Editing Bats language (section)

==History==
{{Unreferenced section|date=October 2023}}
Tusheti, the northeastern mountainous region of Georgia, is home to four tribes that consider themselves [[Tushetians]]: the Batsbi (also known as Tsovatush), the Gometsari, the Piriqiti, and the Chagma-Tush. Tsovatush people make up 50% of Tushetians. Only several hundred Tsovatush people speak Bats, whereas the other tribes (Gometsari, Piriqiti and Chagma-Tush) have lost the language. Evidence from [[toponymics]] indicates that the other three Tushetian tribes formerly spoke Bats, suggesting that all Tushetians once did and over time the Georgian language replaced Bats.

The mountainous terrain preserved the culture and traditions of Tushetians, but the history of isolation makes it more difficult to document them as only a few records exist.

The first grammar of Bats, {{Lang|de|Über die Thusch-Sprache}}, was compiled by the [[Germany|German]] [[oriental studies|orientalist]] [[Anton Schiefner]] (1817–1879), making it into the first grammar of an indigenous Caucasian language based on sound scientific principles.<ref>[[Kevin Tuite]] (2007). [http://www.mapageweb.umontreal.ca/tuitekj/caucasus/IberoCaucasian.pdf The rise and fall and revival of the Ibero-Caucasian hypothesis], pp. 7-8. ''Historiographia Linguistica'', 35 #1.</ref>