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Ingush language

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Ingush
гӏалгӏай мотт (Ghalghaj mott)
Pronunciation[ˈʁəlʁɑj mot]
Native toRussia
RegionIngushetia, Chechnya
EthnicityIngush
Native speakers
350,000 (2020)[1]
Cyrillic (current)
Georgian, Arabic, Latin (historical)
Official status
Official language in
 Russia
Language codes
ISO 639-2inh
ISO 639-3inh
Glottologingu1240
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Ingush (/ˈɪŋɡʊʃ/; Гӏалгӏай мотт, Ghalghaj mott, pronounced [ˈʁəlʁɑj mot]) is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by about 500,000 people, known as the Ingush, across a region covering the Russian republics of Ingushetia and Chechnya.

Classification

Ingush and Chechen, together with Bats, constitute the Nakh branch of the Northeast Caucasian language family. There is pervasive passive bilingualism between Ingush and Chechen.[2]

Geographic distribution

Ingush is spoken by about 413,000 people (2002),[3] primarily across a region in the Caucasus covering parts of Russia, primarily Ingushetia and Chechnya. Speakers can also be found in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Belgium, Norway, Turkey and Jordan.[citation needed]

Official status

Ingush is, alongside Russian, an official language of Ingushetia, a federal subject of Russia.

Writing system

It is possible that during the period of 8–12th century, when the Temples like Tkhaba-Yerdy emerged in Ingushetia, a writing system based off a Georgian script emerged. This is attested by the fact that a non-Georgian name, 'Enola', was found written on the arc of Tkhaba-Yerdy.[4] Furthermore, Georgian text was found on archaeological items in Ingushetia that could not be deciphered.[5]

Ingush became a written language with an Arabic-based writing system at the beginning of the 20th century. After the October Revolution it first used a Latin alphabet, which was later replaced by Cyrillic.

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 П п Пӏ пӏ Р р
С с Т т Тӏ тӏ У у 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 Я я Яь яь Ӏ ӏ

Phonology

Vowels

Front Central Back
High и/i [ɪ] varies [ɨ] у/u [ʊ]
Mid э/e [e] varies [ə] о/o [o]
Low аь/ea [æ] а/a [ɑː]

The diphthongs are иэ /ie/, уо /uo/, оа /oɑ/, ий /ij/, эи /ei/, ои /oi/, уи /ui/, ов /ow/, ув /uw/.

Consonants

The consonants of Ingush are as follows,[6] including the Latin orthography developed by Johanna Nichols:[7]

Labial Alveolar Postalveolar/
Palatal 		Velar Uvular Epiglottal Glottal
central sibilant palatalized plain
Nasal м m [m] н n [n]
Plosive ejective пӏ pʼ [pʼ] тӏ tʼ [tʼ] цӏ cʼ [t͡sʼ] чӏ ch’ [t͡ʃʼ] кӏ jkʼ [kʲʼ] кӏ kʼ [kʼ] къ qʼ [qʼ]
voiceless п p [p] т t [t] ц c [t͡s] ч ch [t͡ʃ] к jk [kʲ] к k [k] кх q [q] ӏ w [ʡ] ъ ʼ [ʔ]
voiced б b [b] д d [d] г jg [ɡʲ] г g [ɡ]
Fricative voiceless ф f [f] с s [s] ш sh [ʃ] х x[χ] хь hw [ʜ] хӏ h [h]
voiced в v [ʋ] з z [z] ж zh [ʒ] гӏ gh [ʁ]
Approximant л l [l] й j [j]
Trill voiceless рхӏ rh [r̥]
voiced р r [r]

Dialects

Ingush is not divided into dialects with the exception of Galanchoz [ru] (native name: Галай-Чӏож/Галайн-Чӏаж), which is considered to be transitional between Chechen and Ingush.[8]

Grammar

Ingush is a nominative–accusative language in its syntax, though it has ergative morphology.[9]

Case

The most recent and in-depth analysis of the language[10] shows eight cases: absolutive, ergative, genitive, dative, allative, instrumental, lative and comparative.

Cases Singular Plural
Absolutive -⌀ -azh / -ii, -i3
Ergative -uo / -z, -aa1 –azh
Genitive -a, -n2 -ii, -i
Dative -na, aa2 -azh-ta
Allative -ga -azh-ka
Instrumental -ca -azh-ca
Lative -gh -egh
Comparative -l -el
  1. -uo is the only productive form. -z appears with personal names, kin terms, and other nouns referring to humans. -aa occurs with some declensions and is increasingly unproductive in colloquial use.
  2. Allomorph after vowels
  3. The choice of -azh vs. -ii is lexically determined for the nominative, but other cases are predictable.

Tenses

Stem[11] Suffix Tense Example
Infinitive Stem {-a} Infinitive (INF) laaca
(INFS) {-a} Imperative (IMP) laaca
Present Stem --- Generic Present (PRES) loac
(unmarked) {-az&} Simultaneous Converb (SCV) loacaz&
{-ar} Imperfect (IMPF) loacar
{-agDa} FUTURE (FUT) loacadda
Past Stem {-ar} Witnessed Past (WIT) leacar
(PAST) {-aa}/{-na} Anterior Converb (ACV) leacaa
{-aa} + {-D} / {-na} + {-D} Perfect (PERF) leacaad
{-aa} + {-Dar} / {-na} + {-Dar} Pluperfect (PLUP) leacaadar

Numerals

Like many Northeast Caucasian languages, Ingush uses a vigesimal system, where numbers lower than twenty are counted as in a base-ten system, but higher decads are base-twenty.

Orthography Phonetic Value Composition
cwa [t͡sʕʌ] 1
shi [ʃɪ] 2
qo [qo] 3
d.i'1 [dɪʔ] 4
pxi [pxɪ] 5
jaalx [jalx] 6
vorh [vʷor̥] 7
baarh [bar̥] 8
iis [is] 9
itt [itː] 10
cwaitt [t͡sʕɛtː] 11 1+10
shiitt [ʃitː] 12 2+10
qoitt [qoitː] 13 3+10
d.iitt1 [ditː] 14 4+10
pxiitt [pxitː] 15 5+10
jalxett [jʌlxɛtː] 16 6+10
vuriit [vʷʊritː] 17 7+10
bareitt [bʌreitː] 18 8+10
tq'iesta [tqʼiːestə̆] 19
tq'o [tqʼo] 20
tq'ea itt [tqʼɛ̯æjitː] 30 20+10
shouztq'a [ʃouztqʼə̆] 40 2×20
shouztq'aj itt [ʃouztqʼetː] 50 2×20+10
bwea [bʕɛ̯æ] 100
shi bwea [ʃɪ bʕɛ̯æ] 200 2×100
ezar [ɛzər] 1000 loan from Persian
  1. Note that "four" and its derivatives begin with noun-class marker. d- is merely the default value.

Pronouns

1sg 1plexcl 1plincl 2sg 2pl 3sg 3pl
Nom. so txo vai hwo sho/shu yz yzh
Gen. sy txy vai hwa shyn cyn/cun caar
Dat. suona txuona vaina hwuona shoana cynna caana
Erg. aaz oaxa vai wa oasha cuo caar
All. suoga txuoga vaiga hwuoga shuoga cynga caarga
Abl. suogara txuogara vaigara hwuogara shuogara cyngara caargara
Instr. suoca(a) txuoca(a) vaica(a) hwuoca shuoca(a) cynca caarca(a)
Lat. sogh txogh vaigh hwogh shogh cogh caaregh
Csn. sol txol vail hwol shol cul/cyl caarel

Word order

In Ingush, "for main clauses, other than episode-initial and other all-new ones, verb-second order is most common. The verb, or the finite part of a compound verb or analytic tense form (i.e. the light verb or the auxiliary), follows the first word or phrase in the clause".[12]

Muusaa vy hwuona telefon jettazh

|Musa V.PROG 2sg.DAT telephone striking

|It's Musa. It's Musa on the phone for you. (After answering the phone.)

References

  1. ^ Ingush at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Johanna Nichols, Ronald L. Sprouse, Ingush-English and English-Ingush dictionary. p 1
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference e25 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Chentieva 1958, p. 13.
  5. ^ Chentieva 1958, p. 14.
  6. ^ Johanna Nichols, Ingush Grammar (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011) ISBN 978-0-520-09877-0.
  7. ^ Johanna Nichols, Ingush Grammar (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), 19-21 ISBN 978-0-520-09877-0.
  8. ^ Koryakov 2006, p. 25.
  9. ^ Johanna Nichols, Case in Ingush Syntax and Johanna Nichols, Ingush Grammar (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010). ISBN 0-520-09877-3.
  10. ^ Johanna Nichols, Ingush Grammar.
  11. ^ Zev Handel, Ingush inflectional verb morphology: a synchronic classification and historical analysis with comparison to Chechen http://faculty.washington.edu/zhandel/Handel_Ingush.pdf.
  12. ^ Nichols, Johanna. (2011). Ingush Grammar. Berkeley: The University of California Press. Pp. 678ff.

Bibliography

English sources

Russian sources

Ingush edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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