Ingush language
| Ingush | |
|---|---|
| ГӀалгӀай мотт (Ğalğaj mott) | |
| Pronunciation | [ʁəlʁɑj mot] |
| Native to | Russia, Kazakhstan |
| Region | Ingushetia, Chechnya |
| Ethnicity | Ingush |
Native speakers | 416,000 (1999–2010)[1] |
| Official status | |
Official language in | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | inh |
| ISO 639-3 | inh |
| Glottolog | ingu1240[2] |
Ingush (/ˈɪŋɡʊʃ/, ГӀалгӀай, Ġalġay, pronounced [ʁəlʁɑj]) 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.
Contents
Classification[edit]
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.[3]
Geographic distribution[edit]
Ingush is spoken by about 413,000 people (2002),[4] 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.
Official status[edit]
Ingush is, alongside Russian, an official language of Ingushetia, a federal subject of Russia.
Writing system[edit]
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 |
Phonology[edit]
Vowels[edit]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | и [i] | у [u] | |
| Mid | э [e] | ? [ə] | о [o] |
| Low | аь [æ] | а [ɑː, ɑ] |
The diphthongs are иэ /ie/, уо /uo/, оа /oɑ/, ий /ij/, эи /ei/, ои /oi/, уи /ui/, ов /ow/, ув /uw/.
Consonants[edit]
The consonants of Ingush are as follows,[5] including the Latin orthography developed by Johanna Nichols:
| Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Epiglottal | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| central | lateral | palatalized | plain | ||||||||
| Nasal | м m [m] | н n [n] | |||||||||
| Plosive | voiceless | п p [p] | т t [t] | к kj [kʲ] | к k [k] | кх q [q] | Ӏ w [ʡ] | ъ ʼ [ʔ] | |||
| voiced | б b [b] | д d [d] | г gj [ɡʲ] | г g [ɡ] | |||||||
| ejective | пӀ pʼ [pʼ] | тӀ tʼ [tʼ] | кӀ kjʼ [kʲʼ] | кӀ kʼ [kʼ] | къ qʼ [qʼ] | ||||||
| Affricate | voiceless | ц c [t͡s] | ч ch [t͡ʃ] | ||||||||
| ejective | цӀ cʼ [t͡sʼ] | чӀ chʼ [t͡ʃʼ] | |||||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | ф f [f] | с s [s] | ш sh [ʃ] | х x[χ] | хь hw [ʜ] | хӀ h [h] | ||||
| voiced | в v [v]/[w] | 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[edit]
Ingush is not divided into dialects with the exception of Galain-Chazh (native name: Галайн-ЧӀаж), which is considered to be transitional between Chechen and Ingush.
Grammar[edit]
Ingush is a nominative–accusative language in its syntax, though it has ergative morphology.[6]
Case[edit]
The most recent and in-depth analysis of the language[7] shows eight cases: nominative, ergative, genitive, dative, allative, instrumental, lative, and comparative.
| Cases | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | -⌀ | -azh / -ii, -i3 |
| Ergative | -uo / -z, -aa1 | -asha / –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 |
- -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 productive in colloquial use.
- Allomorph after vowels
- The choice of -azh vs. -ii is lexically determined for the nominative, but other cases are predictable.
Tenses[8][edit]
| STEM | 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[edit]
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 |
- Note that "four" and its derivatives begin with noun-class marker. d- is merely the default value.
Pronouns[edit]
| 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[edit]
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".[9]
- muusaa vy hwuona telefon jettazh
- Musa V.PROG 2sg.DAT telephone striking
- 'Musa is telephoning you.'
References[edit]
- ^ "Ingush". Ethnologue. Retrieved 2018-05-08.
- ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Ingush". Glottolog 3.0. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
- ^ Johanna Nichols, Ronald L. Sprouse, Ingush-English and English-Ingush dictionary. p 1
- ^ Ethnologue report for Ingush
- ^ Johanna Nichols, Ingush Grammar (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011) ISBN 978-0-520-09877-0.
- ^ Johanna Nichols, Case in Ingush Syntax, and Johanna Nichols,Ingush Grammar (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010). ISBN 0-520-09877-3.
- ^ Johanna Nichols, Ingush Grammar.
- ^ Zev Handel, Ingush inflectional verb morphology: a synchronic classification and historical analysis with comparison to Chechen http://faculty.washington.edu/zhandel/Handel_Ingush.pdf.
- ^ Nichols, Johanna. (2011). Ingush Grammar. Berkeley: The University of California Press. Pp. 678ff.
External links[edit]
| Ingush edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |