Orstkhoy
The Orstkhoy, historically commonly known under their exonyms: Karabulaks, Balsu, Baloy, are a historical ethnoterritorial society among the Chechen and Ingush peoples. Their homeland is in the upper reaches of the Assa and Fortanga rivers in the historical region of Orstkhoy-Mokhk (the Sernovodsky District and the border part of the Achkhoy-Martanovsky District of the Chechen Republic, Russia, as well as most of the Sunzhensky District of Ingushetia). In the tradition of the Chechen ethno-hierarchy, it is considered one of the nine historical Chechen tukkhums, in the Ingush tradition as one of the seven historical Ingush shahars. The name Orstkhoy in their native language (Chechen or Ingush) is "Орстхой", written as "Orstxoj" in the old Latin writing system. Different theories exist around the origin of the word:
- The theory of it coming from the word "Are" (Аре), which means plains or steppes, and respectively translating the word as the "inhabitants of the plains".
- The theory of it coming from the river Arshtynka, proposed by Ya. Z. Ahmadov. According to this theory, the etymology of the river Arshtynka itself goes back to the Proto-Iranian word arashan, which according to Ya. Z. Akhmadov translates as "tasty/clean water".
- The theory of the word Ershtkhoy coming from the three components – härashachu, khithepa and khoi. This theory proposed by A. S. Suleymanov, is explained by him as translating as "Black (from) the river of patrol (guard)". According to the researcher, the evolution of the change in this ethnonym could proceed approximately in the following way: Härzhachu khi thera khoi → Härsh hithera khoi → Harshtkhoy → Ershtkhoy.
- The theory of it coming from the word ors (орс; other variants: арс, урс, ерс), whose root means "wooded mountain", less commonly "forest". This theory proposed by Ya. S. Vagapov, was almost in the same way explained by another Chechen scientist A. D. Vagapov, however, the morpheme was in the form of arts (Chechen), oarts (Ingush) and ars (dialect). A. D.
