Russia is |
Peoples of Russia
Karachays
Their self-designation is Karachayly. They are the population of the Karachay-Circassian Republic. They also live in the Central Asia, Turkey, Syria, in the USA.
Language
The Karachays speak the Karachay-Balkar language of the Northwestern (Kypchak) group of the Turkic branch of the Altai language family.
The Karachay-Balkar language is divided into two dialects – the Karachay-Baksan-Chegem one (ch-dialect) and the Upper Balkar one (ts-dialect). The standard language has developed on the basis of the Karachay-Baksan-Chegem dialect. The writing system appeared in the early 1920s on the basis of the Arabic script, since 1924, on the basis of the Latin alphabet and since 1936 on the basis of the Cyrillic one.
Society
The kinship community (yuyur) and the village community that consisted of the kinship ones (eljamagat) had disintegrated back in the 19th century. Currently in practice the nuclear monogamous family prevails. However, the links inside the kinship clan (tukuma) are still sufficiently strong, for example, marriages with members of your own kinship group are not encouraged.
Dwellings
The traditional dwelling of the Karachays is the log izba with a gabled dirt roof. Stone tower houses also exist. The house, the kosh (the facilities for the sheep), the barns and other buildings were located so as to form a courtyard (arbaz). The courtyard was also covered. The dwellings of relatives usually stood close together, forming kinship neighborhoods.
Food
The main food of the Karachays is the mutton. They also eat goat meat, beef and poultry. Meat is eaten roasted and cooked. An honored guest is treated to the cooked upper half of a mutton head (bash djarty). Dishes made out of meat with dough are popular: pasties (et berek, et khychyn), manti dumplings (suu et khatlama), pelmeni dumplings (suu et berekle). Dairy products (aq ash – “white food”) are widespread: ayran, kefir (gypy), cheese, tuzluk (Karachays use this word to name a pungent salty milk sauce), milk soups (zynthy shorpa – an oatmeal soup, pirinch shorpa – a rice soup). The salted sour milk (tuzlu ayran) is used to salt meat. They also eat plant products; corn is especially popular in the form of cooked kernels (zhyrna), roasted milky corncobs (quuurulgan nartyukh). The favorite drinks are semi-dark beer (syra), kumis, boza as well as hot infusions (teas) of redberry, mint, buckthorn, licorice or rhododendron leaves.
Occupations
The economic complex of the Karachays is based on distant-pasture cattle breeding and terrace farming. They bred sheep (fine-fleece merinos), goats, horses, cows. In summer, they turned the cattle to open meadows, in winter to ravines closed from wind. They grew grain crops, potatoes, since the 20th century, rape, sunflowers, sugar beet.
