Bats language

Bats (also Batsi, Batsbi, Batsb, Batsaw, Tsova-Tush) is the endangered language of the Bats people, a North Caucasian minority group and is part of the Nakh family of Northeast Caucasian languages. It had 2,500 to 3,000 speakers in 1975.

Bats
Batsbä Moț
ბაცბაჼმოტ
Native toNorth Caucasus
RegionZemo-Alvani in Kakheti
Native speakers
500 (1997)[1]
far fewer than 3,000 active (2007)
Georgian script[2]
Language codes
ISO 639-3bbl
Glottologbats1242
ELPBatsbi[3]

There is only one dialect. It exists only as a spoken language, as 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.

History

Tusheti, the northeastern mountainous region of Georgia, is home to four tribes that consider themselves Tushetians. The tribes are: Batsbi - also known as Tsovatush, Gometsari, Piriqiti and Chagma-Tush. Tsovatush people make up 50% of Tushetians. As of today only several hundred Tsovatush people speak Batsbur Mott' – (Bats language), whereas others 3 tribes (Gometsari, Piriqiti and Chagma-Tush) have lost the language. Evidence exists that the other three Tushetian tribes formerly spoke Bats is evident in toponymics, suggesting that all Tushetians spoke Bats, and over time Georgian language, replaced Bats.

Few examples of the Bats language as spoken by the Gometsari, Piriqiti and Chagma-Tush tribes:

Omalo – name of a village. Bats, "Won't give up." O-(it) ma-(not) lo-(given or given up).

Tcokalta – name of a village. Bats, "fox mountain". Tcokal - (Fox) ta- (Mountain).

Maqalati – during festivals the term is used to describe people (with wooden swords) serving the guests - they are the hosts and peacekeepers. "Standing above" in Bats, like an overseer/peacekeeper. Maqa – above or over latt – stand.

DalaobaDalla – Bats, God.

QokebiQoki – Bats, foot, foot wear".

Bats Language is the only way to shed some light to the history of Tushetian mountains. The mountainous terrain preserved the culture and traditions of Tushetians, but isolation didn’t help much in documenting the people and life in Tushetia. Other than Bats, only few records can give us slight glimpse in the past shrouded in mystery.

Classification

Bats belongs to the Nakh family of Northeast Caucasian languages.

Geographic distribution

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

Phonology

Vowels

Bats has a typical triangular five-vowel system with short–long contrast (except for u, which has no long form). Bats also has a number of diphthongs, ei, ui, oi, ai, ou, and au.[4] All vowels and diphthongs have nasalized allophones that are the result of phonetic and morphophonemic processes; this is represented by a superscript n, as in kʼnateⁿ boy-GEN.

Front Back
High i, u
Mid e [ɛ], o,
Low a,

Consonants

Bats has a relatively typical consonant inventory for a Northeast Caucasian language. Unlike its close relatives, Chechen and Ingush, Bats has retained the lateral fricative /ɬ/. Also notable is the presence of two geminate ejectives, tːʼ and qːʼ, which are cross-linguistically rare.[5]

Consonant Phonemes of Bats[6]
Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal(ized) Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal
Nasal m n
Plosive aspirated lenis t͜sʰ t͡ʃʰ ʔ
voiceless fortis
voiced b d d͜z d͡ʒ g
ejective lenis t͜sʼ t͡ʃʼ
fortis tːʼ qːʼ
Fricative voiceless lenis s ʃ x ħ h
fortis
lateral ɬ
voiced v z ʒ ɣ ʕ
Approximant lenis l j
fortis
Flap ɾ

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 an indigenous Caucasian languages based on sound scientific principles.[7]

Noun classes

Traditional analyses posit that Bats has eight noun classes, the highest number among the Northeast Caucasian languages—however, a more-recent analysis gives only five classes.[6] This analysis (not unlike analyses of Lak) yields the grouping shown below:

LabelSg.Pl.DescriptionMembers
Mvbmale humansmar "husband"
ʕuv "shepherd"
voħ "son"
Fjdfemale humansnan "mother"
pstʼu "wife"
joħ "daughter"
Dddvariousbader "child"
kʼuit’ĭ "cat"
dokʼ "heart"
ditx "meat"
Bdbdanimalscarkʼ "tooth"
maiqĭ "bread"
qʼar "rain"
Jjjvariouspħu "dog"
ča "bear"
matx "sun"
*Bd/Jbjbody parts (15 nouns)bak "fist"
bʕarkʼ "eye"
čʼqʼempʼŏ ‘throat’
*D/Jdjbody parts (4 nouns)batʼr "lip", larkʼ "ear"
tʼotʼ "hand", čʼamaǧ "cheek"
*B/Bbbonly 3 nounsborag "knit slipper"
čekam "boot"
kakam "autumn wool"

Under this analysis, the additional three classes are examples of inquorate gender, where the number of items displaying this behavior are insufficient to constitute an independent grouping. Furthermore, they can be explained as inflecting one class in the singular, and another in the plural, e.g. the B/B group agrees as if it belonged to the Bd class in the singular but the male human class in the plural.

Noun cases

Batsbi makes use of nine noun cases total, though in the majority of nouns, the ergative and instrumental cases have a common form.

CasesSingularPluralSingularPlural
Nominativenekʼnekʼicokʼalcokʼli
Genitive nekʼen nekʼan cokʼlen cokʼlan
Dativenekʼennekʼincokʼlencokʼlin
Ergative,
Instrumental
nekʼevnekʼivcokʼlevcokʼliv
Contacting casenek’exnekʼaxcokʼlexcokʼlax
Allativenekʼegŏnekʼigŏcokʼlegŏcokʼligŏ
Adverbialnekʼeǧnekʼiǧcokʼleǧcokʼliǧ
Commitive case nekʼcin,
nekʼecin
nekʼicin cokʼlecin cokʼlicin
“knife”“fox”

Numerals

Like most of its relatives, Bats' numerals are vigesimal, using 20 as a common base. This is mainly evident in the construction of higher decads, so that 40 šauztʼqʼ formed from 2 × 20 and 200 icʼatʼqʼ is 10 × 20.[6] When modifying nominals, the numeral precedes the noun it modifies.

Basic Numbers
1cħa11cħajtʼː1+10
2ši12šiitʼː2+10
3qo13qoitʼː3+10
4Dʕivʔ14Dʕevajtʼː4+10
5pxi15pxiitʼː5+10
6jetx16jetxajtʼː6+10
7vorɬ17vorɬajtʼː7+10
8barɬ18barɬajtʼː8+10
9isː19tʼqʼexc’20-1
10itʼː20tʼqʼa
Higher Decads
21tʼqʼacħa20+1
22tʼqʼaš20+2
30tʼqʼaitʼː20+10
31tʼqʼacħaitʼː(20+1)+10
32tʼqʼašiitʼː(20+2)+10
40šauztʼqʼ2×20
50šauztʼqʼaitʼː(2×20)+10
60qouztʼqʼ3×20
70qouztʼqʼaitʼː(3×20)+10
80Dʕe(v)uztʼqʼ4×20
90Dʕe(v)uztʼqʼaitʼː(4×20)+10
100pxauztʼqʼ5×20
120jexcʼatʼqʼfrom jetxcʼatʼqʼ 6x20
160barɬcʼatʼqʼ8×20
200icʼatʼqʼfrom itʼːcʼatʼqʼ 10x20
1000atasfrom Georgian

In Bats, as in its closest relatives Chechen and Ingush, the number Dʕivʔ "four" actually begins with a noun-class marker, represented by D (by default, or another capital for the other classes). This marker will agree in class with the class of the nominal which the number modifies, even if that nominal is not overtly expressed and is only apparent through pragmatic or discursive context, as in Vʕivʔev "four (males)". This is seen in the word "four" itself as well as its derivatives.

Verbs

Bats has explicit inflections for agentivity of a verb; it makes a distinction between as woʒe I fell down (i.e. through no fault of my own) and so woʒe I fell down (i.e. and it was my own fault).

References

  1. "UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 2018-04-17.
  2. "Batsbi alphabet, pronunciation and language". Omniglot.com. Retrieved February 4, 2018.
  3. Endangered Languages Project data for Batsbi.
  4. HG1994
  5. Hauk, Bryn; Hakim, Jacob (Summer 2019). "Acoustic properties of singleton and geminate ejectives in Tsova-Tush" (PDF). ICPhS 2019 Conference Proceedings.
  6. Holisky, Dee Ann and Gagua, Rusudan, 1994. "Tsova-Tush (Batsbi)", in The indigenous languages of the Caucasus Vol 4, Rieks Smeets, editor. Caravan Books, pp. 147-212
  7. Kevin Tuite (2007). The rise and fall and revival of the Ibero-Caucasian hypothesis, pp. 7-8. Historiographia Linguistica, 35 #1.
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