Countries of the Caucasus

More than 50 ethnic groups live in this sub-region. Its connections between Eastern Europe and Western Asia and its rugged terrain (see Figure 7.15) have contributed to its extraordinarily diverse ethnolinguistic landscape. Figure 7.16 illustrates some of this diversity. Indo-European and Turkic languages are spoken in addition to the three language families unique to the Caucasus. The mountainous topography of this sub-region has helped these separate ethnolinguistic groups to develop.