Tsez people

Tsez people

The Tsez are an indigenous people of the North Caucasus, also known as the Dido or the Didoi. Their unwritten language, also called Tsez or Dido, belongs to the Northeast Caucasian group with some 15,354 speakers.[1] For demographic purposes, today they are classified with the Avars with whom the Tsez share a religion, Sunni Islam, and some cultural traits. They are centered at the Tsunta district of the Republic of Dagestan, Russia. The term “Dido” is sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to the Tsez as well as the Bezhtas, Hinukhs, Khwarshis and Hunzibs, which are also categorized as Avar subgroups.[1] According to the 2002 Russian census, there were 15256 self-identified Tsez in Russia (15176 in their homeland), notated as an "Avar subgroup", though the real number is probably slightly greater.

References

  1. ^ a b Olson, James Stuart; Pappas, Lee Brigance & Pappas, Nicholas Charles (1994), An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires, p. 199. Greenwood Publishing Group, ISBN 0-313-27497-5.

External links

  • Vahtre, Lauri & Viikberg, Jüri (2003), “The Didos”, in: The Red Book of the Peoples of the Russian Empire. Retrieved on 2006-06-27.