ABSTRACT
Ingush is the native language of the great majority of the approximately 300,000 Ingush people, most of whom live in or near the Republic of Ingushetia on the north slope of the Great Caucasus mountain range in the south of Russia. Their land extends from the Assa River basin to the right Terek basin and vertically from highlands to plains including three major altitudinal environments: alpine highlands, the level high piedmont in the vicinity of Vladikavkaz, and the plains at the transition from lower slopes to steppe in the vicinity of Nazran. Their neighbors are the Georgians to the south, the Ossetians to the west, Russians to the north, and the Chechens to the east. Other neighbors in recent centuries have been Kabardians to the northwest and, to the north, Turkic-speaking peoples of the steppe.
