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'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 typical Georgians, 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.

Contents

History

Classification

Geographic distribution

Sounds

Grammar

External links

History

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 some families of Bats in Tbilisi and other bigger towns in Georgia.

Classification

Bats belongs to the Nakh family of Caucasian languages.

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.

Sounds

Grammar

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 ''I fell down'' (sc. through no fault of my own) and ''I fell down'' (sc. and it was my own fault).

External links

★ The Red Book of Peoples of the Russian Empire: The Bats

★ Ethnologue report on Bats

★ Languages of the World report