The Diversity of Languages in the Caucasus » Languages & Ethnicities of the Caucasus
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excellent! I do believe this helps further the theory that all of civilization springs from this area – especially when one considers that so many of the plants and animals we use originated here – to say nothing of the wheel, horse and dog. I think it clear we all came from here!
hal barton
July 17, 2008 at 9:16 am
Hal, you’re wrong. Africans did not come from the Caucasus.
Kambiz
July 17, 2008 at 9:18 am
Yes Kambiz. It just means that as various groups of people have moved around they’ve come to a grinding halt against the Caucasus. And minority groups survive easiest in mountain valleys. I suspect the Caucasus even proved a barrier to H. erectus expansion (Dmanisi fossils).
terryt
July 17, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Azeris are Altaic??? That’s really funny dudes. Azeri is the name of an Iranian tribe that speaks a Turkic language. They should be included in the list of Iranian people of the Caucasus.
Darius
August 21, 2008 at 4:54 am
Hi Darius,
I don’t disagree with you. But, I do want to share with you some information on Azeri population genetics and structure.
Azeri men have a high frequency of the Y-chromosome haplogroup H12, which originates from Turkmen compared to their neighbors, the Georgians and Armenians. The mtDNA says otherwise. Either way, Azeris are a mixed population with relationships to Iranians, Turkic peoples and other populations from the Caucasus — who speak an Altaic language and that’s why they are considered Altaic people in this map of languages and ethnicities of the Caucasus.
Kambiz
Kambiz
August 21, 2008 at 6:50 am
Thanks Kambiz. However, historical data suggest that Azeris are mainly Iranic and I believe not all of them have been tested for DNA confirmation. Moreover, Turkmen people do not entirely belong to the Altaic group either. They are mixed with Iranians a great deal too.
By the way, I think the Tat language and ethnic group have been omitted from the list on the map.
Darius
Darius
August 22, 2008 at 7:21 am
All the recent action in Georgia has drawn my attention to the region once more. I notice Ossetion is the only language group that has spread to either side of the catchment boundary of the Caucasus Mountains. This raises a couple of questions in my mind.
Is there a mountain pass between North and South Ossetia that allowed the spread through the mountains or is the spread fairly recent? And, secondly, in which direction did it move; from north to south or vice versa? Does anybody know? Does anybody care?
terryt
August 22, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Actually this map is lacking. There are the Germans from Helendorf, although in small numbers. There are also the various Mountain Jews, Svaneti’s, Mingrelians, etc. I do believe that there are no less than 36 different groups.
Azeri’s are actually not related to Iranic(?), but to my understanding are part of the Turkish family. The actual word “Azeribaijan” stems from Persian for “Land of Fire”, and throughout the history of Media and Persia they were an ethnic minority who spoke a Turkish tongue.
Also this map excludes the Armenian population in the Georgian region of Abkhazia.
Its a fine attempt, but it does have its flaws. Its only a starting point.
Mike
November 8, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Mike: Minegrelians and Svanetians are part of Georgian ethnicity, though they have diffrent language they are very related to Georgians. Germans and Jews live in very small amounts that’s why they are not on map. Armenians and Azeri’s are not on map because they live with Georgians but there is large population of Armenians and Azeris is south Georgia. Also Azerbaijan is very ancient name, 1500 years ago persian influence was very high there and diffrent nation called Albanians (not the ones who live in eastern europe now) lived on that land but now this nation dissapeared and mixed with Turks and Persians.
Alex
March 27, 2011 at 5:50 am