Russia is |
Peoples of Russia
Nogai
The main area of settlement of the Nogai is the territory of the Nogai steppe, which includes a part of Dagestan, Chechnya, and the Stavropol territory. The majority call themselves Nogai.
Language
The Nogai language belongs to the Kypchak subgroup of the Turkic group of the Altai language family. There are two dialects, Karanogai and Kuban, and a Nogai subdialect. The Nogai are fluent in Russian.
Dwellings
The Nogai yurt is a typical temporary dwelling of a nomad. The “big” yurt (terme) was usually assembled on a frame made from walnut gratings with an opening for a folding door and a hemispheric top with a funnel window. The “small” yurt (otav) is lighter and can be transported like a covered wagon. From the second half of the 19th century, otav is only used as a wedding yurt for the newlywed.
Food
The Nogai diet traditionally includes such dishes as besbarmak (meat with noodles), kuvyrdak (fried meat with onions), kazy and toltyrma (sausages), shashlyk, kazan borek (dumplings), inkal (a kind of dumplings), balyk sorpa (fish soup), gruels, various types of cheeses, pies, fried eggs, drinks: nogai shay (Nogai tea), kumis, ayran, buza, serbet suv and many others.
Occupations
The traditional occupation was nomadic and half-nomadic cattle breeding; the Kuban Nogai practiced distant-pasture cattle breeding. They raised sheep, horses, cattle, camels, goats and poultry. The Nogai hunted wolves, hares, foxes and saigas. They also fished for salmon, barbel, sturgeon and catfish. Agriculture was developed. They sowed millet, wheat, barley, in the end of the 19th century also linen, hemp, tobacco, rice. They also grew melons, practiced gardening, some of them kept bees. In mid-16 century, the horses of Nogai breed were sold in Moscow every year, with some of them supplementing the tsar’s cavalry. Out of the crafts the most developed ones were fulling, leatherwork, sheepskin processing and woodwork, as well as production of felt from which burka cloaks, boots, headwear and arbabashi carpets were made. In the 20th century, in the territories densely populated with the Nogai the oil and gas industry was developing actively.
