Bats language

Bats
batsba motjiti
Native to	Georgia
Region	Zemo-Alvani in Kakheti
Native speakers	3,400 (2000) far fewer than 3,000 active (2007)
Language family	Northeast Caucasian Nakh Bats
Language codes
ISO 639-3	bbl
Glottolog	bats1242

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.

History

Until the middle of the 19th century, the Tsovians lived in Tushetia, the mountain region of Northeast Georgia. They were expected to have come settled with Tush people in mid centuries later became assimilated with other Tush people and now are known as one of four tush subgroups. 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.

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 district 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. All vowels and diphthongs have nasalized allophones that are the result of phonetic and morphophonemic processes; this is represented by a supercript n, as in kʼnateⁿ boy-GEN.

	Front	Back
High	i, iː	u
Mid	e [ɛ], eː	o, oː
Low		a, aː

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/.

Consonant phonemes of Bats

			Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal(ized)	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Nasal			m	n
Plosive	aspirated	lenis	pʰ	tʰ	t͜sʰ	t͡ʃʰ	kʰ	qʰ		ʔ
	voiceless	fortis		tː				qː
	voiced		b	d	d͜z	d͡ʒ	g
	ejective	lenis	pʼ	tʼ	t͜sʼ	t͡ʃʼ	kʼ	qʼ
		fortis		tːʼ				qːʼ
Fricative	voiceless	lenis			s	ʃ	x		ħ	h
		fortis			sː		xː
		lateral			ɬ
	voiced		v		z	ʒ	ɣ		ʕ
Approximant		lenis		l		j
		fortis		lː
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 any indigenous Caucasian languages based on sound scientific principles.

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. This analysis (not unlike analyses of Lak) yields the grouping shown below:

Label	Sg.	Pl.	Description	Members
M	v	b	male humans	mar "husband" ʕuv "shepherd" voħ "son"
F	j	d	female humans	nan "mother" pstʼu "wife" joħ "daughter"
D	d	d	various	bader "child" kʼuit’ĭ "cat" dokʼ "heart" ditx "meat"
Bd	b	d	animals	carkʼ "tooth" maiqĭ "bread" qʼar "rain"
J	j	j	various	pħu "dog" ča "bear" matx "sun"
*Bd/J	b	j	body parts (15 nouns)	bak "fist" bʕarkʼ "eye" čʼqʼempʼŏ ‘throat’
*D/J	d	j	body parts (4 nouns)	batʼr "lip", larkʼ "ear" tʼotʼ "hand", čʼamaǧ "cheek"
*B/B	b	b	only 3 nouns	borag "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 as one class in the singular, and another in the plural, e.g. the B/B group agrees as if it belonged to Bd class in the singular, but 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 case have a common form.

Cases	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	nekʼ	nekʼi	cokʼal	cokʼli
Genitive	nekʼen	nekʼan	cokʼlen	cokʼlan
Dative	nekʼen	nekʼin	cokʼlen	cokʼlin
Ergative, Instrumental	nekʼev	nekʼiv	cokʼlev	cokʼliv
Contacting	nek’ex	nekʼax	cokʼlex	cokʼlax
Allative	nekʼegŏ	nekʼigŏ	cokʼlegŏ	cokʼligŏ
Adverbial	nekʼeǧ	nekʼiǧ	cokʼleǧ	cokʼliǧ
Commitive	nekʼcin, nekʼecin	nekʼicin	cokʼlecin	cokʼlicin
	“knife”		“fox”

Numerals

Like most of its relatives, Batsbi's 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. When modifying nominals, the numeral precedes the noun it modifies.

Basic Numbers 1 cħa 11 cħajtʼː 1+10 2 ši 12 šiitʼː 2+10 3 qo 13 qoitʼː 3+10 4 Dʕivʔ 14 Dʕevajtʼː 4+10 5 pxi 15 pxiitʼː 5+10 6 jetx 16 jetxajtʼː 6+10 7 vorɬ 17 vorɬajtʼː 7+10 8 barɬ 18 barɬajtʼː 8+10 9 isː 19 tʼqʼexc’ 20-1 10 itʼː 20 tʼqʼa

Higher Decads 21 tʼqʼacħa 20+1 22 tʼqʼaš 20+2 30 tʼqʼaitʼː 20+10 31 tʼqʼacħaitʼː (20+10)+1 32 tʼqʼašiitʼː (20+10)+2 40 šauztʼqʼ 2×20 50 šauztʼqʼaitʼː (2×20)+10 60 qouztʼqʼ 3×20 70 qouztʼqʼaitʼː (3×20)+10 80 Dʕe(v)uztʼqʼ 4×20 90 Dʕe(v)uztʼqʼaitʼː (4×20)+10 100 pxauztʼqʼ 5×20 120 jexcʼatʼqʼ from jetxcʼatʼqʼ 160 barɬcʼatʼqʼ 8×20 200 icʼatʼqʼ from itʼːcʼatʼqʼ 1000 atas from Georgian

In Bats, as in the 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 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).

External links

• The Red Book of Peoples of the Russian Empire: The Bats
• Languages of the World report
• Bats basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database