What peoples are included in the Altaic language family. Population and labor resources of the Russian Federation. Language groups of languages

There are a large number of language families and a wide variety of languages ​​in the world. There are more than 6,000 of the latter on the planet. Most of them belong to the largest language families in the world, which are distinguished by lexical and grammatical composition, kinship of origin and commonality. geographical location their carriers. However, it should be noted that community of residence is not always an integral factor.

In turn, the language families of the world are divided into groups. They are distinguished in a similar way. There are also languages ​​that do not belong to any of the selected families, as well as the so-called isolated languages. It is also customary for scientists to single out macrofamilies, i.e. groups of language families.

Indo-European family

The most fully studied is the Indo-European language family. It has been isolated since ancient times. However, relatively recently, work began on the study of the Proto-Indo-European language.

The Indo-European language family consists of groups of languages ​​whose speakers live in vast areas of Europe and Asia. So, the German group belongs to them. Its main languages ​​are English and German. Also a large group is Romance, which includes French, Spanish, Italian and other languages. In addition, Eastern European peoples who speak languages ​​of the Slavic group also belong to the Indo-European family. This is Belarusian, Ukrainian, Russian, etc.

This language family is not the largest in terms of the number of languages ​​included in it. However, these languages ​​are spoken by almost half of the world's population.

Afro-Asian family

Languages ​​representing Afro-Asiatic language family are used by more than a quarter of a million people. It includes Arabic, Egyptian, Hebrew, and many others, including extinct languages.

This family is usually divided into five (six) branches. This includes the Semitic branch, Egyptian, Chadian, Cushite, Berber-Libyan and Omot. In general, the Afro-Asiatic family includes more than 300 languages ​​of the African continent and parts of Asia.

However, this family is not the only one on the continent. AT in large numbers, especially to the south, there are other languages ​​in Africa that are not related to it. There are at least 500 of them. Almost all of them were not presented in writing until the 20th century. and used only orally. Some of them are still exclusively oral.

Nilo-Saharan family

The language families of Africa also include the Nilo-Saharan family. The Nilo-Saharan languages ​​are represented by six language families. One of them is songhai-zarma. The languages ​​and dialects of another - the Saharan family - are common in Central Sudan. There is also a family of mamba, whose carriers inhabit Chad. Another family, Fur, is also common in Sudan.

The most complex is the Shari-Nile language family. It, in turn, is divided into four branches, which consist of language groups. The last family - coma - is common in Ethiopia and Sudan.

The language families represented by the Nilo-Saharan macrofamily have significant differences among themselves. Accordingly, they present a great challenge for linguistic researchers. Into the languages ​​of this macrofamily big influence rendered by the Afro-Asian macrofamily.

Sino-Tibetan family

The Sino-Tibetan language family has over a million native speakers of its languages. First of all, this became possible due to the large size of the Chinese population, who speaks one of the branches of this language family. Chinese. In addition to it, this branch includes the Dungan language. It is they who form a separate branch (Chinese) in the Sino-Tibetan family.

Another branch includes more than three hundred languages, which are distinguished as the Tibeto-Burmese branch. There are approximately 60 million native speakers of its languages.

Unlike Chinese, Burmese and Tibetan, most of the languages ​​of the Sino-Tibetan family do not have a written tradition and are passed down from generation to generation exclusively orally. Despite the fact that this family has been studied deeply and for a long time, it still remains insufficiently studied and hides many secrets that have not yet been revealed.

North and South American languages

At present, as is known, the vast majority of North and South American languages ​​belong to the Indo-European or Romance families. Settling the New World, European colonists brought with them their own languages. However, the dialects of the indigenous population of the American continent did not disappear altogether. Many monks and missionaries who came from Europe to America recorded and systematized the languages ​​and dialects of the local population.

Thus, the languages ​​of the North American continent north of present-day Mexico were represented in the form of 25 language families. In the future, some experts have revised this division. Unfortunately, South America has not been studied as well in terms of language.

Language families of Russia

All the peoples of Russia speak languages ​​belonging to 14 language families. In total, there are 150 different languages ​​and dialects in Russia. The basis of the country's linguistic wealth is made up of four main language families: Indo-European, North Caucasian, Altai, Ural. At the same time, most of the country's population speaks languages ​​\u200b\u200bthat belong to the Indo-European family. This part makes up 87 percent of the total population of Russia. Moreover, the Slavic group occupies 85 percent. It includes Belarusian, Ukrainian and Russian, which make up the East Slavic group. These languages ​​are very close to each other. Their carriers can almost easily understand each other. This is especially true for the Belarusian and Russian languages.

Altaic language family

The Altaic language family consists of the Turkic, Tungus-Manchurian and Mongolian language groups. The difference in the number of representatives of their carriers in the country is great. For example, Mongolian is represented in Russia exclusively by Buryats and Kalmyks. But the Turkic group includes several dozen languages. Among them are Khakass, Chuvash, Nogai, Bashkir, Azerbaijani, Yakut and many others.

The group of Tungus-Manchurian languages ​​includes Nanai, Udege, Even and others. This group is under the threat of extinction due to the preference of their native peoples to use Russian on the one hand, and Chinese on the other. Despite the extensive and long study of the Altaic language family, it is extremely difficult for specialists to decide on the reproduction of the Altaic parent language. This is explained large quantity borrowings of its speakers from other languages ​​due to close contact with their representatives.

Ural family

The Uralic languages ​​are represented by two large families - Finno-Ugric and Samoyedic. The first of them includes Karelians, Mari, Komi, Udmurts, Mordovians and others. The languages ​​of the second family are spoken by Enets, Nenets, Selkups, Nganasans. The carriers of the Ural macrofamily are to a large extent Hungarians (more than 50 percent) and Finns (20 percent).

The name of this family comes from the name of the Ural Range, where it is believed that the formation of the Ural proto-language took place. The languages ​​of the Uralic family had some influence on their neighboring Slavic and Baltic languages. In total, there are more than twenty languages ​​of the Uralic family both in Russia and abroad.

North Caucasian family

Languages ​​of peoples North Caucasus represent a huge difficulty for linguists in terms of their structuring and study. In itself, the concept of a North Caucasian family is rather arbitrary. The fact is that the languages ​​of the local population are too little studied. However, thanks to the painstaking and deep work of many linguists studying this issue, it became clear how fragmented and complex many of the North Caucasian dialects are.

Difficulties relate not only to the actual grammar, structure and rules of the language, for example, as in the Tabasaran language - one of the most complex languages on the planet, but also pronunciation, which is sometimes simply inaccessible to people who do not speak these languages.

A significant obstacle for specialists studying them is the inaccessibility of many mountainous regions of the Caucasus. However, this language family, despite all the contradictions, is usually divided into two groups - Nakh-Dagestan and Abkhaz-Adyghe.

Representatives of the first group inhabit mainly the regions of Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia. These include Avars, Lezgins, Laks, Dargins, Chechens, Ingush, etc. The second group consists of representatives of kindred peoples - Kabardians, Circassians, Adyghes, Abkhazians, etc.

Other language families

The language families of the peoples of Russia are by no means always extensive, uniting many languages ​​into one family. Many of them are very small and some are even isolated. Such nationalities primarily live in Siberia and the Far East. So, the Chukchi-Kamchatka family unites the Chukchi, Itelmens, and Koryaks. The Aleuts and Eskimos speak Aleut-Eskimo.

A large number of nationalities scattered over the vast territory of Russia, being extremely few in number (several thousand people or even less), have their own languages, which are not included in any known language family. As, for example, the Nivkhs inhabiting the banks of the Amur and Sakhalin, and the Kets, located near the Yenisei.

However, the problem of linguistic extinction in the country continues to threaten the cultural and linguistic diversity of Russia. Not only individual languages, but also entire language families are under the threat of extinction.

Traditionally, the Altaic language family is divided into Turkic, Mongolian, Tungus-Manchu, Korean and Japanese-Ryukyu branches. It is believed that the Turkic and Mongolian languages ​​were up to the 4th millennium BC. Turkic: Mongolian unity, or the western branch of the Altaic family. To the east was the Tungus-Manchurian-Japanese-Korean unity, which collapsed in the 3rd millennium BC. into the Tungus-Manchu and Japanese-Korean branches. The split of the latter occurred in the IV century. BC, when the future Japanese moved to Japanese islands and mixed there with the Paleoasian tribes of the Ainu.

The Korean branch of the Altai family is represented by one people - the Koreans themselves. Probably Paleoasian, Proto-Altaic and Austronesian tribes took part in the ethnogenesis of this people. Today, Koreans are the people of two modern independent states (the DPRK and the Republic of Korea). In Russia, in the Ussuri region, the first 19 families of Koreans appeared in 1863. Since then, Koreans have settled from the Far East to the North Caucasus.

What language was originally spoken by the Xiongnu nomads, whose power, with its northern borders, seized part of the current Russian lands on the border with present-day Mongolia back in the 2nd-1st centuries. BC, it is not known exactly, but there are suggestions that in undivided Turkic-Mongolian or in ancient Turkic. In the 5th century The Turks (Turk: Yut) were called “five hundred families of Ashina” - a small group of nomads that arose from a mixture of different tribes and spoke one of the dialects of the Mongolian language. The word "Turk" meant "strong". The Ashina families obeyed the Xiongnu prince, who owned the area between the Yellow River bend and Nanshan. When the Xiongnu were defeated and annexed to the Wei Empire in 439, Ashina fled with the horde to the southern side of the Altai Mountains, where the descendants of the Xiongnu lived, mixed with the autochthonous population and spoke a language that, after the "Ashina families" imposed themselves on the local inhabitants as an aristocracy and gave them their self-name as an ethnonym, began to be called Turkic. Over the next hundred years, the Mongolian elite completely dissolved into the Turkic population and forgot their native language. The Altai tribes adopted the ethnonym "Turk" during the same time. Other Turkic tribes and unions by that time had spread far beyond the Altai, mainly to the west. True, they were not yet called Turks at that time. The Turks (Yakuts, Dolgans) also mastered Eastern Siberia long before the emergence of the ethnonym "Turk".

In the VI century. the first large Turkic state arose - the Turkic Khaganate. During the period of its greatest prosperity, the Khaganate of the Altai Turks controlled the territories of Manchuria, Mongolia, Altai, Central Asia and the North Caucasus. At this time, the Turks conquered the Khazars and Bulgars. The Bulgars were probably a peripheral Turkic tribe, earlier and further advanced to the west. The origin of the Khazars is unclear. After the Turkic conquest, they also began to speak Turkic. After the fall of the Turkic Khaganate in the 7th c. in the Wild Field, changing, the Turkic unions of the Khazars, Bulgars, Pechenegs, Oguzes dominated. In the XI century. in the territories from the mouth of the Danube to the lower reaches of the Syr Darya and Lake Balkhash, the Kipchaks (Polovtsy) begin to dominate. In the XIII century. they fall under the rule of the Mongol conquerors, but become the core (ulus of Jochi) of the Golden Horde. The Kipchak language becomes the main language in the Horde and to some extent influences the languages ​​of the Turkic, Mongolian, Finno-Ugric and other peoples included in the Jochi ulus. After the weakening of the Mongol empire, several Turkic formations appeared in its place, including the Great Horde, the Nogai Horde, the Kazan and Astrakhan khanates, and the Siberian khanates. With the strengthening of Moscow, the former tributary of the Golden Horde, all these states are part of the Muscovy (Russian Empire).

Currently, 36 peoples live in the Russian Federation who speak the languages ​​of the Turkic group of the Altai language family: Chuvash, Tatars, Kryashens, Nagaybaks, Bashkirs, Kazakhs, Karakalpaks, Nogais, Kumyks, Karachays, Balkars, Crimean Tatars, Krymchaks, Karaites, Azerbaijanis , Turks, Meskhetian Turks, Gagauz, Turkmens, Uzbeks, Uighurs, Kirghiz, Altai-Kizhi, Telengits, Teleuts, Tubalars, Chelkans, Kumandins, Chulyms, Shors, Khakasses, Tuvans, Tofalars, Yakuts, Dolgans.

The Mongolian peoples are probably related to the Turkic ones, the Mongolian languages ​​contain many Turkic roots (and vice versa), but their historical destinies intersected so often that it is difficult to say to what extent the commonality of the Turkic and Mongolian languages ​​is due to a common origin, and to what extent - subsequent mutual influence. In the process of conquests by Genghis Khan and his heirs, the Mongols settled throughout Asia and Eastern Europe, partly dissolving in the Turkic, Iranian, Slavic and other peoples, adopting their languages ​​and customs, partly, on the contrary, endowing the local tribes with their anthropological features and their language. So, the originally Mongolian people of the Tuvans now speak the Turkic language, and the Samoyedic Soyots speak Mongolian (Buryat).

Buryats are the indigenous population of the current Republic of Buryatia, the Aginsky Buryat Autonomous Okrug and six districts of the Irkutsk region, living there at least since the Bronze Age.

Kalmyks - Western Mongols, Oirats, who asked in the 17th century. from the Russian tsars protection from the Kazakh and Nogai khans and received places for nomads in the Russian state, modern population Republic of Kalmykia.

The Tungus-Manchu languages ​​are quite far apart from the Turkic and Mongolian languages, although the peoples who speak these languages ​​have lived alongside the Turks and Mongols since time immemorial. The first state of the Tungus-Manchus, Bohai (698-926), its northern part was located on the territory of the present Primorsky Territory. In general, the Proto-Tungus (archaeological Glazkovo culture) already in the 18th-13th centuries. BC. spread across Siberia, where they actively interacted with the local Paleo-Asiatic-Yukaghir population, partly forcing it out of its original territories, partly assimilating, partly adopting its methods of economic activity. The Tungus went to Siberia from Manchuria on foot. They carried weights. Having reached the distribution area of ​​the reindeer, the Tungus-Manchurian tribes (proto-Evenks) tamed this animal, learned to ride it and invented reindeer teams. The Tungus contributed to the spread of reindeer breeding among the Yukagirs, Koryaks and Chukchi. At the beginning of the II millennium AD. the Tunguska area in Siberia was divided by the Turks moving north. In the eastern part of the range, the Evens ethnic group began to form, in the western part - the Evenks.

Material culture and basic economic activities

Koreans in Russia have traditionally been engaged in cereal farming, melon growing, and trade. Already in the second half of the XX century. Koreans had a significant impact on the cuisine of the peoples of Russia (“Korean carrot”, etc.). There are less than 1,000 Japanese in Russia, and few of them live here permanently.

The economic structure of most of the Turks of Russia bore the imprint of a nomadic past for a long time. Pastoral animal husbandry, in particular horse breeding, played an important role. Otherwise, much depended on the historical characteristics of each people, on the territory of residence, climatic conditions, and the influence of neighboring peoples. So the Yakuts had well-developed hunting and fishing, the Volga-Kama Tatars, Bashkirs and Chuvashs in the XVIII-XIX centuries. were predominantly farmers, for the Shors great importance had blacksmithing and iron ore mining, Tuvans until the 20th century. They were mainly engaged in nomadic cattle breeding - they bred horses, cattle, camels, Dolgans, northern Yakuts, Tofalars, Altaians and Tuvans-Todzhans bred deer, the Karakalpaks combined semi-sedentary cattle breeding with irrigation farming, the Karachays are famous for the cultivation of kefir grains.

The predominant type of dwelling also strongly depended on local conditions, but many Turks and Mongols kept yurts for a long time, some even now use them as a temporary summer dwelling. Yurts in different regions and among different peoples are also not the same. In the southern regions, when installing yurts, they were often limited to furnishing the frame rods with wicker shields; in the northern regions, the frame itself was sometimes made of logs, and the wicker walls were covered with clay or manure. Over time, the appearance of the yurt changed. The Khakass, for example, traditionally covered it with birch bark or felt, and from the 19th century. log cabin hexagonal and octagonal yurts became widespread among them. For the Karachais living in the Caucasus, a characteristic dwelling is a log building with a gable earthen roof.

Formed under the influence of the Nenets, Enets and Evenks, the Dolgans lived in tents placed on sled skids, covered with reindeer skins.

The basis of the economic complex of the Mongolian peoples was traditionally cattle breeding: Kalmyks, Khalkha-Mongols and Transbaikal Buryats - nomadic, among the Cis-Baikal Buryats - stall breeding.

The traditional dwelling of the Siberian Tungus-Manchus is a conical (aundau, chum, du, chorama) or gable (kaura) hut, a semi-dugout or a log house on stilts. In economic terms, most of the Tungus ethnic groups are reindeer herders, hunters, and fishermen.

Religion and spiritual culture

Different Turkic peoples adhere to different religions. Tatars, Bashkirs, Karachays, Nogais, Balkars, Kumyks are Muslims. Tuvans are Buddhists. Altaians are partly Orthodox, partly shamanists and Burkhanists. Among the Shors, Yakuts, Chulyms, the majority of believers are Orthodox Christians, but there are also shamanists, and dual faith is also common. Chuvash, Kryashens, Nagaybaks, Gagauz are predominantly Orthodox.

Believing Mongols, Buryats and Kalmyks in the majority profess Buddhism in the form of Lamaism with elements of traditional beliefs. The Tungus-Manchu believers are pagans (shamanists) and Orthodox Christians (often only formally).

Russian Koreans adhere to a complex syncretic system of beliefs, including elements of Confucianism, Orthodoxy, and Buddhism. A similar religious situation exists among the Japanese. Only Shinto is added to their syncretic complex. There are also Catholics, Protestants, followers of new religious movements among the Japanese.

Writing

The ancient Turks used the so-called Orkhon-Yenisei runic script, which probably goes back to the Phoenician or Aramaic(perhaps through Sogdian or karosthi).

With Islamization, most of the Turkic peoples switched to the Arabic script. in the USSR in the late 1920s. Turkic peoples were translated into a single alphabet based on the Latin (Yananiliph), and in the late 1930s. - in Cyrillic.

The language of the old Mongolian script, common to most of the Mongolian tribes, existed from the 13th to the 17th centuries. On the basis of which dialect it was created is not very clear. It is assumed that the basis for the old Mongolian written language was a certain language, even older than the common Mongolian. Possibly a Khitan language. In the XIII century. the stratification of the all-Mongolian began spoken language into the western (Oirat) and central-eastern (Khalkha, Buryats) branches. In the 17th century Enlightener Zaya Pandit created the Todo-Bichig script, adapted to the peculiarities of the Oirat dialects. This led to further separation of the Oirat branch. In the eastern part of the Mongolian area, they continued to use the old Mongolian script and created in late XVII in. soyombo letter. In the Russian Empire, among the Buryats, their own version of the Old Mongolian written language was formed.

Currently, the Kalmyks and Buryats in Russia and the Mongols in Mongolia use alphabets based on the Cyrillic alphabet. Cyrillic writing is also used by the Tungus-Manchurian peoples of Russia: Nanais, Evens, Evenks, Orochs. Moreover, for the latter, writing was created quite recently, in 1994.

I suggest you familiarize yourself with interesting information about the mighty Altai family.

The peoples of the Altai family make up the second largest group of the country's population. All five of its groups are represented in Russia: Turkic, Tungus-Manchu, as well as Mongolian, Korean and Japanese. The most numerous (over 8% of the population) is Turkic, which unites the Chuvash (whose language is allocated as a special subgroup of Turkic languages), Tatars (including Siberian and Astrakhan Tatars, as well as Kryashens, included in the census as part of the Tatars, but identified by many researchers into a separate people), Nagaybaks, Bashkirs, Kazakhs, Nogais, Kumyks, Karachays, Balkars, Crimean Tatars, Krymchaks, Karaims, Azerbaijanis, Turks and Meskhetian Turks, Turkmens, Uzbeks, Kirghiz, Altaians, Telengits, Teleuts, Tubalars, Kumandins, Chelkans, Chulyms, Shors, Khakasses, Tuvans (including Tuvans-Todzhins), Tofalars, Yakuts, Dolgans .

The most numerous Turkic people and the second largest people in the country are the Tatars living in the Volga region (primarily in Tataria), in the Urals, in Western Siberia (Siberian Tatars) and in large cities (Moscow, St. Petersburg). A compact group is formed by the Astrakhan Tatars in the Lower Volga region. The composition of the Tatars previously included the Nagaibaks of the Chelyabinsk region. The Chuvashs, the fourth largest people in Russia, are concentrated mainly in Chuvashia, where they form the majority of the population. The Bashkirs, who occupy the fifth place in terms of numbers, are concentrated mainly in their own republic. Kazakhs are settled in regions of Russia adjacent to Kazakhstan, especially in Astrakhan, Orenburg and Omsk regions.

Nogais (Dagestan, Karachay-Cherkessia and Stavropol Territory), Kumyks (Dagestan) and Karachays (Karachay-Cherkessia) and Balkars (Kabardino-Balkaria) who speak the same Karachay-Balkarian language live in the North Caucasus. The Crimean Tatars, Krymchaks (Crimean Jews) and Karaites, who formerly lived mainly in the Crimea, but now live in many other regions, are close in language to the North Caucasian Turks. Azerbaijanis in Russia form a compact group in the south of Dagestan; in last years Many migrants from Azerbaijan arrived in Moscow and other cities of the Russian Federation, and the number of Azerbaijanis almost doubled. Meskhetian Turks live Ch. arr. in the Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories.

Scattered settlement is typical for Turkmens (in Stavropol Territory there is a compact group of them - Truhmen), Uzbeks, Kirghiz, who do not mind. The Turkic peoples of Altai and adjacent areas - Altaians, Telengits, Teleuts, Tubalars, Kumandins and Chelkans - were united into a single people; Chulyms living in the Tomsk region and the Krasnoyarsk Territory were previously included in the Tatars or Khakass. Other Turkic peoples of Southern Siberia: Shors in the Kemerovo region, Khakasses in Khakassia, Tuvans in Tuva (including the northeastern group of Tuvans-Todzhans), Tofalars in the Irkutsk region, Soyots in Buryatia (who switched to the Buryat language, as a result of which in previous censuses The furthest north of the Turkic peoples live the Yakuts in Yakutia and the Dolgans in the Taimyr (Dalgano-Nenets) Autonomous District.

The peoples of the Mongolian group in Russia include the Kalmyks, who live mainly in Kalmykni, the Buryats in Buryatia, Aginsky-Buryat, Ust-Orda Buryat autonomous regions and the Mongols, the most prominent group of which is in the Irkutsk region.

Even in those parts (in Eastern Siberia, partly on Far East) inhabited by small peoples of the Tungus-Manchurian group: Evenks, Ulchis, Nanais, Orochi, Oroks, Udeges and, conditionally, Tazis. The most widely settled of them are Evenks living in the main. in Yakutia, as well as in the Khabarovsk Territory, Evenk Autonomous Okrug, Buryatia, Amur Region. and etc.

Most Evens live in Yakutia, but they are also found in the Magadan Region, the Khabarovsk Territory, the Chukotka Autonomous Region. Nanais, Negidals, Ulchis, Udeges live in the Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories, the Ulta live in Sakhalin. The Tazy, who live mainly in the village of Mikhailovka in Primorsky Krai and are related by origin to the Nanai Udege, now speak Russian as well as Chinese. Representatives of other groups of the Altai family also live in the Far East: Koreans in Sakhalin, in the Primorsky and Khabarovsk Territories.

Turkic group: Turks, Azeris, Turkmens, Tatars, Bashkirs, Karachays, Balkars, Kumyks, Nogais, Kazakhs, Karakalpaks, Kirghiz, Uzbeks, Uighurs, Altaians, Shors, Khakasses, Tuvans, Yakuts, Chuvashs, Khalkhas (Khalkha-Mongols), Buryats, Oirats , Kalmyks, Mongors, Dongxiang.

Tungus-Manchu group: Evenks, Evens, Nanais, Udeges, Manchus, Koreans, Japanese.

11. URAL-YUKAGIR FAMILY

Ural group:Finno-Ugric subgroup: Finns, Karelians, Estonians, Saami, Mordovians, Mari, Udmurts, Komi, Komi-Permyaks, Khanty, Mansi, Hungarians; Samoyed subgroup: Nenets, Nganasans, Selkups.

Yukagir group: Yukagirs.

12. AUSTRIASIAN FAMILY

Mon-Khmer group: Mon, Khasi, Khmer, Vietnamese, Muong, Senoi, Semang.

Munda group: munda, santals.

13. PARATAI FAMILY

Thai group: Siamese, Lao, Thai, Shan, Zhuang, Bui, Yuan.

Kam-Suu group: dun.

Whether the group: whether.

Gelao group.

14. NILO-SAHARAN FAMILY: Songhai, Tubu, Maba, Fur, Sarah, Bagirmi, Bongo, Moru Mangbetu, Nubian, Luo, Dinka, Masai, Kalenjin, Berta, Kunama.

15. NORTH CAUCASIAN FAMILY

Abkhaz-Adyghe group: Abkhazians, Adyghes, Circassians, Kabardians.

Nakh-Dagestan group: Chechens, Ingush, Avars, Laks, Dargins, Lezgins.

16. Kartvelian Family: Georgians.

17. MYAO-YAO FAMILY: meow, yao.

18. AUSTRALIAN FAMILY: Aboriginal Australians.

19. KOISAN FAMILY: koi-koin (Hottentots), mountain dammara.

20. ESKIMOS-ALEUT FAMILY: Eskimos, Aleuts.

21. CHUKOTSK-KAMCHATKA FAMILY: Chukchi, Koryaks, Alyutors, Itelmens.

22. PAPUAN FAMILY: chimbu, dugum-dani, kapauku, bunak, bongu, ternats.

23. Families of Indian peoples

FAMILY ON-DEN: Athabaskans, Navajos, Apaches, Tlingit, Haida.

NORTH AMERINDIAN FAMILY: Algonquian, Iroquois, Sioux, Maya, Quiche, Kikche.

CENTRAL AMERINDIAN FAMILY: Shoshone, Aztec, Otomi, Mixtec, Zapotec.

CHIBCHA-PAES FAMILY: chibcha, paez, lenca.

ANDean FAMILY: Quechua, Aymara, Araucans.

EQUATORIAL-TUCANOAN FAMILY: Arawaks, Guaranis, Jibaros, Tukanos.

JE-PANO-CARIBBEAN FAMILY: Caribbean, sir.

Peoples speaking isolated languages:

24. ANDAMAN FAMILY: Andamanese.

25. Ainu.

26. KUSUNDA.

27. NIVHI.

28. BASQUES.

29. YENISEI FAMILY: chum salmon.

30. BURISHI.

31. WANT.

Ethnic features of the regions of the world

Europe is a region dominated by peoples Indo-European family, while Germanic peoples live in the center and north, Romanesque peoples live in the south and west, Slavic peoples live in the east and partly south. Romanians and Moldavians live apart from the main Romanesque area. Interspersed with other families on the map of the region are the Hungarians who came here from the Urals, and the Finns - the Finno-Ugric peoples of the Ural-Yukaghir family. The Turkic group of the Altai family is represented in the region - these are Turks concentrated in the European part of Turkey and in some other countries of South-Eastern Europe. In the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula, in Spain, and partly in France, the Basques live, belonging to the oldest population of Europe and speaking an isolated language. A special place in the ethnic composition of the region is occupied by German Jews (see linguistic classification), as well as gypsies, nomadic peoples of the Indo-Aryan group of the Indo-European family. Most of the peoples of Europe were formed as nations by the middle of the nineteenth century. About half of the states are single-ethnic, where about 90% of the total population is the main nationality. France is one of the countries with foreign ethnic groups.

tion, Romania, to multinational states - Belgium, Switzerland, Great Britain, etc.

AT Asia more than a thousand peoples live, speaking languages ​​of different families, at different stages of ethnic development and significantly differing in number. A common feature of most states is multinationality. This region is home to the largest ethnic groups in the world with more than 100 million people. According to the national composition and the nature of ethnic relations, all countries of the region are divided into the following groups: single-national - the main ethnic group makes up more than 95% of the total population (Japan, Korea, Bangladesh, the majority Arab countries); countries where the main ethnic group is 70-95% (Vientam, Cambodia, Turkey, Syria, etc.); countries where the main ethnic group is about 50% (Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Malaysia, Laos); countries inhabited by many large nations, none of which prevails (India, Indonesia, Philippines). Southwest Asia is a rather complex ethnic territory, a kind of bridge between Europe and Africa, Africa and Asia, through which the movement of ethnic groups has gone and is going on. Three historical ethnic layers are observed in this mesoregion: ancient Iranian and Romanesque peoples, ancient Thracian tribes, and Turkic peoples. Palestine forms a separate ethnic territory, on which two peoples - the Jews of Israel and the Arab peoples - have been fighting for many years. Mostly peoples of the Semitic family live here. South Asia is inhabited by the peoples of the Indo-Aryan group of the Indo-European family and the Dravidian family, belonging to the largest ethnic groups in the world (Hindi, Bengalis, Marathas, Tamils, Telugu, etc.). The peoples of East Asia belong to the Sino-Tibetan, Altai family, the Miao-Yao family. Southeast Asia is represented by ethnic groups of the Paratai, Austroasiatic, Austronesian families. In addition, Iranian ethnic groups, Greeks, Armenians, belonging to the Indo-European family, live in Asia.

peoples Africa are still poorly studied, therefore, in the literature one can find various options for their classifications. At the same time, it is customary to identify on ethnic maps about 400 peoples at different stages of ethnic development. In the north of the continent live the peoples of the Semitic and Berber families, in the east - Cushitic, in the central part - south of the Sahara, most of the continent is occupied by the Niger-Congo family. In northern Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon, the peoples of the Chadian family live. In the valley of the middle reaches of the Niger, along the banks of the lake. Chad, in the Upper Nile basin, lake. Victoria and Rudolf live ethnic groups of the Nilo-Saharan family. In the southwestern part of Africa, along with the peoples of the Niger-Congo family, the ethnic groups of the Khoisan family are settled. An insignificant share in Africa is occupied by the peoples of the Indo-European family (Afrikaners, British, French, Spaniards, Italians, Portuguese, etc.), mainly living in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Algeria.

ethnic map America relatively young in age and formed by migration. With the exception of the Indian peoples, which are represented by 7 families, not a single ethnic group in America has a native ethnic (historical) territory of residence. Ethnic composition The region is very mixed, almost all families of the peoples of the world are represented here. That is why most of the countries of America are now multinational, in the population of which the following groups are distinguished: the main ethnic group; surviving very small indigenous peoples (Indians, Eskimos, etc.); transitional peoples (immigrants or their descendants who have not completely assimilated, but have already lost ties with the exit territory; national minorities. Two ethnic groups with a population of more than 100 million people live in the region (US Americans, Brazilians). In the very near future, this threshold Mexicans will step over, the number of which is 91.05 million people.

Population Australia and Ocean AI is represented by two main groups: natives, who make up less than 15% of the total population, and people from other regions of the world (primarily from Europe). Ethnically, the peoples of the Austronesian and Indo-European families live here.

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Settled on a vast territory of our planet, ranging from the cold Kolyma basin to the southwestern coast mediterranean sea. The Turks do not belong to any particular racial type, even among the same people there are both Caucasoids and Mongoloids. They are mostly Muslims, but there are peoples who profess Christianity, traditional beliefs, and shamanism. The only thing that connects almost 170 million people is common origin groups of languages ​​currently spoken by the Turks. Yakut and Turk - they all speak related dialects.

Strong branch of the Altai tree

Among some scientists, disputes still do not subside over what language family belongs to the Turkic language group. Some linguists singled it out as a separate large group. However, the most generally accepted hypothesis today is the version about the entry of these related languages ​​into the large Altaic family.

A great contribution to these studies was made by the development of genetics, thanks to which it became possible to trace the history of entire peoples in the wake of individual fragments of the human genome.

Once a group of tribes in Central Asia spoke the same language - the ancestor of modern Turkic dialects, but in the 3rd century. BC e. a separate Bulgar branch separated from the large trunk. The only people who speak the languages ​​of the Bulgar group today are the Chuvash. Their dialect is noticeably different from other related ones and stands out as a special subgroup.

Some researchers even propose to place the Chuvash language in a separate genus of the large Altai macrofamily.

Southeast direction classification

Other representatives of the Turkic group of languages ​​are usually divided into 4 large subgroups. There are disagreements in the details, but for simplicity, we can take the most common way.

Oguz, or southwestern, languages, which include Azerbaijani, Turkish, Turkmen, Crimean Tatar, Gagauz. Representatives of these peoples speak very similarly and can easily understand each other without an interpreter. Hence the huge influence of strong Turkey in Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, whose inhabitants perceive Turkish as their native language.

The Turkic group of the Altai family of languages ​​also includes the Kypchak, or northwestern, languages, which are spoken mainly on the territory of the Russian Federation, as well as representatives of the peoples of Central Asia who have nomadic ancestors. Tatars, Bashkirs, Karachays, Balkars, such peoples of Dagestan as Nogais and Kumyks, as well as Kazakhs and Kirghiz - they all speak related dialects of the Kypchak subgroup.

The southeastern, or Karluk, languages ​​are solidly represented by the languages ​​of two large peoples - the Uzbeks and the Uighurs. However, for almost a thousand years they developed separately from each other. If the Uzbek language has experienced a colossal influence of Farsi, Arabic, then the Uyghurs, the inhabitants of East Turkestan, brought over the years a huge amount of Chinese borrowings into their dialect.

Northern Turkic languages

The geography of the Turkic group of languages ​​is wide and varied. Yakuts, Altaians, in general, some indigenous peoples of northeastern Eurasia, are also combined into a separate branch of a large Turkic tree. Northeastern languages ​​are quite heterogeneous and are subdivided into several separate genera.

The Yakut and Dolgan languages ​​separated from the single Turkic dialect, and this happened in the 3rd century BC. n. e.

Tuvan and Tofalar languages ​​belong to the Sayan group of languages ​​of the Turkic family. Khakasses and residents of Gornaya Shoria speak the languages ​​of the Khakass group.

Altai is the cradle of the Turkic civilization, so far the indigenous inhabitants of these places speak the Oirot, Teleut, Lebedin, Kumandin languages ​​of the Altai subgroup.

Incidents in a slender classification

However, not everything is so simple in this conditional division. The process of national-territorial delimitation, which took place on the territory of the Central Asian republics of the USSR in the twenties of the last century, also affected such subtle matter as language.

All residents of the Uzbek SSR were called Uzbeks, a single version of the literary Uzbek language was adopted, based on the dialects of the Kokand Khanate. However, even today the Uzbek language is characterized by pronounced dialectism. Some dialects of Khorezm, the westernmost part of Uzbekistan, are closer to the languages ​​of the Oguz group and closer to Turkmen than to literary Uzbek.

Some regions speak dialects that belong to the Nogai subgroup of the Kipchak languages, hence the situations when a Fergana has difficulty understanding a native of Kashkadarya, who, in his opinion, shamelessly distorts his native language.

The situation is approximately the same with other representatives of the peoples of the Turkic group of languages ​​- the Crimean Tatars. The language of the inhabitants of the coastal strip is almost identical to Turkish, but the natural steppe people speak an dialect closer to the Kypchak ones.

Ancient history

For the first time, the Turks entered the world historical arena in the era of the Great Migration of Nations. In the genetic memory of Europeans, there is still a shudder before the invasion of Attila's Huns in the 4th century. n. e. The steppe empire was a motley formation of numerous tribes and peoples, however, the Turkic element was still predominant.

There are many versions of the origin of these peoples, but most researchers place the ancestral home of today's Uzbeks and Turks in the northwestern part of the Central Asian plateau, in the area between Altai and the Khingar Range. This version is also followed by the Kyrgyz, who consider themselves the direct heirs of great empire and still nostalgic about it.

The neighbors of the Turks were the Mongols, the ancestors of today's Indo-European peoples, the Ural and Yenisei tribes, the Manchus. The Turkic group of the Altaic family of languages ​​began to take shape in close cooperation with close peoples.

Confusion with Tatars and Bulgarians

In the first century A.D. e. individual tribes begin to migrate towards southern Kazakhstan. In the 4th century, the famous Hun invasion of Europe took place. It was then that the Bulgar branch separated from the Turkic tree and an extensive confederation was formed, which was divided into the Danubian and Volga. Today's Bulgarians in the Balkans now speak Slavic and have lost their Turkic roots.

The reverse situation occurred with the Volga Bulgars. They still speak Turkic languages, but after the invasion of the Mongols they call themselves Tatars. The conquered Turkic tribes living in the steppes of the Volga took the name of the Tatars - a legendary tribe that had long disappeared in the wars, with whom Genghis Khan began his campaigns. They also called their language Tatar, which they used to call Bulgar.

Chuvash is considered the only living dialect of the Bulgar branch of the Turkic group of languages. The Tatars, another descendant of the Bulgars, actually speak a variant of the later Kipchak dialects.

From Kolyma to the Mediterranean

The peoples of the Turkic language group include the inhabitants of the harsh regions of the basin of the famous Kolyma, the resort beaches of the Mediterranean, the Altai mountains and the steppes of Kazakhstan, which are flat as a table. The ancestors of today's Turks were nomads, along and across the Eurasian continent. For two thousand years they interacted with their neighbors, who were Iranians, Arabs, Russians, Chinese. During this time, an unimaginable mixture of cultures and bloodlines occurred.

Today it is even impossible to determine the race to which the Turks belong. Residents of Turkey, Azerbaijanis, Gagauz belong to the Mediterranean group of the Caucasian race, there are practically no guys with slanted eyes and yellowish skin. However, the Yakuts, Altaians, Kazakhs, Kirghiz - they all carry a pronounced Mongoloid element in their appearance.

Racial diversity is observed even among peoples who speak the same language. Among the Tatars of Kazan you can meet blue-eyed blonds and black-haired people with slanted eyes. The same is observed in Uzbekistan, where it is impossible to deduce the appearance of a typical Uzbek.

Faith

The majority of Turks are Muslims who practice the Sunni branch of this religion. Only in Azerbaijan adhere to Shiism. However, individual peoples either retained ancient beliefs or became adherents of other major religions. Most of the Chuvash and Gagauz profess Christianity in its Orthodox form.

In the northeast of Eurasia, individual peoples continue to adhere to the faith of their ancestors; among the Yakuts, Altaians, Tuvans, traditional beliefs and shamanism continue to be popular.

During the time of the Khazar Khaganate, the inhabitants of this empire professed Judaism, which continues to be perceived as the only true religion by today's Karaites, fragments of that mighty Turkic state.

Vocabulary

Along with world civilization, the Turkic languages, absorbing the vocabulary of neighboring peoples and generously endowing them with their own words. It is difficult to count the number of borrowed Turkic words in East Slavic languages. It all started with the Bulgars, from whom the words “kap” were borrowed, from which arose “temple”, “suvart”, transformed into “serum”. Later, instead of "serum" they began to use the common Turkic "yogurt".

The exchange of vocabulary became especially lively during the time of the Golden Horde and late Middle Ages, during active trade with the Turkic countries. A huge number of new words came into use: donkey, cap, sash, raisins, shoe, chest and others. Later, only the names of specific terms began to be borrowed, for example, snow leopard, elm, dung, kishlak.