Chechen language

Chechen
Нохчийн мотт Noxçiyn mott
Spoken in	Russia
Region	Republic of Chechnya
Ethnicity	Chechens
Native speakers	1.34 million  (2002 census)
Language family	Northeast Caucasian Nakh Vainakh (Chechen–Ingush) Chechen
Writing system	Cyrillic, Latin
Official status
Regulated by	No official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1	ce
ISO 639-2	che
ISO 639-3	che
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

The Chechen language (Нохчийн мотт / Noxçiyn mott; Medieval Chechen: نوًچین موت) is spoken by more than 1.5 million people, mostly in Chechnya and by Chechen people elsewhere. It is a member of the Northeast Caucasian languages.

Classification

Chechen is an ergative agglutinative language. Linguistically, it is, together with Ingush and Bats, a member of the Nakh branch of the Northeast Caucasian language family.

Dialects

There are a number of Chechen dialects: Akkhiy, Chiantiy, Chiebarloy, Mialkhiy, Nokhchmakhkakhoy, Orstkhoy, Sharoy, Shuotoy and Terloy. 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 doubled (fortis) or after /s/, whereas they lose their aspiration in other dialects in these situations.

Geographic distribution

According to the Russian Census in October 2002, 1,330,000 people reported being able to speak Chechen.

Official status

Chechen is an official language of Chechnya^[1] and Dagestan.^[2]

Middle East

Chechens in Jordan have good relations with the Hashemite monarchy and are able to practice their own culture and language. Chechen language usage is strong among the Chechen community in Jordan. Chechens are bilingual in both Chechen and Arabic, but do not speak Arabic among themselves, only speaking Chechen to other Chechens, sometimes disciplining and punishing children for using Arabic at home. Some Jordanian Chechens are literate in Chechen as well, having managed to read and write to people visiting Jordan from Chechnya.^[3]

However, the Chechens of Syria and Iraq have been subject to Arabization by the Arab Nationalist Ba'ath Party, which had little tolerance for non-Arab language or culture, resulting in many largely unable to speak Chechen.^[4]

Sounds

Some characteristics of Chechen include its wealth of consonants and sounds similar to Arabic and the Salishan languages of Northern America and 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 in most European languages. Typical of the region, a four-way distinction between voiced, voiceless, ejective, and geminate fortis stops is found.

	Labial	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Velar	Uvular	Epiglottal	Glottal
Nasal	m	n
Plosive	pʰ b pʼ pː	tʰ d tʼ tː		kʰ ɡ kʼ xk	qʰ qʼ qː	ʢ	ʔ
Affricate		tsʰ dz tsʼ sː	tʃʰ dʒ tʃʼ
Fricative	(f v)	s z	ʃ ʒ	x ʁ		ʜ	h
Rhotic		r̥ r
Approximant	w	l	j

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/. /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.

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 approximately twenty pharyngealized consonants do not 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]).

Vowels

Unlike most other languages of the Caucasus, Chechen has an extensive inventory of vowels, about 44 (depending on dialect and analysis), more than most languages of Europe. 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~ central
ɪ iː	y yː	ʊ uː
je ie	ɥø yø	wo uo
e̞ e̞ː	ø øː	o̞ o̞ː
æ æː		ə ɑː

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 [ɑ̤] vs. short [ɪ], [ʊ], [o], and [ə], for example), though which 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].

Grammar

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. However, Chechen is not a pro-drop language:^[5] subject pronouns are always used in simple sentences and the verb does not agree with the subject or object's 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.^[6]

Chechen is an ergative, dependent-marking language using eight cases (nominative, genitive, dative, ergative, instrumental, substantive, comparative, and locative) 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.^[7] Instead, the verb dan (to do) is combined with nominal phrases to correspond with new concepts imported from other languages.

Alphabets

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

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

In 1938–1992, only the Cyrillic alphabet was used for Chechen.

Cyrillic	Name	Mod. Latin	Name	IPA
А а	а	A a	a	/ə/, /ɑː/
Аь аь	аь	Ä ä	ä	/æ/, /æː/
Б б	бэ	B b	be	/b/
В в	вэ	V v	ve	/v/
Г г	гэ	G g	ge	/ɡ/
ГӀ гӀ	гӀа	Ġ ġ	ġa	/ɣ/
Д д	дэ	D d	de	/d/
Е е	е	E e	e	/e/, /ɛː/, /je/, /ie/
Ё ё	ё	yo		/jo/ etc.
Ж ж	жэ	Ƶ ƶ	ƶe	/ʒ/, /dʒ/
З з	зэ	Z z	ze	/z/, /dz/
И и	и	I i	i	/ɪ/
Ий ий		Ii ii		/iː/
Й й (я, ю, е)	доца и	Y y	doca i	/j/
К к	к	K k	ka	/k/
Ккх ккх		Kk kk		/kː/
Кх кх	кх	Q q	qa	/q/
Кхкх кхкх		Qq qq		/qː/
Къ къ	къа	Q̇ q̇	q̇a	/qʼ/
КӀ кӀ	кӀа	Kh kh	kha	/kʼ/
Л л	лэ	L l	el	/l/
М м	мэ	M m	em	/m/
Н н	нэ	N n	en	/n/
О о	о	O o	o	/o/, /ɔː/, /wo/, /uo/
Оь оь	оь	Ö ö	ö	/ɥø/, /yø/
П п	пэ	P p	pe	/p/
Пп пп		Pp pp		/pː/
ПӀ пӀ	пӀа	Ph ph	pha	/pʼ/
Р р	рэ	R r	er	/r/
РхӀ рхӀ		Rh rh		/r̥/
С с	сэ	S s	es	/s/
Сс сс		Ss ss		/sː/
Т т	тэ	T t	te	/t/
Тт тт		Tt tt		/tː/
ТӀ тӀ	тӀа	Th th	tha	/tʼ/
У у	у	U u	u	/uʊ/
Ув ув		Uu uu		/uː/
Уь уь	уь	Ü ü	ü	/y/
Ф ф	фэ	F f	ef	/f/
Х х	хэ	X x	xa	/x/
Хь хь	хьа	Ẋ ẋ	ẋa	/ʜ/
ХӀ хӀ	хӀа	H h	ha	/h/
Ц ц	цэ	C c	ce	/ts/
ЦӀ цӀ	цӀа	Ċ ċ	ċe	/tsʼ/
Ч ч	чэ	Ç ç	çe	/tʃ/
ЧӀ чӀ	чӀа	Ç̇ ç̇	ç̇e	/tʃʼ/
Ш ш	шэ	Ş ş	şa	/ʃ/
Щ щ	щэ
(Ъ) ъ	чӀогӀа хьаьрк	Ə ə	ç̇oġa ẋärk	/ʔ/
(Ы) ы	ы
(Ь) ь	кӀеда хьаьрк
Э э	э	E e	e	/e/ etc.
Ю ю	ю	yu		/ju/ etc.
Юь юь	юь	yü		/jy/ etc.
Я я	я	ya		/ja/ etc.
Яь яь	яь	yä		/jæ/ etc.
Ӏ Ӏ	Ӏа	J j	ja	/ʡ/, /ˤ/

The glottal stop <ъ> is often omitted when writing.

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

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 religion terms, like "Iman", "Ilma", "Do'a") and a smaller amount from Turkic (like "kuzga", "shish". It's 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 writing in Chechnya consisted of Islamic texts and clan histories, written usually in Arabic but sometimes also in Chechen using Arabic script. Those texts were largely destroyed by Soviet authorities in 1944.^{[citation needed]} The Chechen literary language was created after the October Revolution, and the Latin alphabet began to be used instead of Arabic for Chechen writing in the mid-1920s. In 1938, the Cyrillic alphabet was adopted, in order to tie the nation closer to Russia. With the declaration of the Chechen republic in 1992, some Chechen speakers returned to the Latin alphabet.

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, and of course the Cyrillic alphabet is not generally known in these countries.

The choice of alphabet in Chechen is politically significant (as Russia prefers the use of the Cyrillic alphabet, against the separatists' preference for Latin).

References

1. ^ Constitution, Article 10.1
2. ^ According to Article 11 of the Constitution of Dagestan, the official languages of the republic include "Russian and the languages of the peoples of Dagestan"
3. ^ Moshe Maʻoz, Gabriel Sheffer (2002). Middle Eastern minorities and diasporas. Sussex Academic Press. p. 255. ISBN 1902210840. http://books.google.com/books?id=FEq14wCaqwAC&pg=PA256&dq=jordan+chechens#v=onepage&q=chechens%20speak%20their%20own%20language%20punished%20if%20they%20speak%20arabic&f=false. Retrieved May 12, 2011. 
4. ^ Amjad M. Jaimoukha (2005). The Chechens: a handbook. Psychology Press. p. 239. ISBN 0415323282. http://books.google.com/books?id=O56A3HB4jo4C&pg=PA239&dq=preserve+their+language+and+culture+chechens+syria+iraq#v=onepage&q=preserve%20their%20language%20and%20culture%20chechens%20syria%20iraq&f=false. Retrieved May 12, 2011. 
5. ^ Dryer, Matthew S. "Expression of Pronominal Subjects", in Martin Haspelmath et al. (eds.) The World Atlas of Language Structures, pp. 410–412. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN 0-19-925591-1.
6. ^ Awde, Nicholas and Galäv, Muhammad, Chechen; p. 11. ISBN 0781804469
7. ^ Awde and Galäv; Chechen; p. 11

External links

	Chechnya portal
	Language portal

• Appendix:Cyrillic script
• Indigenous Language of the Caucasus (Chechen), grammatical sketch of Chechen language
• The Cyrillic and Latin Chechen alphabets
• The Chechen language | Noxchiin mott Wealth of linguistic information.
• Rferl North Caucasus Radio (also includes Avar and Adyghe)
• Chechen Language course including audio with Russian explanations