The Karachays or Karachais are a North Caucasian-Turkic ethnic group primarily located in their ancestral lands in Karachay–Cherkess Republic, a republic of Russia in the North Caucasus. They and the

Karachay–Balkar, often referred to as the "mountaineer language" by its speakers, is a Turkic language spoken by the Karachays and Balkars in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, European Russi