part_of oghur languages
In ___MASK71___ , mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort . It is generally used as the most important criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects , although sociolinguistic factors are often also used . ___MASK2___ , officially the People ' s Republic of ___MASK2___ ( PRC ), is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia . With a population of over 1 . 381 billion , it is the world ' s most populous country . The state is governed by the Communist Party of ___MASK2___ , and its capital is Beijing . It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces , five autonomous regions , four direct - controlled municipalities ( Beijing , Tianjin , Shanghai , and Chongqing ), and two mostly self - governing special administrative regions ( Hong Kong and Macau ), and claims sovereignty over Taiwan . The country ' s major urban areas include Shanghai , Guangzhou , Beijing , Chongqing , Shenzhen , Tianjin and Hong Kong . ___MASK2___ is a great power and a major regional power within Asia , and has been characterized as a potential superpower . The Caucasus or Caucasia is a region at the border of ___MASK93___ and ___MASK94___ , situated between the Black and the Caspian seas . A ___MASK7___ is any kind of political entity . It is a group of people who are collectively united by a self - reflected cohesive force such as identity , who have a capacity to mobilise resources , and are organised by some form of institutionalised hierarchy . Bulgar ( also spelled " Bolar ", " Bulghar ") is an extinct ___MASK59___ which was spoken by the Bulgars . The ___MASK72___ are a language family of at least thirty - five languages , spoken by Turkic peoples from Southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China . The ___MASK72___ originated in a region spanning Western China to Mongolia from where it expanded to Central Asia and farther west . The Onours or Ours (  ,  ; Onurs , urs ; " ten tribes ", " tribes "), were Turkic nomadic equestrians who flourished in the Pontic - Caspian steppe and the ___MASK95___ region between 5th and 7th century , and spoke Ohuric language . Bolghar was intermittently capital of ___MASK95___ Bulgaria from the 8th to the 15th centuries , along with Bilyar and Nur - Suvar . It was situated on the bank of the ___MASK95___ River , about 30 km downstream from its confluence with the Kama River and some 130 km from modern Kazan in what is now Spassky District . West of it lies a small modern town , since 1991 known as Bolgar . The UNESCO World Heritage Committee declared ancient Bolghar hill fort as a ___MASK26___ in 2014 . The Eurasian Steppe , also called the Great Steppe or the steppes , is the vast steppe ecoregion of ___MASK88___ in the temperate grasslands , savannas , and shrublands biome . It stretches from Romania , Moldova through Ukraine , Russia , Kazakhstan , Xinjiang and Mongolia to Manchuria , with one major exclave located mostly in Hungary , the Puszta . The Oghur or Ouric languages ( also known as Bulgar , Pre - Proto Bulgaric , Hunno - Bulgarian , Hunno - Turkic , or Lir - Turkic and r - Turkic ) are a branch of the Turkic ___MASK59___ ___MASK87___ . The only extant member of the group is the Chuvash ___MASK59___ . Languages from this ___MASK87___ were spoken in some nomadic tribal confederations , such as those of the Onogurs , Bulgars , and Khazars . Some scholars consider Hunnic a similar ___MASK59___ . ___MASK95___ Region ( Povolzhye , literally : " along the ___MASK95___ ") is a historical region in Russia that encompasses territories adjacent to the flow of the ___MASK95___ River . It is usually classified into : The ___MASK20___ is a transcontinental region centered on Western ___MASK94___ and Egypt . The corresponding adjective is " Middle - Eastern " and the derived noun is " Middle - Easterner ". The term has come into wider usage as a replacement of the term Near East ( as opposed to Far East ) beginning in the early 20th century . Kievan ___MASK81___ (, ) was a loose federation of East Slavic tribes in Europe from the late 9th to the mid - 13th century , under the reign of the Rurik dynasty . The modern peoples of Belarus , Ukraine , and Russia all claim Kievan ___MASK81___ as their cultural ancestors . The Khazars (, , (" Kuzarim "), ( khazar ), , , , ) were a semi - nomadic Turkic people , who created what for its duration was the most powerful ___MASK7___ to emerge from the breakup of the Western Turkic Kaganate . Astride a major artery of commerce between northern Europe and southwestern Asia , Khazaria became one of the foremost trading emporia of the medieval world , commanding the western marches of the Silk Road and playing a key commercial role as a crossroad between ___MASK2___ , the Middle East and Kievan Rus '. For some three centuries ( c . 650  965 ) the Khazars dominated the vast area extending from the Volga - Don steppes to the eastern Crimea and the northern Caucasus . The Silk ___MASK15___ or Silk Route was an ancient network of trade routes that were for centuries central to cultural interaction through regions of the Asian continent connecting the East and West from ___MASK2___ to the Mediterranean Sea . The Crimean Peninsula (" Krymskiy poluostrov ;" , " Kryms ' ky pivostriv "), also known simply as Crimea ( " Krym " " Krym "), is a major land ___MASK36___ on the northern coast of the Black ___MASK99___ that is almost completely surrounded by both the Black ___MASK99___ and the smaller ___MASK99___ of Azov to the northeast . The peninsula is located south of the Ukrainian region of Kherson and west of the ___MASK68___ region of Kuban . It is connected to Kherson Oblast by the Isthmus of Perekop and is separated from Kuban by the Strait of Kerch . The Arabat Spit is located to the northeast , a narrow strip of land that separates a system of lagoons named Sivash from the ___MASK99___ of Azov . Northern ___MASK93___ is the northern ___MASK69___ or region of ___MASK93___ . Although no definitive borders or definition exists for the term , geographically , Northern ___MASK93___ ___MASK48___ be considered to consist approximately of all of ___MASK93___ above the 52nd parallel north ; which includes ( from west to east ) most or all of : Iceland , the Republic of Ireland , the Isle of Man , the United Kingdom , the Faroe Islands , the Netherlands , northern Germany , Denmark , Norway , Sweden , northern Poland , Finland , Estonia , Latvia , Lithuania and northwest Russia . However , narrower definitions ___MASK48___ also be used based on other geographical factors , such as climate and ecology . Greenland , geographically a ___MASK69___ of North America , is politically a ___MASK69___ of the Kingdom of Denmark , and ___MASK48___ be included depending on the definition . Chuvash is a Turkic ___MASK59___ spoken in central Russia , primarily in the Chuvash Republic and adjacent areas . It is the only surviving member of the Oghur branch of ___MASK72___ , and thus makes up one full half of the Turkic ___MASK59___ family . Because of this , Chuvash has diverged considerably from the other ___MASK72___ , which typically demonstrate mutual intelligibility among one another to varying degrees . Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and largest ___MASK49___ of Ukraine , located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River . The population in July 2015 was ( though higher estimated numbers have been cited in the press ), making Kiev the 7th most populous ___MASK49___ in Europe . Russia ( from the  Rus '), also officially known as the ___MASK68___ Federation , is a country in Eurasia . At , Russia is the largest country in the world by surface area , covering more than one - eighth of the Earth ' s inhabited land area , and the ninth most populous , with over 140 million people at the end of March 2016 . The European western part of the country is much more populated and urbanised than the eastern , about 77 % of the population live in ___MASK50___ . Russia ' s capital Moscow is one of the largest cities in the world , other major urban centers include Saint Petersburg , Novosibirsk , Yekaterinburg , Nizhny Novgorod and Samara . The Kuzari , full title The ___MASK28___ of Refutation and Proof in Support of the Abased Religion , also known as the ___MASK28___ of the Kuzari , is one of the most famous works of the medieval Spanish Jewish philosopher and poet Judah Halevi , completed around 1140 . It is regarded as one the most important apologetic works of Jewish ___MASK78___ . The Bulgars ( also Bulghars , Bulgari , Bolgars , Bolghars , Bolgari ; Proto - Bulgarians ) were semi - nomadic warrior Turkic tribes who flourished in the Pontic - Caspian steppe and the ___MASK95___ region during the 7th century . Emerging as nomadic equestrians in the ___MASK95___ - Ural region , according to some researchers their roots can be traced to Central ___MASK94___ . During their westward migration across the Eurasian steppe the Bulgars absorbed other ethnic groups and cultural influences , including Hunnic , Iranian and Indo - European people . Modern genetic research on Central Asian Turkic people and ethnic groups related to the Bulgars points to an affiliation with western Eurasian and European populations . The Bulgars spoke a Turkic language , i . e . Bulgar language of Oghuric branch . They preserved military titles , organization and customs of Eurasian steppes , as well as pagan shamanism and belief in the sky deity Tangra . Central ___MASK94___ or Middle ___MASK94___ is the core region of the Asian continent and stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to ___MASK2___ in the east and from Afghanistan in the south to Russia in the north . It is also colloquially referred to as " the ' stans " ( as the six countries generally considered to be within the region all have names ending with the Persian suffix "- stan ", meaning " land of ") and is within the scope of the wider Eurasian continent . Shamanism ( or ) is a practice that involves a practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in ___MASK83___ to perceive and interact with a spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into this world . A nomad (" nomas ", plural  , " nomades "; meaning one roaming about for pasture , pastoral tribe ) is a member of a ___MASK10___ of people who live in different locations , moving from one place to another . Among the various ways nomads relate to their environment , one can distinguish the hunter - gatherer , the pastoral nomad owning livestock , or the " modern " peripatetic nomad . As of 1995 , there were an estimated 30  40 million nomads in the world .