Chuvash language

Chuvash
Чӑвашла, Čăvašla
Pronunciation [tɕəʋaʂˈla]
Native to Russia
Region Chuvashia and adjacent areas
Ethnicity Chuvash
Native speakers
 1.1 million[1] (2010 census)[2]
Turkic
Early forms
Bulgar
  • Chuvash
Cyrillic
Official status
Official language in

 Russia

Language codes
ISO 639-1 cv
ISO 639-2 chv
ISO 639-3 chv
Glottolog chuv1255[3]

Chuvash (Чӑвашла, Čăvašla; IPA: [tɕəʋaʂˈla])[4] is a Turkic language spoken in central Russia, primarily in the Chuvash Republic and adjacent areas. It is the only surviving member of the Oghur branch of Turkic languages, and thus makes up one full half of the language family. While many Turkic languages demonstrate mutual intelligibility to varying degrees, Chuvash has diverged considerably from the other languages in the group.

The writing system for the Chuvash language is based on the Cyrillic script, employing all of the letters used in the Russian alphabet, and adding four letters of its own: Ӑ, Ӗ, Ҫ and Ӳ.

Use

Stamp of the Soviet Union, Chuvash people, 1933

Chuvash is the native language of the Chuvash people and an official language of Chuvashia.[5][6] It is spoken by 1,640,000 persons in Russia and another 34,000 in other countries.[7] 86% of ethnic Chuvash and 8% of the people of other ethnicities living in Chuvashia claimed knowledge of Chuvash language during the 2002 census.[8] Despite that, and although Chuvash is taught at schools and sometimes used in the media, it is considered endangered,[9][10] because Russian dominates in most spheres of life and few children learning the language are likely to become active users.

A fairly significant production and publication of literature in Chuvash still continues. According to UNESCO's Index Translationum, at least 202 books translated from Chuvash were published in other languages (mostly Russian) since ca. 1979.[11] However, as with most of other languages of the former USSR, most of the translation activity took place before the dissolution of the USSR: out of the 202 translations, 170 books were published in the USSR,[12] and just 17, in the post-1991 Russia (mostly, in the 1990s).[13] A similar situation takes place with the translation of books from other languages (mostly Russian) into Chuvash (the total of 175 titles published since ca. 1979, but just 18 out of them, in the post-1991 Russia).[14]

History

Chuvash is the most distinctive of the Turkic languages and cannot be understood by speakers of other Turkic tongues. Chuvash is classified, alongside the extinct languages Bulgar, as the only remaining member of the Oghuric branch of the Turkic language family. Since the surviving literary records for the non-Chuvash members of Oghuric are scant, the exact position of Chuvash within the Oghuric family cannot be determined.

The Oghuric branch is distinguished from the rest of the Turkic family (the Common Turkic languages) by two sound changes: r corresponding to Common Turkic z, and l corresponding to Common Turkic ş.[15]

Formerly, scholars considered Chuvash not properly a Turkic language at all but, rather, a Turkicized Finno-Ugric (Uralic) language.[16]

Writing systems

Current

А а Ӑ ӑ Б б В в Г г Д д Е е Ё ё
Ӗ ӗ Ж ж З з И и Й й К к Л л М м
Н н О о П п Р р С с Ҫ ҫ Т т У у
Ӳ ӳ Ф ф Х х Ц ц Ч ч Ш ш Щ щ Ъ ъ
Ы ы Ь ь Э э Ю ю Я я
Name IPA Translit. Notes
А а а /a/ a
Ӑ ӑ ӑ /ə/ ă a'
Б б бӑ /b/ b only in loanwords from Russian
В в вӑ /ʋ/ v
Г г гӑ /a/ g only in loanwords from Russian
Д д дӑ /d/ d only in loanwords from Russian
Е е е /ɛ/ je
Ё ё ё /jo/ or /ʲo/ jo only in loanwords from Russian
Ӗ ӗ ӗ /ɘ/ ĕ e'
Ж ж жӑ /ʐ/ ž only in loanwords from Russian
З з зӑ /z/ z only in loanwords from Russian
И и и /i/ i
Й й йӑ /j/ j
К к кӑ /k/ k
Л л лӑ /l/ l l'
М м мӑ /m/ m
Н н нӑ /n/ n n'
О о о /o/ o only in loanwords from Russian
П п пӑ /p/ p
Р р рӑ /r/ r r'
С с сӑ /s/ s
Ҫ ҫ ҫӑ /ɕ/ ś s'
Т т тӑ /t/ t
У у у /u/ u
Ӳ ӳ ӳ /y/ ü u'
Ф ф фӑ /f/ f only in loanwords from Russian
Х х хӑ /χ/ h
Ц ц цӑ /ts/ c only in loanwords from Russian
Ч ч чӑ /tɕ/ č
Ш ш шӑ /ʂ/ š
Щ щ щӑ /ɕː/
/ɕt͡ɕ/		 šč only in loanwords from Russian
Ъ ъ хытӑлӑх палли – ʺ only in loanwords from Russian. Placed after a consonant, acts as a "silent back vowel"; puts a distinct /j/ sound in front of the following iotified vowels with no palatalization of the preceding consonant
Ы ы ы /o/ y only in beginning of words, 1-2 letters
Ь ь ҫемҫелӗх палли /ʲ/ ʹ Placed after a consonant, acts as a "silent front vowel", slightly palatalizes the preceding consonant
Э э э /e/ e only first letter
Ю ю ю /ju/ or /ʲu/ ju
Я я я /ja/ or /ʲa/ ja

1873–1938

The modern Chuvash alphabet was devised in 1873 by school inspector Ivan Yakovlevich Yakovlev.[17]

а е ы и/і у ӳ ӑ ӗ й в к л ԡ м н ԣ п р р́ с ҫ т т̌ ђ х ш

In 1938, the alphabet underwent significant modification which brought it to its current form.

Previous systems

The most ancient writing system, known as the Old Turkic alphabet, disappeared after the Volga Bulgars converted to Islam. Later, the Arabic script was adopted. After the Mongol invasion, writing degraded. After Peter the Great's reforms Chuvash elites disappeared, blacksmiths and some other crafts were prohibited for non-Russian nations, the Chuvash were educated in Russian, while writing in runes recurred with simple folks.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonants are the following (the corresponding Cyrillic letters are in brackets): /p/ (п), /t/ (т), /k/ (к), /tɕ/ (ч), /s/ (с), /ʂ/ (ш), /ɕ/ (ҫ), /χ/ (х), /ʋ/ (в), /m/ (м), /n/ (н), /l/ (л), /r/ (р), /j/ (й). The stops, sibilants and affricates are voiceless and fortes but become lenes (sounding similar to voiced) in intervocalic position and after liquids, nasals and semi-vowels. Аннепе sounds like annebe, but кушакпа sounds like kuzhakpa. However, geminate consonants do not undergo this lenition. Furthermore, the voiced consonants occurring in Russian are used in modern Russian-language loans. Consonants also become palatalized before and after front vowels.

Vowels

A possible scheme for the diachronic development of Chuvash vowels (note that not all the sounds with an asterisk are necessarily separate phonemes).

According to Krueger (1961), the Chuvash vowel system is as follows (the precise IPA symbols are chosen based on his description since he uses a different transcription).

Front Back
Unrounded Rounded Unrounded Rounded
High i ⟨и⟩ y ⟨ӳ⟩ ɯ ⟨ы⟩ u ⟨у⟩
Low e ⟨е⟩ ø̆ ⟨ӗ⟩ а ⟨а⟩ ŏ ⟨ӑ⟩

András Róna-Tas (1997)[18] provides a somewhat different description, also with a partly idiosyncratic transcription. The following table is based on his version, with additional information from Petrov (2001). Again, the IPA symbols are not directly taken from the works so they could be inaccurate.

Front Back
Unrounded Rounded Unrounded Rounded
High i ⟨и⟩ y ⟨ӳ⟩ ɯ ⟨ы⟩ u ⟨у⟩
Close-mid ӗ ⟨ĕ⟩ ɤ̆ ⟨ӑ⟩
Open-mid ɛ ⟨е⟩
Low a ⟨а⟩

The vowels ӑ and ӗ are described as reduced, thereby differing in quantity from the rest. In unstressed positions, they often resemble a schwa or tend to be dropped altogether in fast speech. At times, especially when stressed, they may be somewhat rounded and sound similar to /o/ and /ø/.

Additionally, ɔ (о) occurs in loanwords from Russian where the syllable is unstressed in Russian.

Dialects

There are two dialects of Chuvash: Viryal or Upper (which has both o and u) and Anatri or Lower (which has u for both o and u: up. totă "full", tută "taste" – lo. tută "full, taste" ). The literary language is based on both the Lower and Upper dialects. Both Tatar and the neighboring Uralic languages such as Mari have influenced the Chuvash language, as have Russian, Mongolian, Arabic, and Persian, which have all added many words to the Chuvash lexicon.

Morphology

As characteristic of all Turkic languages, Chuvash is an agglutinative language and as such, has an abundance of suffixes but no native prefixes (apart from the superlative prefix as in: шурӑ - white, шап-шурӑ - very white, лайăх - good, лап-лайăх - very good, хитре - beautiful, хип-хитре - very beautiful, çĕнĕ - new, çĕп-çĕнĕ - very new). One word can have many suffixes, which can also be used to create new words like creating a verb from a noun or a noun from a verbal root. See Vocabulary below. It can also indicate the grammatical function of the word.

Nouns and adjectives

Chuvash nouns can take endings indicating the person of a possessor. They can take case-endings. There are six noun cases in the Chuvash declension system:

Grammatical case:

Plural:

Also:

Adjective:

Verb:

Taking кун (day) as an example:

Noun case Chuvash English
Nominative кун day, or the day
Possessive кунӑн of the day
Dative-Accusative куна to the day
Locative кунта in the day
Ablative кунтан of the day, or from the day
Instrumental кунпа with the day

Possession is expressed by means of constructions based on verbs meaning "to exist" and "not to exist" ("пур" and "ҫук"). For example, to say, "My cat had no shoes":

кушак + -ӑн ура атӑ(и) + -сем ҫук + -ччӗ
(кушакӑн ура аттисем ҫукччӗ)

which literally translates as "cat-mine-of foot-cover(of)-plural-his non-existent-was."

Verbs

Chuvash verbs exhibit person and can be made negative or impotential; they can also be made potential. Finally, Chuvash verbs exhibit various distinctions of tense mood, and aspect: a verb can be progressive, necessitative, aorist, future, inferential, present, past, conditional, imperative or optative.

Chuvash English
кил- (to) come
килме- not (to) come
килейме- not (to) be able to come
килеймен She (or he) was apparently unable to come.
килеймерӗ She had not been able to come.
килеймерӗр You (plural) had not been able to come.
килеймерӗр-и? Have you (plural) not been able to come?

Vowel harmony

Vowel harmony is the principle by which a native Chuvash word generally incorporates either exclusively back vowels (а, ӑ, у, ы) or exclusively front vowels (е, ӗ, и, ӳ). As such, a notation for a Chuvash suffix such as -тен means either -тан or -тен, whichever promotes vowel harmony; a notation such as -тпӗр means either -тпӑр, -тпӗр, again with vowel harmony constituting the deciding factor.

Chuvash has two classes of vowels: front and back (see the table above). Vowel harmony states that words may not contain both front and back vowels. Therefore, most grammatical suffixes come in front and back forms, e.g. Шупашкарта "in Cheboksary" but килте "at home".

Exceptions

Compound words are considered separate words with respect to vowel harmony: vowels do not have to harmonize between members of the compound (so forms like сӗтел|пукан "furniture" are permissible). In addition, vowel harmony does not apply for loanwords and some invariant suffixes (such as -ӗ); there are also a few native Chuvash words that do not follow the rule (such as анне "mother"). In such words suffixes harmonize with the final vowel; thus Аннепе "with the mother".

Word order

Word order in Chuvash is generally subject–object–verb.

Chuvash numbers

See also

References

Specific
  1. ↑ Перепись-2010
  2. ↑ Chuvash at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  3. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Chuvash". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
  4. ↑ also known as Chăvash, Chuwash, Chovash, Chavash, Çuvaş or Çuaş
  5. ↑ http://www.cv-haval.org/ru/node/54 Эктор Алос-и-Фонт. Оценка языковой политики в Чувашии
  6. ↑ http://cvlat.blogspot.com/2010/11/blog-post.html Оценка языковой политики в Чувашии
  7. ↑ Ethnologue report for Chuvash
  8. ↑ Russian Census 2002. 6. Владение языками (кроме русского) населением отдельных национальностей по республикам, автономной области и автономным округам Российской Федерации Archived 4 November 2006 at the Wayback Machine.(Knowledge of languages other than Russian by the population of republics, autonomous oblast and autonomous districts)(Russian)
  9. ↑ Zheltov, Pavel. An Attribute-Sample Database System for Describing Chuvash Affixes
  10. ↑ Tapani Salminen (22 September 1999). "UNESCO red book on endangered languages: Europe".
  11. ↑ Index Translationum: translations from Chuvash - shows 202 titles, as of 2013-01-06. The index has data since ca. 1979.
  12. ↑ Index Translationum: translations from Chuvash, published in the USSR - shows 170 titles
  13. ↑ Index Translationum: translations from Chuvash, published in Russia - shows 17 titles
  14. ↑ Index Translationum: translations into Chuvash
  15. ↑ Johanson (1998); cf. Johanson (2000, 2007) and the articles pertaining to the subject in Johanson & Csató (ed., 1998).
  16. ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica (1997)
  17. ↑ "Telegram to the Chairman of the Simbirsk Soviet". Retrieved 30 August 2010.
  18. ↑ András Róna-Tas. "Nutshell Chuvash" (PDF). Erasmus Mundus Intensive Program Turkic languages and cultures in Europe (TLCE). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 August 2011. Retrieved 31 August 2010.
General

External links

Chuvash edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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