KALMYKIA
4
Caspian
Black
Sea
CRIMEA
A Fortress of Languages
ORT
E
o
A refuge siruze the last period Of Eurasian glaciation. the Caucasus has
been a gateway for travel, trade. and conquest Yet even as regional and imperial
powers fm• centuries contested rur influence, the has remained a
redoubt ot peoples whose identities are tied to the 50•some languages thcy
ggpak, as grouped In maim families The persistence 01 the enduring
tities of ethnic groups has been aided tho njggetl terrain hy
whose Iojaltics are to clan and family as much as to nation or region. Past
attempts, especially by the former Soviet Union, to assimilate or dominate the
Caucasians hawe been largely futile.
ALTAIC
2 guar
5 Nogay
6 Turkmen
NORTHWEST
CAUCASIAN
NORTHEAST
CAUCASIAN
Dagestani
10 ngul
liccoy
12
IS Archi
15
17
lg :.1.CCC4
20 '282.0%',
21 Ginukh
22 God±eri
23
24
2S *tuidaa
26 Rninalugu,cw
27
29
30 Lau
31 Leigi
32 Rutul
a5 rgakhur
37
Nakh, vayn8kh
38 Tu-sm
40 Ingu
sour" CAUCASIAN
Harry" Ian
41
42 Mingrelian'L_az
43
INDO-EUROPEAN
44
4 S Greek
47
48
49
Slavic
so
51
*BILISI
•AZER u
ARMENIA
YEREVAN'
Turkey
TURKOMAN
DNAGORNO-
kARABAKH
NA*CIVAÅ
AZERgi