Ethno-linguistic groups of the Caucasus region.
The Caucasus region is one of the most diverse ethnic and linguistic areas of the world, with over 50 indigenous ethnic groups spread over only about 186 000 km2 and 10 million people. Predictably, the area has also been home to violent enthic conflicts and is divided by some pretty interesting borders, including semi-autonomous regions, breakaway states, and disputed territories.
Amazingly, the three autoctonous language families - Kartvellian, North-East and Nort-West Caucasian - have little or no similarities between each-other, and seem to be isolated from surrounding language families. The mysterious origins of the Caucasian peoples and languages have entertained linguists for over a hundred years.
The Kartvelian family notably includes Georgian, which uses a unique script system. North-East Caucasian includes Chechen, Ingush, and the diverse languages of Southern Dagestan. North-West Caucasian includes different dialects of Circassian in the Russian autonomous republics of Adygea, Karachay-Cherkessia, and Kabardino-Balkaria, as well as the Abazgi language of the disputed territory of Abkhazia in Georgia.
Aside from the autoctonous language families, the Indo-European language family is represented by Armenian, which also uses a unique script system, Kurdish, Ossetian, Talysh, Farsi, Greek (!), and of course Russian; Turkic languages are predominantly represented by Azerbaijani, Karachay-Balkar of the aforementioned republics of Karachay-Cherkessia, and Kabardino-Balkaria, Kumyk and Nogai of Dagestan, and Turkish; a Mongol language, Kalmyk, is notably spoken in the Russian republic of Kalmykia, the only region of Europe where a Mongol language is predominantly spoken; Semitic languages are represented by Neo-Aramaic (including Assyrian), and, until the early 20th century, a dialect of Arabic was spoken in Azerbaijan and Dagestan.
origamiaround
germansingergirl
janainaart
kaledo-art
romaincrisis