republic . It is a developing country with a very high Human Development Index and an emerging market economy . Sweeping economic reforms since 2003 have resulted in one of the freest business climates in the world, greater economic freedom and transparency , and among

2914-583: The Treaty of Moscow . But the recognition proved to be of little value, as the Red Army invaded Georgia in 1921 and formally annexed it into the Soviet Union in 1922. In February 1921, during the Russian Civil War , the Red Army advanced into Georgia and brought the local Bolsheviks to power. The Georgian army was defeated, and the Social Democratic government fled the country. On 25 February 1921 ,

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3008-616: The absolutive and ergative cases. Inclusive Exclusive so ħo txo ve/vai šu as aħ atx ve eš Batsbi does not encode gender in pronouns. Gender is indexed instead on verbs and adjectives. o obi oqus oqar e is o eq icx oq Adnominal demonstratives code no gender in Batsbi. ე e DEM.proximal ფსტუიჩოვ pstʼuinčov woman-ERG ე ფსტუიჩოვ e pstʼuinčov DEM.proximal woman-ERG "This woman" ე e Georgia (country) Georgia ( Georgian : საქართველო , romanized : sakartvelo , IPA: [sakʰartʰʷelo] )

3102-653: The brutal suppression by Soviet forces of a large peaceful demonstration held in Tbilisi on 4–9 April 1989 proved to be a pivotal event in discrediting the continuation of Soviet rule over the country. In October 1990, the first multi-party elections were held in Soviet Georgia, which were the first multi-party elections in the entire Soviet Union, in which the opposition groups were registered as formal political parties. The Round Table—Free Georgia coalition led by Zviad Gamsakhurdia secured victory in this election and formed

3196-564: The early Middle Ages . The Roman–Persian Wars plunged the region into chaos, with both Persia and Constantinople supporting various warring factions in the Caucasus ; however, the Byzantine Empire was able to establish control over Georgian territories by the end of the 6th century, ruling Iberia indirectly through a local Kouropalates . In 645, the Arabs invaded southeastern Georgia, starting an extended period of Muslim domination in

3290-851: The fastest rates of GDP growth . In 2018, Georgia became the second country in the world to legalize cannabis , and the first former socialist state to do so. Georgia is a member of numerous international organizations, including the Council of Europe , Eurocontrol , BSEC , GUAM , Energy Community . As part of the Association Trio , Georgia is a candidate for membership in the European Union . Ancient Greeks ( Strabo , Herodotus , Plutarch , Homer , etc.) and Romans ( Titus Livius , Tacitus , etc.) referred to early western Georgians as Colchians and eastern Georgians as Iberians ( Iberoi , Ἰβηροι in some Greek sources). The first mention of

3384-674: The sonority sequencing principle . Of the words containing three-consonant onsets above, all but /pst ’ u/ “wife” and /t’k’mel/ “dust” are native to Batsbi, the other ones being loanwords from Georgian. Batsbi is an SOV language with ergative-absolutive alignment which makes extensive use of bound morphological derivation and inflection . It has both grammatical gender (i.e. noun classes) and several grammatical cases . Batsbi pronouns encode three persons, two numbers, and clusivity for first person plural (“you and us” vs . “us but not you”). Demonstratives work as third person pronouns. First and second person pronouns are shown below in

3478-677: The 11th century, the nascent Georgian kingdom experienced geopolitical and internal difficulties, with various noble factions opposed to the centralization of the Georgian state. They were often backed by the Byzantine Empire, which feared a dominion of the Caucasus region by the Bagrationi dynasty, and in some instances fueled internal conflict through aristocratic families seeking more power. However, ties between Byzantium and Georgia were normalized when

3572-524: The 1930s. The 1918 Georgian–Armenian War , which erupted over parts of disputed provinces between Armenia and Georgia populated mostly by Armenians, ended because of British intervention. In 1918–1919, Georgian general Giorgi Mazniashvili led an attack against the White Army led by Moiseev and Denikin to claim the Black Sea coastline from Tuapse to Sochi and Adler for independent Georgia. In 1920 Soviet Russia recognized Georgia's independence with

3666-724: 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." Figures from the Russian imperial census of 1873 given in Dr. Gustav Radde's Die Chews'uren und ihr Land — ein monographischer Versuch untersucht im Sommer 1876 include the Bats villages in the Ts'ova Gorge (dividing them into the "Indurta" and "Sagirta" communities): 1873 TOTAL: 344 households, consisting of 785 men and 741 women, in all 1,526 souls. Dr. Radde adds: "The members of [these two communities] have largely emigrated to

3760-558: The 4th century BC when it was conquered by Alexander the Great , eventually leading to the creation of the Kingdom of Iberia under the protectorate of the Seleucid Empire , an early example of advanced state organization under one king and an aristocratic hierarchy. Various wars with the Roman Empire , Parthia , and Armenia made Iberia regularly change its allegiance, though it remained

3854-647: The Bagrationi. Dynastic conflicts eventually weakened Abkhazia in the second half of the 10th century while in Tao-Klarjeti, Prince David III used his influence within Byzantine Anatolia to empower the Bagrationi. Bagrat III, heir of the Bagrationi dynasty, successively became King of Abkhazia (978), Prince of Tao-Klarjeti ( 1000 ), and King of the Iberians (1008), allowing him to unify most Georgian feudal states and be crowned in 1010 as King of Georgia . For much of

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3948-598: 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, although Güldenstädt does not mention them by name, merely pointing out instead that "Kistian and Georgian are spoken equally in

4042-442: The Batsbi only lived in temporary dwellings around Alvani in winter. In the summer, the men and their families would lead their flocks of sheep up to summer pastures around Tbatana and in Tsovata, returning to Alvani in the autumn. Professor Johanna Nichols also wrote about the migration of the Batsbi in her article on "The Origin of the Chechen and Ingush": Batsbi tradition as recorded by Desheriev (1953, 1963) preserves memory of

4136-403: The Brilliant (r. 1299–1302), known for reuniting eastern and western Georgia and restoring the country's previous strength and Christian culture. After his death, local rulers fought for their independence from central Georgian rule, until the total disintegration of the kingdom in the 15th century. Georgia was further weakened by several disastrous invasions by Timur . Invasions continued, giving

4230-487: The Caucasus, and extended over large parts of present-day Azerbaijan, Armenia, eastern Turkey, and northern Iran, and used the vacuum of power left by the Fourth Crusade to create the Empire of Trebizond as a Georgian vassal state. The revival of the Kingdom of Georgia was set back after Tbilisi was captured and destroyed by the Khwarezmian leader Jalal ad-Din in 1226, followed by devastating invasions by Mongol ruler Genghis Khan . The Mongols were expelled by George V

4324-409: The Christianization being implemented by the Georgian monarchy. A couple of these tribes are thought to have adopted a Nakh language as a result of contact with Nakh peoples. The Batsbi's villages in the Ts'ova Gorge ( Tsovata ) were Ts'aro , Shavts'qala , Nazarta , Nadirta , Mozarta , Indurta , Sagirta and Etelta . Each was inhabited by one or several extended families who believed they shared

4418-474: The Georgian language replaced Bats. The mountainous terrain preserved the culture and traditions of Tushetians, but the history of isolation makes it more difficult to document them as only a few records exist. 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 an indigenous Caucasian language based on sound scientific principles. Batsbi belongs to

4512-405: The Georgian royal Bagrationi dynasty , as well as the autocephaly of the Georgian Orthodox Church . Pyotr Bagration , one of the descendants of the abolished house of Bagrationi, later joined the Russian army and became a prominent general in the Napoleonic wars. On 22 December 1800, Tsar Paul I of Russia , at the alleged request of the Georgian King George XII , signed the proclamation on

4606-432: The Iberians in 888 , restoring the monarchy abolished three centuries prior. In Western Georgia, the Kingdom of Abkhazia benefited from the weakening of Byzantium in the region to unify various tribes and become one of the most powerful states of the Caucasus in the 8th century. In the 9th-10th centuries, Abkhazia grew its influence through several military campaigns and came to control much of Iberia and competing with

4700-421: The Ottomans advanced into the Caucasian territories of the crumbling Russian Empire, Georgia declared independence on 26 May 1918. The Menshevik Social Democratic Party of Georgia won the parliamentary election and its leader, Noe Zhordania , became prime minister. Despite the Soviet takeover, Zhordania was recognized as the legitimate head of the Georgian Government by France, UK, Belgium, and Poland through

4794-422: The Red Army entered Tbilisi and established a government of workers' and peasants' soviets with Filipp Makharadze as acting head of state. Georgia was incorporated into what would soon become the Soviet Union . Soviet rule was firmly established only after local insurrections were defeated. Georgia would remain an unindustrialized periphery of the USSR until the first five-year plan (1928–1932), when it became

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4888-413: The Soviet Russian ethnographic literature (I. Bromlei and others) it is emphasized that the problems rise in the languages of small groups when the percentage of their daughters-in-law of different languages exceeds 15-20%. In this case, the language gradually faces the danger. In such families the children do not speak their fathers’ languages (especially when there do not live grandmother and grandfather in

4982-494: The Soviet Union in April 1991. For much of the subsequent decade , the country endured economic crises, political instability , and secessionist wars in Abkhazia and South Ossetia . Following the peaceful Rose Revolution in 2003, Georgia strongly pursued a pro-Western foreign policy, introducing a series of democratic and economic reforms aimed at integration into the European Union and NATO . This Western orientation led to worsening relations with Russia , culminating in

5076-408: The Soviet Union, contributing to the nation's consolidation. 1978 Georgian demonstrations saw the return of mass anti-Soviet protests, but this time government backed down. Throughout the remainder of the Soviet period, Georgia's economy continued to grow and experience significant improvement, though it increasingly exhibited blatant corruption and alienation of the government from the people. With

5170-411: The Ts'ova community until 1866." Concerning the slow decline of Batsbur as a language, Professor Topchishvili writes: In the scientific literature, especially in the Soviet Russian ethnographic science great attention was paid to the marriage facts of people of different languages. Russians were greatly interested in russification of the people living in the Russian empire to make them speak Russian. In

5264-472: The Tsova language. By origin, their language is Galgai and is related to the Kistin. This language has, however, borrowed many words from Georgian; the Tsova-Tush speak it both at home and among each other. Everybody knows the Tsova language. It is shameful not to speak it. Children start speaking Tsova-Tush and learn Georgian later." John F. Baddeley also considered the origins of the Tsova-Tush language Ingush. Nowadays, all Batsbi speak Georgian (usually with

5358-431: The Tsova-Tush language. By the way, the Tsova-Tush women married to Georgian-speaking men, often taught their language to their children) But it does not exceed the considerable limit. The above mentioned conjugal relations lasted until the time when the marriage matter was a competence of the parents. Since the parents do not interfere in marriage matters of their children and the young people decide their fate independently,

5452-434: The beginning of perestroika in 1986, the Georgian Soviet leadership proved so incapable of handling the changes that most Georgians, including rank and file communists, concluded that the only way forward was a break from the existing Soviet system. Starting in 1988, mass protests erupted in Georgia in favor of independence, led by Georgian nationalists such as Merab Kostava and Zviad Gamsakhurdia . The following year,

5546-447: The conduct of Georgian foreign affairs. Despite its commitment to defend Georgia, Russia rendered no assistance when the Iranians invaded in 1795, capturing and sacking Tbilisi and massacring its inhabitants. Although Russia initiated a punitive campaign against Persia in 1796, the Russian Imperial authorities subsequently violated key promises of the Georgievsk Treaty and in 1801 proceeded to annex eastern Georgia, while abolishing

5640-446: The core central Georgian region of Kartli , recorded from the 9th century, and in extended usage referring to the entire medieval Kingdom of Georgia prior to the 13th century. The Georgian circumfix sa -X- o is a standard geographic construction designating 'the area where X dwell', where X is an ethnonym . The self-designation used by ethnic Georgians is Kartvelebi ( ქართველები , i.e. 'Kartvelians'), first attested in

5734-530: The country is named საქართველო ( Sakartvelo ) and Қырҭтәыла ( Kərttʷʼəla ) respectively. Prior to the adoption of the Constitution in 1995 and following the dissolution of the USSR , the country was commonly called the "Republic of Georgia" and occasionally it still is. Several languages continue to use the Russian variant of the country's name, Gruzia , which the Georgian authorities have sought to replace through diplomatic campaigns. Since 2006, Israel, Japan, and South Korea legally changed their appellation of

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5828-426: The country to variants of the English Georgia . In 2020, Lithuania became the first country in the world to adopt Sakartvelas in all official communications. The oldest traces of archaic humans in what is now Georgia date from approximately 1.8 million years ago in the form of the Dmanisi hominins , a subspecies of Homo erectus representing the oldest-known fossils of hominins in Eurasia . Buffered by

5922-428: The empire. The principality of Guria was abolished and incorporated into the Empire in 1829, while Svaneti was gradually annexed in 1858. Mingrelia , although a Russian protectorate since 1803, was not absorbed until 1867. Russian rule offered the Georgians security from external threats, but it was also often heavy-handed and insensitive. By the late 19th century, discontent with the Russian authorities grew into

6016-475: The entire Caucasus, though Christian rulers of Iberia sought to rebel at times, leading to devastating wars in the 5–6th centuries, most famously under the rule of King Vakhtang Gorgasali who expanded Iberia to its largest historical extent by capturing all of western Georgia and building a new capital in Tbilisi . In 580, the Sasanian Empire abolished the Kingdom of Iberia, leading to the disintegration of its constituent territories into various feudal regions by

6110-518: The family). The children start speaking their mothers’ language from the very beginning and speak it afterwards. In this view, we got interested in the situation of the Tsova-Tushs at their compact dwelling place in the village Zemo (Upper) Alvani. In the local village board 398 married couples are officially registered. As it turned out, in the last 10-12 years, the considerable part of the married couples, because of different reasons (financial-economic conditions, moving registration center from village to

6204-439: The first female ruler of Georgia, is considered the most successful in Georgian history. Tamar was given the title "king of kings" and succeeded in neutralizing her opposition, while embarking on an energetic foreign policy aided by the downfall of the rival powers of the Seljuks and Byzantium. Supported by a powerful military élite, Tamar was able to build on the successes of her predecessors to consolidate an empire that dominated

6298-401: The first use of fibers, possibly for clothing, more than 34,000 years ago, the first cases of viticulture ( 7th millennium BC ), and the first signs of gold mining ( 3rd millennium BC ). The Kura-Araxes , Trialeti , and Colchian cultures coincided with the development of proto-Kartvelian tribes that may have come from Anatolia during the expansion of the Hittite Empire , including

6392-407: The incorporation of Georgia (Kartli-Kakheti) within the Russian Empire, which was finalized by a decree on 8 January 1801, and confirmed by Tsar Alexander I on 12 September 1801. The Bagrationi royal family was deported from the kingdom. The Georgian envoy in Saint Petersburg reacted with a note of protest that was presented to the Russian vice-chancellor, Prince Kurakin. In May 1801, under

6486-588: The kingdom no time for restoration, with both Qara Qoyunlu and Aq Qoyunlu Turkomans constantly raiding its southern provinces. The Kingdom of Georgia collapsed into anarchy by 1466 and fragmented into three independent kingdoms and five semi-independent principalities . Neighboring large empires subsequently exploited the internal division of the weakened country, and beginning in the 16th century, various Ottoman and Iranian forces subjugated western and eastern regions of Georgia, respectively. This pushed local Georgian rulers to seek closer ties with Russia. In 1649,

6580-471: The land'). These centuries-old explanations for the word Georgia / Georgians are now mostly rejected by the scholarly community, who point to the Persian word gurğ / gurğān ( گرگ , ' wolf ' ) as the likely root of the word. Under this hypothesis, the same Persian root was later adopted in numerous other languages, including Slavic and West European languages. The native name is Sakartvelo ( საქართველო ; 'land of Kartvelians '), derived from

6674-424: The language is closely related and can understand some phrases of it. The Batsbi have not traditionally followed Vainakh customs or law, and they consider themselves Georgians." Batsbur is unwritten and the Batsbi have used Georgian as a language of literacy and trade for centuries. The Georgian ethnographer Sergi Makalatia wrote in his study of Tusheti about the Tsova-Tush language (Batsbur): "The Tsova-Tushs speak

6768-481: The literature. Bats also has the following diphthongs : /ei/ , /ui/ , /oi/ , /ai/ , /ou/ , and /au/ . All vowels and diphthongs have nasalised allophones that are the result of phonetic and morphophonemic processes: [ ĩ ẽ ã õ ũ ]. Nasalised vowels are represented in the Mkhedruli script via a superscript ⟨ნ⟩ following the vowel in question, as in კნათ ე for [k’nat ẽ ] ' boy- GEN ' . Batsbi has

6862-585: The lowlands along the Alazani River, to the east of Akhmeta; they move up in summer to the rich pastures of Tbatana at the southern end of the Massara mountain range (see Itinerary), but still consider Indurta as their property and even leave 2-3 families living there in winter. [The Ts'ova Gorge is situated] By the north-western spring of the Tusheti Alazani River. [...] Together, these two communities made up

6956-463: The majority Georgian populations, erupted into widespread inter-ethnic violence and wars. Supported by Russia, Abkhazia and South Ossetia achieved de facto independence from Georgia, with Georgia retaining control only in small areas of the disputed territories. Eduard Shevardnadze (Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1985 to 1991) was named as the head of Georgia's new government in March 1992 and

7050-474: The most Tsova-Tush men often find their partners in other villages. All this reasoned in the dying-out of the Tsova-Tush (Batsb) language. Only 25-30 years ago existing bilingual situation is disappearing and the most part of the population uses Georgian as the usual language. The fact is that, the most Tsova-Tushs (Batsbis) consider this event as quite normal and only some of them are very sorry for that, especially

7144-567: The name Georgia is in Italian on the mappa mundi of Pietro Vesconte dated 1320. At the early stage of its appearance in the Latin world, the name was often spelled Jorgia . Lore-based theories were given by traveler Jacques de Vitry , who explained the name's origin by the popularity of St. George among Georgians, while Jean Chardin thought that Georgia came from the Greek γεωργός ('tiller of

7238-695: The nation's cultural and intellectual life. During World War II , Germany led an Axis invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 with the aim of conquering all territory up to the Ural Mountains . As the initial operation stalled, the Axis launched the Fall Blau offensive in 1942 to take control of strategic Caucasian oil fields and munitions factories; ultimately, Axis troops were stopped before reaching Georgian borders. Over 700,000 Georgians—constituting about 20 percent of

7332-490: The nucleus of the modern Georgian state. In the early fourth century, Georgians officially adopted Christianity , which contributed to the unification into the Kingdom of Georgia . Georgia reached its Golden Age during the High Middle Ages under the reigns of King David IV and Queen Tamar . Beginning in the 15th century, the kingdom declined and disintegrated under pressure from various regional powers, including

7426-621: The old people. It is also a remarkable fact that in disappearance of the Tsova-Tush (Batsb) language, the role of human factor should be eliminated. The indifference towards the above matter could be explained by their Georgian consciousness. They are the organic part of the Georgian nation and do not differ from other Georgians with their traditions, customs and habits and mentality. [REDACTED] Media related to Bats people at Wikimedia Commons Bats language Bats ( Batsbur Mott, or Batsba Moṭṭ ბაცბა მოტტ, /batsʰba motʼː/ ), also known as Batsbi , Batsi, Batsb, Batsaw, or Tsova-Tush )

7520-532: The oversight of General Carl Heinrich von Knorring, Imperial Russia transferred power in eastern Georgia to the government headed by General Ivan Petrovich Lazarev . The Georgian nobility did not accept the decree until 12 April 1802, when Knorring assembled the nobility at the Sioni Cathedral and forced them to take an oath on the Imperial Crown of Russia . Those who disagreed were temporarily arrested. In

7614-461: The percentage of those women in the Tsova families not speaking the Tsova-Tush language is 43,22%. According to ethnographic data was proved that until the 60-70s of the 20th century, the most of the Tsova-Tush (Batsbis) men entered into marriage with Tsova-Tush women. Though, even then were not rare the facts of marrying women speaking Tush dialect of the Georgian language. (Many of them were also studying

7708-418: The population—fought in the Red Army to repel the invaders and advance towards Berlin; an estimated 350,000 were killed. After Stalin's death , Nikita Khrushchev became the leader of the Soviet Union and implemented a policy of de-Stalinization . Khrushchev's purges were met with riots in Tbilisi that had to be dispersed by military force. This violent turn of events that compromised Georgian loyalty to

7802-439: The region center), are not registered officially. It appeared that, from the 398 couples only 226 are Tsova-Tushs. i.e. 226 Tush men’s wives are also Tsova- Tushs. That makes 56-57%. The rest men’s wives are aliens. The most of the latter are the women speaking Tush dialect of Georgian. There are also many women from the different villages of Kakheti region. Several Russian, Kist, Ossethian and Armenian women were also recorded. Thus,

7896-572: The region; this also led to the establishment of several feudal states seeking independence from each other, such as the Emirate of Tbilisi and the Principality of Kakheti . Western Georgia remained mostly a Byzantine protectorate, especially following the Lazic War . The lack of a central government in Georgia allowed the rise of the Bagrationi dynasty in the early 9th century. Consolidating lands in

7990-474: The reigns of David IV (r. 1089–1125) and his great-granddaughter Tamar (r. 1184–1213) has been widely termed as the Georgian Golden Age . This early Georgian renaissance, which preceded its Western European analog, was characterized by impressive military victories, territorial expansion, and a cultural renaissance in architecture, literature, philosophy and the sciences. The Golden Age of Georgia left

8084-478: The southwestern region of Tao-Klarjeti , Prince Ashot I (813–830) used infighting between Arab governors to expand his influence to Iberia and was recognized as Presiding Prince of Iberia by both the Abbasid Caliphate and the Byzantine Empire. Though Ashot's descendants formed competing princely lines, Adarnase IV managed to unify most Georgian lands (except for Kakheti and Abkhazia) and was crowned King of

8178-591: The summer of 1805, Russian troops on the Askerani River near Zagam defeated the Iranian army during the 1804–13 Russo-Persian War and saved Tbilisi from reconquest now that it was officially part of the Imperial territories. Russian suzerainty over eastern Georgia was officially finalized with Iran in 1813 following the Treaty of Gulistan . Following the annexation of eastern Georgia, the western Georgian kingdom of Imereti

8272-425: The two countries faced a new common enemy, the rising Seljuk Empire in the 1060s. Following the decisive Byzantine defeat at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, Constantinople started to retreat from eastern Anatolia and entrusted Georgia with its administration, placing Georgia at the forefront of Turkish in the 1080s. The Kingdom of Georgia reached its zenith in the 12th to early 13th centuries. This period during

8366-563: The village. Many men still work as shepherds or cowherds, most of them wintering the animals in the Shiraki lowlands (south-eastern Georgia , on the border with neighbouring Azerbaijan ) and then taking them up to summer pastures in Tusheti (a two- to three-week journey). According to a study written and published by Professor Roland Topchishvili as part of the University of Frankfurt's ECLING project,

8460-449: Was annexed by Tsar Alexander I. The last Imeretian king and the last Georgian Bagrationi ruler, Solomon II , died in exile in 1815, after attempts to rally people against Russia and to enlist foreign support against the latter, had been in vain. From 1803 to 1878, as a result of numerous Russian wars now against Ottoman Turkey , several of Georgia's previously lost territories – such as Adjara – were recovered, and also incorporated into

8554-509: Was confirmed by special studies at the beginning of the 20th century. According to some information, the resettlement of a part of the Ingush-Fyappins to Tusheti occurred at the end of the 16th century or at the beginning of the 17th century. According to some historians Bats are descended from Old Georgian tribes who adopted a Nakh language. According to this theory, the Batsbi are held to have originated from Georgian pagan tribes who fled

8648-523: Was deposed by the Rose Revolution , after Georgian opposition and international monitors asserted that 2 November parliamentary elections were marred by fraud. The revolution was led by Mikheil Saakashvili , Zurab Zhvania and Nino Burjanadze , former members and leaders of Shevardnadze's ruling party. Mikheil Saakashvili was elected as President of Georgia in 2004. Following the Rose Revolution,

8742-588: Was elected as head of state in that year's elections , later as president in 1995 . During the War in Abkhazia (1992–1993) , roughly 230,000 to 250,000 Georgians were expelled from Abkhazia by Abkhaz separatists and North Caucasian militants (including Chechens). Around 23,000 Georgians fled South Ossetia. By 1994, Georgia was facing a severe economic crisis, with bread rations and shortages of electricity, water and heat. In 2003, Shevardnadze (who won re-election in 2000)

8836-595: Was elected president in the first presidential election with 86.5% of the vote on a turnout of over 83%. Gamsakhurdia was soon deposed in a bloody coup d'état , from 22 December 1991 to 6 January 1992. The coup was instigated by part of the National Guard and a paramilitary organization called " Mkhedrioni " ("horsemen"). The country then became embroiled in a bitter civil war , which lasted until December 1993. Simmering disputes within two regions of Georgia; Abkhazia and South Ossetia , between local separatists and

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