Ingush language

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 toNorth Caucasus
RegionIngushetia, Chechnya
EthnicityIngush
Native speakers
330,000 (2010–2017)[1]
Northeast Caucasian
Cyrillic (current)
Arabic, Latin (historical)
Official status
Official language in
 Russia
Language codes
ISO 639-2inh
ISO 639-3inh
Glottologingu1240

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),[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.

Official status

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

Writing system

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
FrontCentralBack
High и/i [i] у/u [u]
Mid э/e [e] varies [ə] о/o [o]
Low аь/ea [æ] а/a [ɑː], [ɑ]

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,[3] including the Latin orthography developed by Johanna Nichols:[4]

Labial Alveolar Postalveolar/
Palatal		 Velar Uvular Epiglottal Glottal
central sibilant palatalized plain
Nasal м m [m] н n [n]
Plosive 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]
ejective пӀ pʼ [pʼ] тӀ tʼ [tʼ] цӀ cʼ [t͡sʼ] чӀ ch’ [t͡ʃʼ] кӀ jkʼ [kʲʼ] кӀ kʼ [kʼ] къ qʼ [qʼ]
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 y [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.[5]

Grammar

Ingush is a nominative–accusative language in its syntax, though it has ergative morphology.[6]

Case

The most recent and in-depth analysis of the language[7] shows eight cases: absolutive, ergative, genitive, dative, allative, instrumental, lative and comparative.

CasesSingularPlural
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[8]
StemSuffixTenseExample
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.

OrthographyPhoneticValueComposition
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]111+10
shiitt[ʃitː]122+10
qoitt[qoitː]133+10
d.iitt1[ditː]144+10
pxiitt[pxitː]155+10
jalxett[jʌlxɛtː]166+10
vuriit[vʷʊritː]177+10
bareitt[bʌreitː]188+10
tq'iesta[tqʼiːestə̆]19
tq'o[tqʼo]20
tq'ea itt[tqʼɛ̯æjitː]3020+10
shouztq'a[ʃouztqʼə̆]402×20
shouztq'aj itt[ʃouztqʼetː]502×20+10
bwea[bʕɛ̯æ]100
shi bwea[ʃɪ bʕɛ̯æ]2002×100
ezar[ɛzər]1000loan from Persian
  1. Note that "four" and its derivatives begin with noun-class marker. d- is merely the default value.

Pronouns
1sg1plexcl1plincl2sg2pl3sg3pl
Nom.sotxovaihwosho/shuyzyzh
Gen.sytxyvaihwashyncyn/cuncaar
Dat.suonatxuonavainahwuonashoanacynnacaana
Erg.aazoaxavaiwaoashacuocaar
All.suogatxuogavaigahwuogashuogacyngacaarga
Abl.suogaratxuogaravaigarahwuogarashuogaracyngaracaargara
Instr.suoca(a)txuoca(a)vaica(a)hwuocashuoca(a)cyncacaarca(a)
Lat.soghtxoghvaighhwoghshoghcoghcaaregh
Csn.soltxolvailhwolsholcul/cylcaarel

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".[9]

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 (25th ed., 2022) closed access
  2. Johanna Nichols, Ronald L. Sprouse, Ingush-English and English-Ingush dictionary. p 1
  3. Johanna Nichols, Ingush Grammar (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011) ISBN 978-0-520-09877-0.
  4. Johanna Nichols, Ingush Grammar (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2011), 19-21 ISBN 978-0-520-09877-0.
  5. Коряков 2006, p. 25.
  6. Johanna Nichols, Case in Ingush Syntax and Johanna Nichols, Ingush Grammar (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010). ISBN 0-520-09877-3.
  7. Johanna Nichols, Ingush Grammar.
  8. Zev Handel, Ingush inflectional verb morphology: a synchronic classification and historical analysis with comparison to Chechen http://faculty.washington.edu/zhandel/Handel_Ingush.pdf.
  9. 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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