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.
| Ingush | |
|---|---|
| гӏалгӏай мотт (Ghalghaj mott) | |
| Pronunciation | [ˈʁəlʁɑj mot] |
| Native to | Russia |
| Region | Ingushetia, Chechnya |
| Ethnicity | Ingush |
Native speakers | 350,000 (2020)[1] |
| Cyrillic (current) Georgian, Arabic, Latin (historical) | |
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Russia |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | inh |
| ISO 639-3 | inh |
| Glottolog | ingu1240 |
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 353,000 people (2020),[1] 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.[3] Furthermore, Georgian text was found on archaeological items in Ingushetia that could not be deciphered.[4]
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,[5] including the Latin orthography developed by Johanna Nichols:[6]
| 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 (native name: Галай-Чӏож/Галайн-Чӏаж), which is considered to be transitional between Chechen and Ingush.[7]
Grammar
Ingush is a nominative–accusative language in its syntax, though it has ergative morphology.[8]
Case
The most recent and in-depth analysis of the language[9] 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 |
- -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.
- Allomorph after vowels
- The choice of -azh vs. -ii is lexically determined for the nominative, but other cases are predictable.
Tenses
| Stem[10] | 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 |
- 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".[11]
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
Bibliography
English sources
- Nichols, Johanna (2011-03-15). Ingush Grammar (PDF). Berkeley, California; Los Angeles; London: University of California Press. pp. 1–806.
Russian sources
- Chentieva, Maryam (1958). Oshaev, Khalid (ed.). История Чечено-Ингушской письменности [The History of Checheno-Ingush writing] (in Russian). Grozny: Checheno-Ingush Book Publishing House. pp. 1–86.
- Dudarov, Abdul-Mazhit (2017). Akieva, Petimat (ed.). История эволюции ингушского письма [History of the evolution of Ingush writing] (PDF) (in Russian). Nazran: Kep. pp. 1–224. ISBN 978-5-4482-0015-1.
- Koryakov, Yuriy (2006). "Реестр Кавказских языков" [Register of Caucasian languages] (PDF). Атлас кавказских языков [Atlas of Caucasian languages] (PDF) (in Russian). Moscow: Piligrim. pp. 21–41. ISBN 5-9900772-1-1.
External links
