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Wikipedia

Chechen language

April 30, 2023

Chechen (UK: /ˈtʃɛtʃɛn/,[3] US: /tʃəˈtʃɛn/[4]) (Нохчийн мотт, Noxçiyn mott,[5] [ˈnɔxt͡ʃĩː muɔt]) is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by approximately 1.7 million people, mostly in the Chechen Republic and by members of the Chechen diaspora throughout Russia and the rest of Europe, Jordan, Austria, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Central Asia (mainly Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) and Georgia.

Chechen
Нохчийн мотт
Noxçiyn mott
Pronunciation[ˈnɔxt͡ʃĩː muɔt]
Native toNorth Caucasus
RegionChechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan
EthnicityChechens
Native speakers
1.7 million (2020)[1]
Cyrillic script (present, official)
Latin script (present, not official)
Arabic script (historically)
Official status
Official language in
 Russia
Language codes
ISO 639-1ce
ISO 639-2che
ISO 639-3che
Glottologchec1245
GlottopediaTschetschenisch[2]
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Classification

Chechen is a Northeast Caucasian language. Together with the closely related Ingush, with which there exists a large degree of mutual intelligibility and shared vocabulary, it forms the Vainakh branch.

Dialects

There are a number of Chechen dialects: Ehki, Chantish, Chebarloish, Malkhish, Nokhchmakhkakhoish, Orstkhoish, Sharoish, Shuotoish, Terloish, Itum-Qalish and Himoish. The Kisti dialect of Georgia is not easily understood by northern Chechens without a few days' practice. One difference in pronunciation is that Kisti aspirated consonants remain aspirated when they are doubled (fortis) or after /s/, but they then lose their aspiration in other dialects.

Dialects of Chechen can be classified by their geographic position within the Chechen Republic. The dialects of the northern lowlands are often referred to as "Oharoy muott" (literally "lowlander's language") and the dialect of the southern mountain tribes is known as "Laamaroy muott" (lit. "mountainer's language"). Oharoy muott forms the basis for much of the standard and literary Chechen language, which can largely be traced to the regional dialects of Urus-Martan and contemporary Grozny. Laamaroy dialects include Chebarloish, Sharoish, Itum-Qalish, Kisti, and Himoish. Until recently, however, Himoy was undocumented and was considered a branch of Sharoish, as many dialects are also used as the basis of intertribal (teip) communication within a larger Chechen "tukkhum". Laamaroy dialects such as Sharoish, Himoish and Chebarloish are more conservative and retain many features from Proto-Chechen. For instance, many of these dialects lack a number of vowels found in the standard language which were a result of long-distance assimilation between vowel sounds. Additionally, the Himoy dialect preserves word-final, post-tonic vowels as a schwa [ə], indicating Laamaroy and Ohwaroy dialects were already separate at the time that Oharoy dialects were undergoing assimilation.

Geographic distribution

According to the Russian Census of 2020, 1,490,000 people reported being able to speak Chechen in Russia.[1]

Official status

Chechen is an official language of Chechnya.[6]

Jordan

Main article: Chechens in Jordan

Chechens in Jordan have good relations with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and are able to practice their own culture and language. Chechen language usage is strong among the Chechen community in Jordan. Jordanian Chechens are bilingual in both Chechen and Arabic, but do not speak Arabic among themselves, only speaking Chechen to other Chechens. Some Jordanians are literate in Chechen as well, having managed to read and write to people visiting Jordan from Chechnya.[7]

Phonology

Some phonological characteristics of Chechen include its wealth of consonants and sounds similar to Arabic and the Salishan languages of North America, as well as a large vowel system resembling those of Swedish and German.

Consonants

The Chechen language has, like most indigenous languages of the Caucasus, a large number of consonants: about 40 to 60 (depending on the dialect and the analysis), far more than most European languages. Typical of the region, a four-way distinction between voiced, voiceless, ejective and geminate fortis stops is found.[8] Furthermore, all variants except the ejective are subject to phonemic pharyngealization.

Nearly any consonant may be fortis because of focus gemination, but only the ones above are found in roots. The consonants of the t cell and /l/ are denti-alveolar; the others of that column are alveolar. /x/ is a back velar, but not quite uvular. The lateral /l/ may be velarized, unless it's followed by a front vowel. The trill /r/ is usually articulated with a single contact, and therefore sometimes described as a tap [ɾ]. Except in the literary register, and even then only for some speakers, the voiced affricates /dz/, /dʒ/ have merged into the fricatives /z/, /ʒ/. A voiceless labial fricative /f/ is found only in European loanwords. /w/ appears both in diphthongs and as a consonant; as a consonant, it has an allophone [v] before front vowels.

Approximately twenty pharyngealized consonants (marked with superscript ˤ) also appear in the table above. Labial, alveolar and postalveolar consonants may be pharyngealized, except for ejectives. Pharyngealized consonants do not occur in verbs or adjectives and in nouns and adverbs they occur predominantly before the low vowels /a, aː/ ([ə, ɑː]).

Except when following a consonant, /ʢ/ is phonetically [ʔˤ], and can be argued to be a glottal stop before a "pharyngealized" (actually epiglottalized) vowel. However, it does not have the distribution constraints characteristic of the anterior pharyngealized (epiglottalized) consonants. Although these may be analyzed as an anterior consonant plus /ʢ/ (they surface for example as [dʢ] when voiced and [pʰʜ] when voiceless), Nichols argues that given the severe constraints against consonant clusters in Chechen, it is more useful to analyze them as single consonants.

The voiceless alveolar trill /r̥/ contrasts with the voiced version /r/, but only occurs in two roots, vworh "seven" and barh "eight".

Vowels

Unlike most other languages of the Caucasus, Chechen has an extensive inventory of vowel sounds, about 44, putting its range higher than most languages of Europe (most vowels being the product of environmentally conditioned allophonic variation, which varies by both dialect and method of analysis). Many of the vowels are due to umlaut, which is highly productive in the standard dialect. None of the spelling systems used so far have distinguished the vowels with complete accuracy.

All vowels may be nasalized. Nasalization is imposed by the genitive, infinitive, and for some speakers the nominative case of adjectives. Nasalization is not strong, but it is audible even in final vowels, which are devoiced.

Some of the diphthongs have significant allophony: /ɥø/ = [ɥø], [ɥe], [we]; /yø/ = [yø], [ye]; /uo/ = [woː], [uə].

In closed syllables, long vowels become short in most dialects (not Kisti), but are often still distinct from short vowels (shortened [i], [u], [ɔ] and [ɑ̈] vs. short [ɪ], [ʊ], [o], and [ə], for example), although which ones remain distinct depends on the dialect.

/æ/, /æː/ and /e/, /eː/ are in complementary distribution (/æ/ occurs after pharyngealized consonants, whereas /e/ does not and /æː/—identical with /æ/ for most speakers—occurs in closed syllables, while /eː/ does not) but speakers strongly feel that they are distinct sounds.

Pharyngealization appears to be a feature of the consonants, though some analyses treat it as a feature of the vowels. However, Nichols argues that this does not capture the situation in Chechen well, whereas it is more clearly a feature of the vowel in Ingush: Chechen [tsʜaʔ] "one", Ingush [tsaʔˤ], which she analyzes as /tsˤaʔ/ and /tsaˤʔ/. Vowels have a delayed murmured onset after pharyngealized voiced consonants and a noisy aspirated onset after pharyngealized voiceless consonants. The high vowels /i/, /y/, /u/ are diphthongized, [əi], [əy], [əu], whereas the diphthongs /je/, /wo/ undergo metathesis, [ej], [ow].

Phonotactics

Chechen permits syllable-initial clusters /st px tx/ and non-initially also allows /x r l/ plus any consonant, and any obstruent plus a uvular of the same manner of articulation. The only cluster of three consonants permitted is /rst/.[9]

Grammar

Chechen is an agglutinative language with an ergative–absolutive morphosyntactic alignment. Chechen nouns belong to one of several genders or classes (6), each with a specific prefix with which the verb or an accompanying adjective agrees. The verb does not agree with person or number, having only tense forms and participles. Among these are an optative and an antipassive. Some verbs, however, do not take these prefixes.[10]

Chechen is an ergative, dependent-marking language using eight cases (absolutive, genitive, dative, ergative, allative, instrumental, locative and comparative) and a large number of postpositions to indicate the role of nouns in sentences.

Word order is consistently left-branching (like in Japanese or Turkish), so that adjectives, demonstratives and relative clauses precede the nouns they modify. Complementizers and adverbial subordinators, as in other Northeast and in Northwest Caucasian languages, are affixes rather than independent words.

Chechen also presents interesting challenges for lexicography, as creating new words in the language relies on fixation of whole phrases rather than adding to the end of existing words or combining existing words. It can be difficult to decide which phrases belong in the dictionary, because the language's grammar does not permit the borrowing of new verbal morphemes to express new concepts.[11] Instead, the verb dan (to do) is combined with nominal phrases to correspond with new concepts imported from other languages.

Noun classes

Chechen nouns are divided into six lexically arbitrary noun classes.[12] Morphologically, noun classes may be indexed by changes in the prefix of the accompanying verb and, in many cases, the adjective too. The first two of these classes apply to human beings, although some grammarians count these as two and some as a single class; the other classes however are much more lexically arbitrary. Chechen noun classes are named according to the prefix that indexes them:

Noun class Noun example Singular prefix Plural prefix Singular agreement Plural agreement
1. v-class k'ant (boy) v- b- / d- k'ant v-eza v-u 'the boy is heavy' k'entii d-eza d-u 'the boys are heavy'
2. y-class zuda (woman) y- zuda y-eza y-u 'the woman is heavy' zudari b-eza b-u 'the women are heavy
3. y-class II ph'āgal (rabbit) y- ph'āgal y-eza y-u 'the rabbit is heavy' ph'āgalash y-eza y-u 'the rabbits are heavy'
4. d-class naž (oak) d- naž d-eza d-u 'the oak is heavy' niežnash d-eza d-u 'the oaks are heavy'
5. b-class mangal (scythe) b- b- / Ø- mangal b-eza b-u 'the scythe is heavy' mangalash b-eza b-u 'the scythes are heavy'
6. b-class II ˤaž (apple) d- ˤaž b-eza b-u 'the apple is heavy' ˤežash d-eza d-u 'the apples are heavy'

When a noun denotes a human being, it usually falls into v- or y-Classes (1 or 2). Most nouns referring to male entities fall into the v-class, whereas Class 2 contains words related to female entities. Thus lūlaxuo (a neighbour) is class 1, but takes v- if a male neighbour and y- if a female. In a few words, changing the prefixes before the nouns indicates grammatical gender; thus: vоsha (brother) → yisha (sister). Some nouns denoting human beings, however, are not in Classes 1 or 2: bēr (child) for example is in class 3.

Classed adjectives

Only a few of Chechen's adjectives index noun class agreement, termed classed adjectives in the literature. Classed adjectives are listed with the -d class prefix in the romanizations below:[13]

  • деза (d-eza): ‘heavy’
  • довха (d-ouxa): ‘hot’
  • деха (d-iexa): ‘long’
  • дуькъа (d-yq’a): ‘thick’
  • дораха (d-oraxa): ‘cheap’
  • дерстана (d-erstana): ‘fat’
  • дуьткъа (d-ytq’a): ’thin’
  • доца (d-oca): ‘short’
  • дайн (d-ain): ‘light’
  • дуьзна (d-yzna): ‘full’
  • даьржана (d-aerzhana): ‘spread’
  • доккха (d-oqqa): ‘large/big/old’

Declension

Whereas Indo-European languages code noun class and case conflated in the same morphemes, Chechen nouns show no gender marking but decline in eight grammatical cases, four of which are core cases (i.e. absolutive, ergative, genitive, and dative) in singular and plural. Below the paradigm for "говр" (horse).

Case singular plural
absolutive говр gour говраш gourash
genitive говран gouran говрийн gouriin
dative говрана gour(a)na говрашна gourashna
ergative говро gouruo говраша gourasha
allative говре gourie говрашка gourashka
instrumental говраца gouratsa говрашца gourashtsa
locative говрах gourax говрех gouriäx
comparative говрал goural говрел gouriäl

Pronouns

Case 1SG IPA 2SG IPA 3SG IPA 1PL Inclusive IPA 1PL Exclusive IPA 2PL IPA 3PL IPA
absolutive со /sʷɔ/ хьо /ʜʷɔ/ и, иза /ɪ/, /ɪzə/ вай /vəɪ/ тхо /txʷʰo/ шу /ʃu/ уьш, уьзаш /yʃ/, /yzəʃ/
genitive сан /sən/ хьан /ʜən/ цуьнан /tsʰynən/ вайн /vəɪn/ тхан /txʰən/ шун /ʃun/ церан /tsʰierən/
dative суна /suːnə/ хьуна /ʜuːnə/ цунна /tsʰunːə/ вайна /vaɪnə/ тхуна /txʰunə/ шуна /ʃunə/ царна /tsʰarnə/
ergative ас /ʔəs/ ахь /əʜ/ цо /tsʰuo/ вай /vəɪ/ оха /ʔɔxə/ аша /ʔaʃə/ цара /tsʰarə/
allative соьга /sɥœgə/ хьоьга /ʜɥœgə/ цуьнга /tsʰyngə/ вайга /vaɪgə/ тхоьга /txʰɥœgə/ шуьга /ʃygə/ цаьрга /tsʰærgə/
instrumental соьца /sɥœtsʰə/ хьоьца /ʜɥœtsʰə/ цуьнца /tsʰyntsʰə/ вайца /vaɪtsʰə/ тхоьца /txʰɥœtsʰə/ шуьца /ʃytsʰə/ цаьрца /tsʰærtsʰə/
locative сох /sʷɔx/ хьох /ʜʷɔx/ цунах /tsʰunəx/ вайх /vəɪx/ тхох /txʰʷɔx/ шух /ʃux/ царах /tsʰarəx/
comparative сол /sʷɔl/ хьол /ʜʷɔl/ цул /tsʰul/ вайл /vəɪl/ тхол /txʰʷɔl/ шул /ʃul/ царел /tsʰarɛl/
reflexive possessive pronouns сайн /səɪn/ хьайн /ʜəɪn/ шен /ʃɛn/ вешан /vieʃən/ тхайн /txəɪn/ шайн /ʃəɪn/ шайн /ʃəɪn/
substantives (mine, yours) сайниг /səɪnɪg/ хьайниг /ʜəɪnɪg/ шениг /ʃɛnɪg/ вешаниг /vieʃənɪg/ тхайниг /txəɪnɪg/ шайниг /ʃəɪnɪg/ шайниг /ʃəɪnɪg/

The locative has still a few further forms for specific positions.

Verbs

Verbs do not inflect for person (except for the special d- prefix for the 1st and 2nd persons plural), only for number and tense, aspect, mood. A minority of verbs exhibit agreement prefixes, and these agree with the noun in the absolutive case (what in English translation would the subject, for intransitive verbs, or the object, with transitive verbs).

Example of verbal agreement in intransitive clause with a composite verb:

  • Со цхьан сахьтехь вогІур ву (so tsHan saHteH voghur vu) = I (male) will come in one hour
  • Со цхьан сахьтехь йогІур ю (so tsHan saHteH yoghur yu) = I (female) will come in one hour

Here, both the verb's future stem -oghur (will come) and the auxiliary -u (present tense of 'be') receive the prefix v- for masculine agreement and y- for feminine agreement.

In transitive clauses in compound continuous tenses formed with the auxiliary verb -u 'to be', both agent and object are in absolutive case. In this special case of a biabsolutive construction, the main verb in participial form agrees with the object, while the auxiliary agrees with the agent.

  • Cо бепиг деш ву (so bepig diesh vu) = I (male) am making bread.

Here, the participle d-iesh agree with the object, whereas the auxiliary v-u agrees with the agent.[13]

Verbal tenses are formed by ablaut or suffixes, or both (there are five conjugations in total, below is one). Derived stems can be formed by suffixation as well (causative, etc.):

Tense Example
Imperative (=infinitive) д*ига
simple present д*уьгу
present composite д*уьгуш д*у
near preterite д*игу
witnessed past д*игира
perfect д*игна
plusquamperfect д*игнера
repeated preterite д*уьгура
possible future д*уьгур
real future д*уьгур д*у
Tempus Basic form ("drink") Causative ("make drink, drench") Permissive ("allow to drink") Permissive causative ("allow to make drink") Potential ("be able to drink") Inceptive ("start drinking")
Imperative (=infinitive) мала мало малийта мала д*айта мала д*ала мала д*āла
simple present молу мала д*о молуьйто мала д*ойту малало мала д*олу
near preterite малу малий малийти мала д*айти мала д*ели мала д*ēли
witnessed past мелира малийра малийтира мала д*айтира мала д*елира мала д*ēлира
perfect мелла малийна малийтина мала д*айтина мала д*елла мала д*аьлла
plusquamperfect меллера малийнер малийтинера мала д*айтинера мала д*елера мала д*аьллера
repeated past молура мала д*ора молуьйтура мала д*ойтура малалора
possible future молур мала д*ер молуьйтур мала д*ойтур малалур мала д*олур
real future молур д*у мала д*ийр д*у молуьйтур д*у мала д*ойтур д*у малалур д*у мала д*олур д*у

Alphabets

 
Uslar's 1888 alphabet
 
Uslar's 1911 Chechen alphabet
 
Chechen language Arabic script alphabet from 1925 ABC book
 
Banknote of the North Caucasian Emirate
 
Chechen-Soviet newspaper Serlo (Light), written in the Chechen Latin script during the era of Korenizatsiya
 
Chechen Cyrillic on a plate in Grozny

Numerous inscriptions in the Georgian script are found in mountainous Chechnya, but they are not necessarily in Chechen. Later, the Arabic script was introduced for Chechen, along with Islam. The Chechen Arabic alphabet was first reformed during the reign of Imam Shamil, and then again in 1910, 1920 and 1922.

At the same time, the alphabet devised by Peter von Uslar, consisting of Cyrillic, Latin, and Georgian letters, was used for academic purposes. In 1911 it too was reformed but never gained popularity among the Chechens themselves.

1925 Latin alphabet

The Latin alphabet was introduced in 1925. It was unified with Ingush in 1934, but abolished in 1938.

A a Ä ä B b C c Č č Ch ch Čh čh D d
E e F f G g Gh gh H h I i J j K k
Kh kh L l M m N n Ņ ņ O o Ö ö P p
Ph ph Q q Qh qh R r S s Š š T t Th th
U u Ü ü V v X x Ẋ ẋ Y y Z z Ž ž

Cyrillic alphabet

From 1938 to 1992, only the Cyrillic script was used for Chechen.

А а Аь аь Б б В в Г г Гӏ гӏ Д д
Е е Ё ё Ж ж З з И и Й й К к
Кх кх Къ къ Кӏ кӏ Л л М м Н н О о
Оь оь П п Пӏ пӏ Р р С с Т т Тӏ тӏ
У у Уь уь Ф ф Х х Хь хь Хӏ хӏ Ц ц
Цӏ цӏ Ч ч Чӏ чӏ Ш ш Щ щ Ъ ъ Ы ы
Ь ь Э э Ю ю Юь юь Я я Яь яь Ӏ ӏ

1992 Latin alphabet

In 1992, a new Latin Chechen alphabet was introduced, but after the defeat of the secessionist government, the Cyrillic alphabet was restored.

A a Ä ä B b C c Ċ ċ Ç ç Ç̇ ç̇
D d E e F f G g Ġ ġ H h X x
Ẋ ẋ I i J j K k Kh kh L l M m
N n Ꞑ ꞑ O o Ö ö P p Ph ph Q q
Q̇ q̇ R r S s Ş ş T t Th th U u
Ü ü V v Y y Z z Ƶ ƶ Ə ə

Comparison chart

The single letters and digraphs that count as separate letters of the alphabet, along with their correspondences, are as follows. Those in parentheses are optional or only found in Russian words:

Cyrillic Name Arabic
(before 1925) 		Modern
Latin[14]		 Name IPA
А а а آ /ɑː/, ا A a a /ə/, /ɑː/
Аь аь аь ا Ä ä ä /æ/, /æː/
Б б бэ ب B b be /b/
В в вэ و V v ve /v/
Г г гэ گ G g ge /ɡ/
Гӏ гӏ гӏа غ Ġ ġ ġa /ɣ/
Д д дэ د D d de /d/
Е е е ە E e e /e/, /ɛː/, /je/, /ie/
Ё ё ё یوٓ yo /jo/ etc.
Ж ж жэ ج Ƶ ƶ ƶe /ʒ/, /dʒ/
З з зэ ز Z z ze /z/, /dz/
И и и ی I i i /ɪ/
Й й
(я, ю, е)		 доца и ی Y y doca i /j/
К к к ک K k ka /k/
Кх кх кх ق Q q qa /q/
Къ къ къа ڨ Q̇ q̇ q̇a /qʼ/
Кӏ кӏ кӏа گ (ࢰ)[a] Kh kh kha /kʼ/
Л л лэ ل L l el /l/
М м мэ م M m em /m/
Н н нэ ن N n en /n/
О о о ووٓ, وٓ uo O o o /o/, /ɔː/, /wo/, /uo/
Оь оь оь وٓ Ö ö ö /ɥø/, /yø/
П п пэ ف P p pe /p/
Пӏ пӏ пӏа ڢ ـٯ Ph ph pha /pʼ/
Р р рэ ر R r er /r/
С с сэ س S s es /s/
Т т тэ ت T t te /t/
Тӏ тӏ тӏа ط Th th tha /tʼ/
У у у و U u u /uʊ/
Уь уь уь و Ü ü ü /y/
Ф ф фэ ف F f ef /f/
Х х хэ خ X x xa /x/
Хь хь хьа ح Ẋ ẋ ẋa /ʜ/
Хӏ хӏ хӏа ھ H h ha /h/
Ц ц цэ ر̤ [b] C c ce /ts/
Цӏ цӏ цӏа ڗ Ċ ċ ċe /tsʼ/
Ч ч чэ چ Ҫ ҫ ҫe /tʃ/
Чӏ чӏ чӏа ڃ Ҫ̇ ҫ̇ ҫ̇e /tʃʼ/
Ш ш шэ ش Ş ş şa /ʃ/
(Щ) щ щэ
(Ъ) ъ[c] чӏогӏа хьаьрк ئ Ə ə[c] ç̇oġa ẋärk /ʔ/
(Ы) ы ы
(Ь) ь кӏеда хьаьрк kheda ẋärk
Э э э اە E e e /e/ etc.
Ю ю ю یو yu /ju/ etc.
Юь юь юь یو yü /jy/ etc.
Я я я یا، یآ ya /ja/ etc.
Яь яь яь یا yä /jæ/ etc.
Ӏ ӏ ӏа ع J j ja /ʡ/, /ˤ/

In addition, several sequences of letters for long vowels and consonants, while not counted as separate letters in their own right, are presented here to clarify their correspondences:

Cyrillic Name Arabic
(before 1925) 		Modern
Latin[15]		 Name IPA
Ий ий یی Iy iy /iː/
Кк кк کک Kk kk /kː/
Ккх ккх قق Qq qq /qː/
Ов ов ов وٓو Ov ov ov /ɔʊ/
Пп пп فف Pp pp /pː/
Рхӏ рхӏ رھ Rh rh /r̥/
Сс сс سس Ss ss /sː/
Тт тт تت Tt tt /tː/
Ув ув وو Uv uv /uː/
Уьй уьй уьй و Üy üy üy /yː/

Notes

  1. ^ In the Arabic character گ (equivalent to Cyrillic Кӏ or Latin Kh), the upper stroke is under the main stroke.
  2. ^ The Arabic character ڔٜ (equivalent to Cyrillic Ц or Latin C) is the Arabic letter rā’ with two dots below.
  3. ^ a b The glottal stop ⟨ъ⟩ is often omitted when writing.

Vocabulary

Most Chechen vocabulary is derived from the Nakh branch of the Northeast Caucasian language family, although there are significant minorities of words derived from Arabic (Islamic terms, like "Iman", "Ilma", "Do'a") and a smaller amount from Turkic (like "kuzga", "shish", belonging to the universal Caucasian stratum of borrowings) and most recently Russian (modern terms, like computer – "kamputar", television – "telvideni", televisor – "telvizar", metro – "metro" etc.).

History

Before the Russian conquest, most writings in Chechnya consisted of Islamic texts and clan histories, written usually in Arabic but sometimes also in Chechen using Arabic script. The Chechen literary language was created after the October Revolution, and the Latin script began to be used instead of Arabic for Chechen writing in the mid-1920s. The Cyrillic script was adopted in 1938. Almost the entire library of Chechen medieval writing in Arabic and Georgian script about the land of Chechnya and its people was destroyed by Soviet authorities in 1944, leaving the modern Chechens and modern historians with a destroyed and no longer existent historical treasury of writings.[16]

The Chechen diaspora in Jordan, Turkey, and Syria is fluent but generally not literate in Chechen except for individuals who have made efforts to learn the writing system. The Cyrillic alphabet is not generally known in these countries, and thus most use the Latin alphabet.

References

  1. ^ a b Chechen at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)  
  2. ^ Glottopedia article on Chechen language.
  3. ^ Longman, J.C. (2008). Longman Pronunciation Dictionary (3 ed.). Pearson Education ESL. ISBN 978-1405881173.
  4. ^ "Chechnya". Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
  5. ^ "Chechen table of correspondence Cyrillic-Roman (BGN/PCGN 2008 Agreement)" (PDF). National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 2022-02-04.
  6. ^ Constitution, Article 10.1
  7. ^ Moshe Maʻoz, Gabriel Sheffer (2002). Middle Eastern minorities and diasporas. Sussex Academic Press. p. 255. ISBN 1-902210-84-0. Retrieved May 12, 2011.
  8. ^ Johanna Nichols, Chechen, The Indigenous languages of the Caucasus (Caravan Books, Delmar NY, 1994) ISBN 0-88206-068-6.
  9. ^ . Ingush.narod.ru. pp. 10–11. Archived from the original (GIF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-01-21.
  10. ^ Awde, Nicholas and Galäv, Muhammad, Chechen; p. 11. ISBN 0-7818-0446-9
  11. ^ Awde and Galäv; Chechen; p. 11
  12. ^ Awde, Nicholas; Galaev, Muhammad (22 May 2014). Chechen-English English-Chechen Dictionary and Phrasebook. Routledge. ISBN 9781136802331 – via Google Books.
  13. ^ a b Dotton, Zura; Wagner, John Doyle. "A Grammar of Chechen" (PDF). Duke University, Slavic Centers. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  14. ^ "Chechen table of correspondence Cyrillic-Roman (BGN/PCGN 2008 Agreement)" (PDF). National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  15. ^ "Chechen table of correspondence Cyrillic-Roman (BGN/PCGN 2008 Agreement)" (PDF). National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Retrieved 2022-02-11.
  16. ^ Jaimoukha. Chechens. Page 212

Sources

  • Pieter Muysken (6 February 2008). From Linguistic Areas to Areal Linguistics. John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 29, 46, 47, 49, 52–54, 56, 58, 60, 61, 63, 70–74, 77, 93. ISBN 978-90-272-9136-3.

External links

 
Chechen edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Chechen
 
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Chechen phrasebook.
  • Appendix:Cyrillic script
  • The Cyrillic and Latin Chechen alphabets
  • The Chechen language | Noxchiin mott Wealth of linguistic information. (No longer active, some information is retained)
  • Rferl North Caucasus Radio (also includes Avar and Adyghe)
  • Russian–Chechen on-line dictionary
  • Chechen-Russian dictionary
  • Chechen basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
  • Chechen Cyrillic - Latin converter
  • ELAR archive of Chechen including the Cheberloi dialect
  • Chechen Text Corpus

April 30, 2023
chechen, language, chechen, Нохчийн, мотт, noxçiyn, mott, ˈnɔxt, ʃĩː, muɔt, northeast, caucasian, language, spoken, approximately, million, people, mostly, chechen, republic, members, chechen, diaspora, throughout, russia, rest, europe, jordan, austria, turkey. Chechen UK ˈ tʃ ɛ tʃ ɛ n 3 US tʃ e ˈ tʃ ɛ n 4 Nohchijn mott Noxciyn mott 5 ˈnɔxt ʃĩː muɔt is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by approximately 1 7 million people mostly in the Chechen Republic and by members of the Chechen diaspora throughout Russia and the rest of Europe Jordan Austria Turkey Azerbaijan Ukraine Central Asia mainly Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and Georgia ChechenNohchijn mott Noxciyn mottPronunciation ˈnɔxt ʃĩː muɔt Native toNorth CaucasusRegionChechnya Ingushetia and DagestanEthnicityChechensNative speakers1 7 million 2020 1 Language familyNortheast Caucasian NakhVainakhChechenWriting systemCyrillic script present official Latin script present not official Arabic script historically Official statusOfficial language in Russia Chechnya DagestanLanguage codesISO 639 1 span class plainlinks ce span ISO 639 2 span class plainlinks che span ISO 639 3 a href https iso639 3 sil org code che class extiw title iso639 3 che che a Glottologchec1245GlottopediaTschetschenisch 2 This article contains IPA phonetic symbols Without proper rendering support you may see question marks boxes or other symbols instead of Unicode characters For an introductory guide on IPA symbols see Help IPA Contents 1 Classification 2 Dialects 3 Geographic distribution 3 1 Official status 3 2 Jordan 4 Phonology 4 1 Consonants 4 2 Vowels 4 3 Phonotactics 5 Grammar 5 1 Noun classes 5 1 1 Classed adjectives 5 2 Declension 5 3 Pronouns 5 4 Verbs 6 Alphabets 6 1 1925 Latin alphabet 6 2 Cyrillic alphabet 6 3 1992 Latin alphabet 6 4 Comparison chart 6 4 1 Notes 7 Vocabulary 8 History 9 References 10 Sources 11 External linksClassification EditChechen is a Northeast Caucasian language Together with the closely related Ingush with which there exists a large degree of mutual intelligibility and shared vocabulary it forms the Vainakh branch Dialects EditThere are a number of Chechen dialects Ehki Chantish Chebarloish Malkhish Nokhchmakhkakhoish Orstkhoish Sharoish Shuotoish Terloish Itum Qalish and Himoish The Kisti dialect of Georgia is not easily understood by northern Chechens without a few days practice One difference in pronunciation is that Kisti aspirated consonants remain aspirated when they are doubled fortis or after s but they then lose their aspiration in other dialects Dialects of Chechen can be classified by their geographic position within the Chechen Republic The dialects of the northern lowlands are often referred to as Oharoy muott literally lowlander s language and the dialect of the southern mountain tribes is known as Laamaroy muott lit mountainer s language Oharoy muott forms the basis for much of the standard and literary Chechen language which can largely be traced to the regional dialects of Urus Martan and contemporary Grozny Laamaroy dialects include Chebarloish Sharoish Itum Qalish Kisti and Himoish Until recently however Himoy was undocumented and was considered a branch of Sharoish as many dialects are also used as the basis of intertribal teip communication within a larger Chechen tukkhum Laamaroy dialects such as Sharoish Himoish and Chebarloish are more conservative and retain many features from Proto Chechen For instance many of these dialects lack a number of vowels found in the standard language which were a result of long distance assimilation between vowel sounds Additionally the Himoy dialect preserves word final post tonic vowels as a schwa e indicating Laamaroy and Ohwaroy dialects were already separate at the time that Oharoy dialects were undergoing assimilation Geographic distribution EditAccording to the Russian Census of 2020 1 490 000 people reported being able to speak Chechen in Russia 1 Official status Edit Chechen is an official language of Chechnya 6 Jordan Edit Main article Chechens in Jordan Chechens in Jordan have good relations with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and are able to practice their own culture and language Chechen language usage is strong among the Chechen community in Jordan Jordanian Chechens are bilingual in both Chechen and Arabic but do not speak Arabic among themselves only speaking Chechen to other Chechens Some Jordanians are literate in Chechen as well having managed to read and write to people visiting Jordan from Chechnya 7 Phonology EditSome phonological characteristics of Chechen include its wealth of consonants and sounds similar to Arabic and the Salishan languages of North America as well as a large vowel system resembling those of Swedish and German Consonants Edit The Chechen language has like most indigenous languages of the Caucasus a large number of consonants about 40 to 60 depending on the dialect and the analysis far more than most European languages Typical of the region a four way distinction between voiced voiceless ejective and geminate fortis stops is found 8 Furthermore all variants except the ejective are subject to phonemic pharyngealization Labial Alveolar Postalveolar Velar Uvular Epiglottal Glottalplain phar plain phar plain phar plain phar Nasal m mˤ n nˤPlosive voiceless lenis pʰ pˤ tʰ tˤ kʰ qʰ ʡ ʔ ʔˤ fortis pː pːˤ tː tːˤ kː qːvoiced b bˤ d dˤ ɡejective pʼ tʼ kʼ qʼAffricate voiceless lenis tsʰ tsˤ tʃʰ tʃˤfortis tsː tsːˤvoiced dz dzˤ dʒ dʒˤejective tsʼ tʃʼFricative voiceless f s sˤ ʃ ʃˤ x ʜ hvoiced v z zˤ ʒ ʒˤ ʁRhotic voiceless r voiced r rˤApproximant w ɥ wˤ l lˤ jNearly any consonant may be fortis because of focus gemination but only the ones above are found in roots The consonants of the t cell and l are denti alveolar the others of that column are alveolar x is a back velar but not quite uvular The lateral l may be velarized unless it s followed by a front vowel The trill r is usually articulated with a single contact and therefore sometimes described as a tap ɾ Except in the literary register and even then only for some speakers the voiced affricates dz dʒ have merged into the fricatives z ʒ A voiceless labial fricative f is found only in European loanwords w appears both in diphthongs and as a consonant as a consonant it has an allophone v before front vowels Approximately twenty pharyngealized consonants marked with superscript ˤ also appear in the table above Labial alveolar and postalveolar consonants may be pharyngealized except for ejectives Pharyngealized consonants do not occur in verbs or adjectives and in nouns and adverbs they occur predominantly before the low vowels a aː e ɑː Except when following a consonant ʢ is phonetically ʔˤ and can be argued to be a glottal stop before a pharyngealized actually epiglottalized vowel However it does not have the distribution constraints characteristic of the anterior pharyngealized epiglottalized consonants Although these may be analyzed as an anterior consonant plus ʢ they surface for example as dʢ when voiced and pʰʜ when voiceless Nichols argues that given the severe constraints against consonant clusters in Chechen it is more useful to analyze them as single consonants The voiceless alveolar trill r contrasts with the voiced version r but only occurs in two roots vworh seven and barh eight Vowels Edit Unlike most other languages of the Caucasus Chechen has an extensive inventory of vowel sounds about 44 putting its range higher than most languages of Europe most vowels being the product of environmentally conditioned allophonic variation which varies by both dialect and method of analysis Many of the vowels are due to umlaut which is highly productive in the standard dialect None of the spelling systems used so far have distinguished the vowels with complete accuracy front unrounded front rounded back centralhigh ɪ iː y yː ʊ uːdiphthong je ie ɥo yo wo uomid e e ː o oː o o ːlow ae aeː e ɑːAll vowels may be nasalized Nasalization is imposed by the genitive infinitive and for some speakers the nominative case of adjectives Nasalization is not strong but it is audible even in final vowels which are devoiced Some of the diphthongs have significant allophony ɥo ɥo ɥe we yo yo ye uo woː ue In closed syllables long vowels become short in most dialects not Kisti but are often still distinct from short vowels shortened i u ɔ and ɑ vs short ɪ ʊ o and e for example although which ones remain distinct depends on the dialect ae aeː and e eː are in complementary distribution ae occurs after pharyngealized consonants whereas e does not and aeː identical with ae for most speakers occurs in closed syllables while eː does not but speakers strongly feel that they are distinct sounds Pharyngealization appears to be a feature of the consonants though some analyses treat it as a feature of the vowels However Nichols argues that this does not capture the situation in Chechen well whereas it is more clearly a feature of the vowel in Ingush Chechen tsʜaʔ one Ingush tsaʔˤ which she analyzes as tsˤaʔ and tsaˤʔ Vowels have a delayed murmured onset after pharyngealized voiced consonants and a noisy aspirated onset after pharyngealized voiceless consonants The high vowels i y u are diphthongized ei ey eu whereas the diphthongs je wo undergo metathesis ej ow Phonotactics Edit Chechen permits syllable initial clusters st px tx and non initially also allows x r l plus any consonant and any obstruent plus a uvular of the same manner of articulation The only cluster of three consonants permitted is rst 9 Grammar EditChechen is an agglutinative language with an ergative absolutive morphosyntactic alignment Chechen nouns belong to one of several genders or classes 6 each with a specific prefix with which the verb or an accompanying adjective agrees The verb does not agree with person or number having only tense forms and participles Among these are an optative and an antipassive Some verbs however do not take these prefixes 10 Chechen is an ergative dependent marking language using eight cases absolutive genitive dative ergative allative instrumental locative and comparative and a large number of postpositions to indicate the role of nouns in sentences Word order is consistently left branching like in Japanese or Turkish so that adjectives demonstratives and relative clauses precede the nouns they modify Complementizers and adverbial subordinators as in other Northeast and in Northwest Caucasian languages are affixes rather than independent words Chechen also presents interesting challenges for lexicography as creating new words in the language relies on fixation of whole phrases rather than adding to the end of existing words or combining existing words It can be difficult to decide which phrases belong in the dictionary because the language s grammar does not permit the borrowing of new verbal morphemes to express new concepts 11 Instead the verb dan to do is combined with nominal phrases to correspond with new concepts imported from other languages Noun classes Edit Chechen nouns are divided into six lexically arbitrary noun classes 12 Morphologically noun classes may be indexed by changes in the prefix of the accompanying verb and in many cases the adjective too The first two of these classes apply to human beings although some grammarians count these as two and some as a single class the other classes however are much more lexically arbitrary Chechen noun classes are named according to the prefix that indexes them Noun class Noun example Singular prefix Plural prefix Singular agreement Plural agreement1 v class k ant boy v b d k ant v eza v u the boy is heavy k entii d eza d u the boys are heavy 2 y class zuda woman y zuda y eza y u the woman is heavy zudari b eza b u the women are heavy3 y class II ph agal rabbit y ph agal y eza y u the rabbit is heavy ph agalash y eza y u the rabbits are heavy 4 d class naz oak d naz d eza d u the oak is heavy nieznash d eza d u the oaks are heavy 5 b class mangal scythe b b O mangal b eza b u the scythe is heavy mangalash b eza b u the scythes are heavy 6 b class II ˤaz apple d ˤaz b eza b u the apple is heavy ˤezash d eza d u the apples are heavy When a noun denotes a human being it usually falls into v or y Classes 1 or 2 Most nouns referring to male entities fall into the v class whereas Class 2 contains words related to female entities Thus lulaxuo a neighbour is class 1 but takes v if a male neighbour and y if a female In a few words changing the prefixes before the nouns indicates grammatical gender thus vosha brother yisha sister Some nouns denoting human beings however are not in Classes 1 or 2 ber child for example is in class 3 Classed adjectives Edit Only a few of Chechen s adjectives index noun class agreement termed classed adjectives in the literature Classed adjectives are listed with the d class prefix in the romanizations below 13 deza d eza heavy dovha d ouxa hot deha d iexa long duka d yq a thick doraha d oraxa cheap derstana d erstana fat dutka d ytq a thin doca d oca short dajn d ain light duzna d yzna full darzhana d aerzhana spread dokkha d oqqa large big old Declension Edit Whereas Indo European languages code noun class and case conflated in the same morphemes Chechen nouns show no gender marking but decline in eight grammatical cases four of which are core cases i e absolutive ergative genitive and dative in singular and plural Below the paradigm for govr horse Case singular pluralabsolutive govr gour govrash gourashgenitive govran gouran govrijn gouriindative govrana gour a na govrashna gourashnaergative govro gouruo govrasha gourashaallative govre gourie govrashka gourashkainstrumental govraca gouratsa govrashca gourashtsalocative govrah gourax govreh gouriaxcomparative govral goural govrel gourialPronouns Edit Case 1SG IPA 2SG IPA 3SG IPA 1PL Inclusive IPA 1PL Exclusive IPA 2PL IPA 3PL IPAabsolutive so sʷɔ ho ʜʷɔ i iza ɪ ɪze vaj veɪ tho txʷʰo shu ʃu ush uzash yʃ yzeʃ genitive san sen han ʜen cunan tsʰynen vajn veɪn than txʰen shun ʃun ceran tsʰieren dative suna suːne huna ʜuːne cunna tsʰunːe vajna vaɪne thuna txʰune shuna ʃune carna tsʰarne ergative as ʔes ah eʜ co tsʰuo vaj veɪ oha ʔɔxe asha ʔaʃe cara tsʰare allative soga sɥœge hoga ʜɥœge cunga tsʰynge vajga vaɪge thoga txʰɥœge shuga ʃyge carga tsʰaerge instrumental soca sɥœtsʰe hoca ʜɥœtsʰe cunca tsʰyntsʰe vajca vaɪtsʰe thoca txʰɥœtsʰe shuca ʃytsʰe carca tsʰaertsʰe locative soh sʷɔx hoh ʜʷɔx cunah tsʰunex vajh veɪx thoh txʰʷɔx shuh ʃux carah tsʰarex comparative sol sʷɔl hol ʜʷɔl cul tsʰul vajl veɪl thol txʰʷɔl shul ʃul carel tsʰarɛl reflexive possessive pronouns sajn seɪn hajn ʜeɪn shen ʃɛn veshan vieʃen thajn txeɪn shajn ʃeɪn shajn ʃeɪn substantives mine yours sajnig seɪnɪg hajnig ʜeɪnɪg shenig ʃɛnɪg veshanig vieʃenɪg thajnig txeɪnɪg shajnig ʃeɪnɪg shajnig ʃeɪnɪg The locative has still a few further forms for specific positions Verbs Edit Verbs do not inflect for person except for the special d prefix for the 1st and 2nd persons plural only for number and tense aspect mood A minority of verbs exhibit agreement prefixes and these agree with the noun in the absolutive case what in English translation would the subject for intransitive verbs or the object with transitive verbs Example of verbal agreement in intransitive clause with a composite verb So chan sahteh vogIur vu so tsHan saHteH voghur vu I male will come in one hour So chan sahteh jogIur yu so tsHan saHteH yoghur yu I female will come in one hourHere both the verb s future stem oghur will come and the auxiliary u present tense of be receive the prefix v for masculine agreement and y for feminine agreement In transitive clauses in compound continuous tenses formed with the auxiliary verb u to be both agent and object are in absolutive case In this special case of a biabsolutive construction the main verb in participial form agrees with the object while the auxiliary agrees with the agent Co bepig desh vu so bepig diesh vu I male am making bread Here the participle d iesh agree with the object whereas the auxiliary v u agrees with the agent 13 Verbal tenses are formed by ablaut or suffixes or both there are five conjugations in total below is one Derived stems can be formed by suffixation as well causative etc Tense ExampleImperative infinitive d igasimple present d ugupresent composite d ugush d unear preterite d iguwitnessed past d igiraperfect d ignaplusquamperfect d ignerarepeated preterite d ugurapossible future d ugurreal future d ugur d uTempus Basic form drink Causative make drink drench Permissive allow to drink Permissive causative allow to make drink Potential be able to drink Inceptive start drinking Imperative infinitive mala malo malijta mala d ajta mala d ala mala d alasimple present molu mala d o molujto mala d ojtu malalo mala d olunear preterite malu malij malijti mala d ajti mala d eli mala d eliwitnessed past melira malijra malijtira mala d ajtira mala d elira mala d eliraperfect mella malijna malijtina mala d ajtina mala d ella mala d allaplusquamperfect mellera malijner malijtinera mala d ajtinera mala d elera mala d allerarepeated past molura mala d ora molujtura mala d ojtura malalorapossible future molur mala d er molujtur mala d ojtur malalur mala d olurreal future molur d u mala d ijr d u molujtur d u mala d ojtur d u malalur d u mala d olur d uAlphabets Edit Uslar s 1888 alphabet Uslar s 1911 Chechen alphabet Chechen language Arabic script alphabet from 1925 ABC book Banknote of the North Caucasian Emirate Chechen Soviet newspaper Serlo Light written in the Chechen Latin script during the era of Korenizatsiya Chechen Cyrillic on a plate in Grozny Numerous inscriptions in the Georgian script are found in mountainous Chechnya but they are not necessarily in Chechen Later the Arabic script was introduced for Chechen along with Islam The Chechen Arabic alphabet was first reformed during the reign of Imam Shamil and then again in 1910 1920 and 1922 At the same time the alphabet devised by Peter von Uslar consisting of Cyrillic Latin and Georgian letters was used for academic purposes In 1911 it too was reformed but never gained popularity among the Chechens themselves 1925 Latin alphabet Edit The Latin alphabet was introduced in 1925 It was unified with Ingush in 1934 but abolished in 1938 A a A a B b C c C c Ch ch Ch ch D dE e F f G g Gh gh H h I i J j K kKh kh L l M m N n N n O o O o P pPh ph Q q Qh qh R r S s S s T t Th thU u U u V v X x Ẋ ẋ Y y Z z Z zCyrillic alphabet Edit From 1938 to 1992 only the Cyrillic script was used for Chechen A a A a B b V v G g Gӏ gӏ D dE e Yo yo Zh zh Z z I i J j K kKh kh K k Kӏ kӏ L l M m N n O oO o P p Pӏ pӏ R r S s T t Tӏ tӏU u U u F f H h H h Hӏ hӏ C cCӏ cӏ Ch ch Chӏ chӏ Sh sh Sh sh Y y E e Yu yu Yu yu Ya ya Ya ya Ӏ ӏ1992 Latin alphabet Edit In 1992 a new Latin Chechen alphabet was introduced but after the defeat of the secessionist government the Cyrillic alphabet was restored A a A a B b C c Ċ ċ C c C c D d E e F f G g Ġ ġ H h X xẊ ẋ I i J j K k Kh kh L l M mN n Ꞑ ꞑ O o O o P p Ph ph Q qQ q R r S s S s T t Th th U uU u V v Y y Z z Ƶ ƶ E eComparison chart Edit The single letters and digraphs that count as separate letters of the alphabet along with their correspondences are as follows Those in parentheses are optional or only found in Russian words Cyrillic Name Arabic before 1925 ModernLatin 14 Name IPAA a a آ ɑː ا A a a e ɑː A a a ا A a a ae aeː B b be ب B b be b V v ve و V v ve v G g ge گ G g ge ɡ Gӏ gӏ gӏa غ Ġ ġ ġa ɣ D d de د D d de d E e e ە E e e e ɛː je ie Yo yo yo یو yo jo etc Zh zh zhe ج Ƶ ƶ ƶe ʒ dʒ Z z ze ز Z z ze z dz I i i ی I i i ɪ J j ya yu e doca i ی Y y doca i j K k k ک K k ka k Kh kh kh ق Q q qa q K k ka ڨ Q q q a qʼ Kӏ kӏ kӏa گ ࢰ a Kh kh kha kʼ L l le ل L l el l M m me م M m em m N n ne ن N n en n O o o وو و uo O o o o ɔː wo uo O o o و O o o ɥo yo P p pe ف P p pe p Pӏ pӏ pӏa ڢ ـٯ Ph ph pha pʼ R r re ر R r er r S s se س S s es s T t te ت T t te t Tӏ tӏ tӏa ط Th th tha tʼ U u u و U u u uʊ U u u و U u u y F f fe ف F f ef f H h he خ X x xa x H h ha ح Ẋ ẋ ẋa ʜ Hӏ hӏ hӏa ھ H h ha h C c ce ر b C c ce ts Cӏ cӏ cӏa ڗ Ċ ċ ċe tsʼ Ch ch che چ Ҫ ҫ ҫe tʃ Chӏ chӏ chӏa ڃ Ҫ ҫ ҫ e tʃʼ Sh sh she ش S s sa ʃ Sh sh she c chӏogӏa hark ئ E e c c oġa ẋark ʔ Y y y kӏeda hark kheda ẋarkE e e اە E e e e etc Yu yu yu یو yu ju etc Yu yu yu یو yu jy etc Ya ya ya یا یآ ya ja etc Ya ya ya یا ya jae etc Ӏ ӏ ӏa ع J j ja ʡ ˤ In addition several sequences of letters for long vowels and consonants while not counted as separate letters in their own right are presented here to clarify their correspondences Cyrillic Name Arabic before 1925 ModernLatin 15 Name IPAIj ij یی Iy iy iː Kk kk کک Kk kk kː Kkh kkh قق Qq qq qː Ov ov ov و و Ov ov ov ɔʊ Pp pp فف Pp pp pː Rhӏ rhӏ رھ Rh rh r Ss ss سس Ss ss sː Tt tt تت Tt tt tː Uv uv وو Uv uv uː Uj uj uj و Uy uy uy yː Notes Edit In the Arabic character گ equivalent to Cyrillic Kӏ or Latin Kh the upper stroke is under the main stroke The Arabic character ڔ equivalent to Cyrillic C or Latin C is the Arabic letter ra with two dots below a b The glottal stop is often omitted when writing Vocabulary EditMost Chechen vocabulary is derived from the Nakh branch of the Northeast Caucasian language family although there are significant minorities of words derived from Arabic Islamic terms like Iman Ilma Do a and a smaller amount from Turkic like kuzga shish belonging to the universal Caucasian stratum of borrowings and most recently Russian modern terms like computer kamputar television telvideni televisor telvizar metro metro etc History EditBefore the Russian conquest most writings in Chechnya consisted of Islamic texts and clan histories written usually in Arabic but sometimes also in Chechen using Arabic script The Chechen literary language was created after the October Revolution and the Latin script began to be used instead of Arabic for Chechen writing in the mid 1920s The Cyrillic script was adopted in 1938 Almost the entire library of Chechen medieval writing in Arabic and Georgian script about the land of Chechnya and its people was destroyed by Soviet authorities in 1944 leaving the modern Chechens and modern historians with a destroyed and no longer existent historical treasury of writings 16 The Chechen diaspora in Jordan Turkey and Syria is fluent but generally not literate in Chechen except for individuals who have made efforts to learn the writing system The Cyrillic alphabet is not generally known in these countries and thus most use the Latin alphabet References Edit a b Chechen at Ethnologue 26th ed 2023 Glottopedia article on Chechen language Longman J C 2008 Longman Pronunciation Dictionary 3 ed Pearson Education ESL ISBN 978 1405881173 Chechnya Merriam Webster Dictionary Chechen table of correspondence Cyrillic Roman BGN PCGN 2008 Agreement PDF National Geospatial Intelligence Agency Retrieved 2022 02 04 Constitution Article 10 1 Moshe Maʻoz Gabriel Sheffer 2002 Middle Eastern minorities and diasporas Sussex Academic Press p 255 ISBN 1 902210 84 0 Retrieved May 12 2011 Johanna Nichols Chechen The Indigenous languages of the Caucasus Caravan Books Delmar NY 1994 ISBN 0 88206 068 6 Indigenous Language of the Caucasus Chechen Ingush narod ru pp 10 11 Archived from the original GIF on 2016 03 04 Retrieved 2016 01 21 Awde Nicholas and Galav Muhammad Chechen p 11 ISBN 0 7818 0446 9 Awde and Galav Chechen p 11 Awde Nicholas Galaev Muhammad 22 May 2014 Chechen English English Chechen Dictionary and Phrasebook Routledge ISBN 9781136802331 via Google Books a b Dotton Zura Wagner John Doyle A Grammar of Chechen PDF Duke University Slavic Centers Retrieved 10 June 2020 Chechen table of correspondence Cyrillic Roman BGN PCGN 2008 Agreement PDF National Geospatial Intelligence Agency Retrieved 2022 02 11 Chechen table of correspondence Cyrillic Roman BGN PCGN 2008 Agreement PDF National Geospatial Intelligence Agency Retrieved 2022 02 11 Jaimoukha Chechens Page 212Sources EditPieter Muysken 6 February 2008 From Linguistic Areas to Areal Linguistics John Benjamins Publishing Company pp 29 46 47 49 52 54 56 58 60 61 63 70 74 77 93 ISBN 978 90 272 9136 3 External links Edit Language portal Chechen edition of Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Chechen Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Chechen phrasebook Appendix Cyrillic script The Cyrillic and Latin Chechen alphabets The Chechen language Noxchiin mott Wealth of linguistic information No longer active some information is retained Rferl North Caucasus Radio also includes Avar and Adyghe Russian Chechen on line dictionary Chechen Russian dictionary Chechen basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database Chechen Cyrillic Latin converter ELAR archive of Chechen including the Cheberloi dialect Chechen Text Corpus Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Chechen language amp oldid 1150409983, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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