 Family Tree DNA: Genetic Testing Service Genetic testing will reveal your relationships to other families, other tribes from the Caucasus, and ethnic groups outside of Russia. |
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Family Tree DNA: Genetic Testing Service Genetic testing will reveal your relationships to other families, other tribes from the Caucasus, and ethnic groups outside of Russia. |
The Balkarian people of the north Caucasus currently form part of the Russian Federation. Most of them live in Kabardino-Balkaria. Balkars may very well descend from the medieval Bulgars, as we see a similarity between their tribal names. In the seventh century, the Bulgars were scattered in several directions by the Khazars and that's why they've interested me for a while. The Bulgars also spoke a Turkic language (but apparently of a different variety), and some of them did settle in the Caucasus region. But it might be simplistic to view the Balkars as merely modern Bulgars as they may also have ancestry from Alans (an Iranian-speaking group of the Caucasus) and other Turkic tribes like Kipchaks and/or Khazars. Other theories suggest that Balkars may descend from Huns, Zikhs, Brukhs, Vengrians, Chekhs, Mongol Tatars, Crimean Tatars, or others. In any case, genetics proves that the Balkar people are an amalgam of several ancestries, just as is the case with other populations of the Caucasus.
The Karachay-Balkar language is part of the Northwestern (Kipchak) subdivision of the Turkic linguistic family. It's currently written with a Cyrillic alphabet, but in the past was written with the Arabic script.
In terms of Y-DNA (paternal DNA), haplogroup J2 (in several subhaplogroups) is found among about 23.7% of Balkar men, making it one of the most frequent haplogroups they have. Most other Balkars fall within G and R subhaplogroups.
Vincenza Battaglia, Simona Fornarino, Nadia Al-Zahery, Anna Olivieri,
Maria Pala, Natalie M. Myres, Roy J. King, Siiri Rootsi, Damir
Marjanovic, Dragan Primorac, Rifat Hadziselimovic, Stojko Vidovic, Katia
Drobnic, Naser Durmishi, Antonio Torroni, Augusta Silvana
Santachiara-Benerecetti, Peter A. Underhill, and Ornella Semino. "Y-chromosomal
evidence of the cultural diffusion of agriculture in southeast
Europe." European Journal of Human Genetics 17 (2009): pages
820-830. First published online on December 24, 2008. (mirror)
Y-DNA was collected and studied from 1206 males representing 17
populations, mostly from southeastern Europe.
38 "Balkarians" from previous research were included. The Balkarians'
Y-DNA haplogroups and their frequencies were:
E1b1b1a1 among 2.6%
G2a* among 26.3% - their most prevalent haplogroup
G2a3c among 2.6%
H1a among 2.6%
I2* among 2.6%
J2a* among 15.8
J2a1b* among 5.3%
J2b* among 2.6%
L2 among 5.3%
R1a1* among 13.2%
R1b1* among 5.3%
R1b1b2 among 7.9%
R2 among 7.9%
Ornella Semino, Chiara Magri, Giorgia Benuzzi, Alice A. Lin, Nadia Al-Zahery, Vincenza Battaglia, Liliana Maccioni, Costas Triantaphyllidis, Peidong Shen, Peter J. Oefner, Lev A. Zhivotovsky, Roy King, Antonio Torroni, Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Peter A. Underhill, and Augusta Silvana Santachiara-Benerecetti. "Origin, Diffusion, and Differentiation of Y-Chromosome Haplogroups E and J: Inferences on the Neolithization of Europe and Later Migratory Events in the Mediterranean Area." American Journal of Human Genetics 74 (2004): pages 1023-1034. Some "Balkarian" males have their genetic data reported here. Table 1 says one (1) of the Balkarians carried Y-DNA haplogroup E, specifically E subhaplogroup 78, and he was 2.6% of the Balkarians tested. Table 2 says four (4) Balkarians belonged to Y-DNA haplogroup J, and that was 25% of all Balkarians tested; this 25% broke down into the following subhaplogroups of J M172: 12.5% in 172*, 6.3% in 102*, and 6.3% in 67*.
Ivan Nasidze, E. Y. S. Ling, D. Quinque, I. Dupanloup, R. Cordaux, S. Rychkov, O. Naumova, O. Zhukova, N. Sarraf-Zadegan, G. A. Naderi, S. Asgary, S. Sardas, D. D. Farhud, T. Sarkisian, C. Asadov, A. Kerimov, and Mark Stoneking. "Mitochondrial DNA and Y-Chromosome Variation in the Caucasus." Annals of Human Genetics 68 (2004): pages 205-221. This is a comprehensive collection of data on the peoples of the Caucasus Mountains region. Table 1 indicates that they tested the mtDNA of 16 "Balkarians", and Table 2 says those Balkarians had 13 different mtDNA haplotypes resulting in a nucleotide diversity of 0.018 and haplotype diversity of 0.975. However, Balkarian Y-DNA isn't studied here; the text notes how "The number of Avarian, Balkarian and Karachaian male samples was insufficient for Y chromosome analyses."
Other peoples of the Caucasus: