Citizendia
Your Ad Here

Chuvash
Чӑвашла, Čăvašla 
Pronunciation: /ʨəʋaʂˈla/
Spoken in: Russia 
Region: Chuvashia
Total speakers: 1,330,000 (Russian Census (2002), self-reported speakers)
Language family: Altaic[1] (controversial)
 Turkic
  Oghuric
   Chuvash 
Official status
Official language in: Chuvashia (federal subject of Russia)
Regulated by: no official regulation
Language codes
ISO 639-1: cv
ISO 639-2: chv
ISO 639-3: chv
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending Chuvash Republic (Чува́шская Респу́блика Чăваш Республики or Chuvashia (ru Чува́шия is a federal subject Russian Census of 2002 (Всеросси́йская пе́репись населе́ния 2002 го́да was the first Census of the Russian Federation carried List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family Altaic, according to its proponents is a language family that includes 66 Languages ref> Altaic languages spoken by about 348 million people mostly in and around Altaic, according to its proponents is a language family that includes 66 Languages ref> Altaic languages spoken by about 348 million people mostly in and around The Turkic languages constitute a Language family of some thirty languages spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the The Oghur languages (also known as Oghur, Oghuric, Oghur-Turkic, or Lir-Turkic) are a separate branch of the Turkic language family Chuvash Republic (Чува́шская Респу́блика Чăваш Республики or Chuvashia (ru Чува́шия is a federal subject Russia is a Federation which consists of 83  subjects. These subjects are of equal federal rights in the sense that they have equal This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Chuvash (Chuvash: Чӑвашла, Čăvašla, IPA: [ʨəʋaʂˈla]; also known as Chăvash, Chuwash, Chovash, Chavash, Çuvaş or Çuaş) is a Turkic language spoken to the west of the Ural Mountains in central Russia. The Turkic languages constitute a Language family of some thirty languages spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Riphean redirects here For the time period see Riphean stage The Ural Mountains (Ура́льские го́ры Uralskiye Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending It is the only surviving member of the Oghur branch of Turkic languages. The Oghur languages (also known as Oghur, Oghuric, Oghur-Turkic, or Lir-Turkic) are a separate branch of the Turkic language family

Chuvash is the native language of the Chuvash people and an official language of Chuvashia. The Chuvash ( Chuvash Чǎвашсем Russian Чуваши Tatar: Çuaşlar Чуашлар are a Turkic -speaking people Chuvash Republic (Чува́шская Респу́блика Чăваш Республики or Chuvashia (ru Чува́шия is a federal subject It is spoken by about two million people. [2] 86% of ethnic Chuvash and 8% of the people of other ethnicities living in Chuvashia claimed knowledge of Chuvash language during the 2002 census. Russian Census of 2002 (Всеросси́йская пе́репись населе́ния 2002 го́да was the first Census of the Russian Federation carried [3] Despite that, and although Chuvash is taught at schools and sometimes used in the media, it is considered endangered[4][5], because Russian dominates in most spheres of life and few children learning the language are likely to become active users. An endangered language is a Language that it is at risk of falling out of use generally because it has few surviving speakers Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages

The writing system for the Chuvash language is based largely on the Cyrillic alphabet, employing all of the letters used in the Russian alphabet, and adding four letters of its own: Ӑ, Ӗ, Ҫ and Ӳ. The Cyrillic alphabet (səˈrɪlɪk also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters is actually a family of Alphabets, subsets of which are used by Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages A with breve ( Majuscule: Ӑ, minuscule: ă) is a Cyrillic letter used in the Chuvash language orthography Ye with Breve ( Majuscule: Ӗ, minuscule: ӗ) is a Cyrillic letter used only in Chuvash language Es with descender or The (not the same as the Definite article) in Bashkir ( Majuscule: Ҫ, minuscule: ҫ) is a Cyrillic U with double acute ( Majuscule: Ӳ, minuscule: ӳ) is used for the Chuvash language.


Contents

History

Chuvash is the most distinctive of the Turkic languages and cannot be understood by speakers of other Turkic tongues. Its parent language — spoken by the Volga Bulghars in the Middle Ages — differs from all other modern Turkic languages so considerably that it is usually classified as a sister language of Proto-Turkic, rather than a daughter language, like the rest of the Turkic languages. Volga Bulgaria or Volga-Kama Bolghar, is an historic state that existed between the 7th and 13th centuries around the confluence of The Turkic languages constitute a Language family of some thirty languages spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the The Proto-Turkic language is the proto-language of the family of Turkic languages that predates the separation of the Turkic peoples in the course of the Other related languages, such as Hunnic, are now extinct. The Hunnic language is an extinct Language of the Huns. The records for this language are sparse

Formerly, scholars considered Chuvash not properly a Turkic language at all but, rather, a Turkicized Finno-Ugric (Uralic) language. [6]

Writing systems

Current

А Ӑ Б В Г Д Е Ё Ӗ Ж З И Й К Л М Н О П Р С Ҫ Т У Ӳ Ф Х Ц Ч Ш Щ Ъ Ы Ь Э Ю Я
а ӑ б в г д е ё ӗ ж з и й к л м н о п р с ҫ т у ӳ ф х ц ч ш щ ъ ы ь э ю я
а, ӑ, бӑ, вӑ, гӑ, дӑ, е, ё, ӗ, жӑ, зӑ, и, йӑ, кӑ, лӑ, мӑ, нӑ, о, пӑ, рӑ, сӑ, ҫӑ, тӑ, У, ӳ, фӑ, хӑ, цӑ, чӑ, шӑ, щӑ, хытӑлӑхпалли, ы, ҫемҫелӗхпалли, э, ю, я

In 1873-1938

The modern Chuvash alphabet was devised in 1873 by school inspector Ivan Yakovlevich Yakovlev [7].

а е ы и/і у ӳ ă ĕ й в к л љ м н њ п р р́ с ç т т ̌ 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 Orkhon script, disappeared after the Volga Bulgars converted to Islam. The Old Turkic script (also Göktürk script, Orkhon script, Orkhon-Yenisey script; Turkish: Orhun Yazıtları, 鄂爾渾文字 Volga Bulgaria or Volga-Kama Bolghar, is an historic state that existed between the 7th and 13th centuries around the confluence of Later, the Arabic alphabet was adopted. The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. After the Mongol invasion, writing degraded. The Mongol invasion of Volga Bulgaria lasted from 1223 to 1236 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, writing in runes reoccurred with simple folks.

Phonology

Consonants

The consonants are the following (the corresponding Cyrillic letters are in brackets): /p/ (п), /t/ (т), /k/ (к), /č/ (ч), /š/ (ш), /ś/ (ç), /χ/ (х), /v/ (в),/ m/ (м), /n/ (н), /l/ (л), /r/ (р), /y/ (й). The stops, sibilants and affricates are voiceless and fortes, but instead become lenes (sounding similar to voiced) in intervocalic position and after liquids, nasals and semi-vowels. A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. A sibilant is a type of Fricative or Affricate Consonant, made by directing a jet of air through a narrow channel in the Vocal tract towards Affricate Consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as or) but release as a fricative (such as or or occasionally into Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Fortis ( Latin "strong" and lenis ("weak" are linguistic terms Fortis ( Latin "strong" and lenis ("weak" are linguistic terms Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Liquid consonants, or liquids, are Approximant Consonants that are not classified as Semivowels (glides because they do not correspond phonetically A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the Semivowels — also known as glides or non-syllabic vowels —are Vowels that form Diphthongs with full syllabic vowels E. g. Аннепе sounds like annebe, кушакпа sounds like kuzhakpa. However, geminate consonants don't undergo this lenition. In Phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken Consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short Consonant. Furthermore, the voiced consonants occurring in Russian are used in modern Russian-language loans. Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages Consonants also become palatalized before and after front vowels. Palatalization or palatalisation (ˌpælətəlɨˈzeɪʃən generally refers to two phenomena As a process or the result of a process A front vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward

Vowels

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). The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic

Front Back
Unrounded Rounded Unrounded Rounded
High i (и) y (ӳ) ɯ (ы) u (у)
Low e (е) ø̆ (ĕ) а (а) ŏ (ă)

András Róna-Tas (1997) ([2]) 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 ĕ (ĕ) ɤ̆ (ă)
Open-mid ɛ (е)
Low a (а)

The vowels ă and ĕ are described as reduced, thereby differing in quantity from the rest. Vowel reduction is the term in Phonetics that refers to various changes in the acoustic quality of Vowels which are related to changes in stress In Linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a Vowel sound In unstressed positions, they often resemble a schwa or tend to be dropped altogether in fast speech. In Linguistics, specifically Phonetics and Phonology, schwa can mean the following An unstressed and toneless neutral 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.

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 Finnic languages have influenced the Chuvash language, as have Russian, Mari, Mongolian, Arabic, and Persian, which have all added many words to the Chuvash lexicon. The Tatar language (,, Татар теле, Татарча) is a Turkic Language spoken by the Tatars. Finno-Ugric (ˌfɪnoʊˈjuːgɹɪk is a grouping of languages in the Uralic language family comprising Finnish, Estonian, Hungarian and Russian ( transliteration:,) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages The Mari language (Mari chm марий йылме marii jylme, марийский язык spoken by more than 600000 people belongs to the Finno-Ugric The Mongolian language (mn [[ImageMonggol kelesvg 17px]] Mongɣol kele, Cyrillic: Монгол хэл Mongol khel) is the best-known member of Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language

Grammar

Chuvash is an agglutinative language and as such has an abundance of suffixes, but no native prefixes (apart from the reduplicating intensifier prefix as in шура="white", шап-шура="very white"). An agglutinative language is a Language that uses Agglutination extensively most Words are formed by joining Morphemes together In Grammar, a suffix (also postfix, ending) is an Affix which is placed at the end of a word One word can have many suffixes and these can also be used to create new words (like creating a verb from a noun, or a noun from a verbal root, see Vocabulary section further below) or to 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:

Also:

Taking кун (day) as an example:

Chuvash English Noun case
кун day, or the day Nominative
кунăн of the day Genitive
куна to the day Objective
кунра in the day Locative
кунран of the day, or from the day Ablative
кунпа with the day Instrumental

Possession is expressed by means of constructions based on verbs meaning "to exist" and "to not exist". In Linguistics, declension (or declination) is the occurrence of Inflection in Nouns Pronouns and Adjectives indicating The nominative case is a Grammatical case for a Noun, which generally marks the subject of a Verb, as opposed to its object or other In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another An oblique case (casus generalis in Linguistics is a Noun case of Synthetic languages that is used generally when a Noun is the object Locative (also called the seventh case) is a Grammatical case which indicates a location In Linguistics, ablative case ( abbreviated ABL) is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic This case in Hungarian language contains the Instrumental case and the Comitative case at the same time This case in Hungarian language combines the Causal case and the Final case: it can express the cause of Emotions (e In Linguistics, abessive (abbreviated ABESS, from Latin abesse "to be distant" caritive and privative (abbreviated In morphology, the terminative case is a case to tell where something ends (i Antessive case is used for marking before something ("before the concert" This case in the Hungarian language can express the manner when something happens to each member of a set one by one (e The semblative case is a Grammatical case that denotes the similarity of one entity to another Thus, while "пур" and "çук" represent "exists" and "not exists," "пурччĕ" and "çукччĕ" are the preterite of these. These lead to the most bizarre-looking (to a Western reader) sentential structures: e. g. , in order to say, "My cat had no shoes," we form:

кушак + -ăм + -ăн ура атă(и) + -сем çук + -ччĕ
(кушакăмăн ура аттисем çукччĕ)

which literally translates as, "cat-mine-of foot-cover(of)-plural-his non-existent-was. " Note that many of the agglutinative languages of Eurasia use a form of the copula (the 'to be' verb) in order to mark possession, instead of a distinct verb meaning 'to have. ' An example is Hungarian. Hungarian ( magyar nyelv) is a Uralic language (more specifically a Ugric language) unrelated to most other languages in Europe.

Verbs

Chuvash verbs exhibit person. They 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.
килеймерĕ She had not been able to come.
килеймерĕр You (plural) had not been able to come.
килеймерĕр-и? Have you (plural) not been able to come?

Vowel harmony

For more details on this topic, see Vowel harmony. Vowel harmony is a type of long-distance ( see below) assimilatory phonological process involving Vowels in some languages

"Vowel harmony" is the principle by which a native Chuvash word generally incorporates either exclusively back vowels (а, ă, у, ы) or exclusively front vowels (е, ĕ, 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 -тпĕр means either -тпăр, -тпĕр again with vowel harmony constituting the deciding factor.

Chuvash has two classes of vowels -- front and back (see the table above). Chuvash (Chuvash Чӑвашла Čăvašla, ʨəʋaʂˈla also known as Chăvash, Chuwash, Chovash, Chavash, Çuvaş 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. Шупашкар'та "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 (thus forms like сĕтел|пукан "furniture" are permissible). In addition, vowel harmony does not apply for loanwords and some invariant suffixes (such as -ĕ); there are also a few native Chuvash words that do not follow the rule (such as анне "mother"). A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one Language from another with little or no translation In such words suffixes harmonize with the final vowel; thus Анне'пе "With the mother".

Word order

Word order in Chuvash is generally Subject Object Verb. In Linguistic typology, Subject Object Verb (SOV is the type of languages in which the subject, object, and Verb of a sentence appear or usually

Notes

  1. ^ "[1] Ethnologue"
  2. ^ Ethnologue report for Chuvash
  3. ^ Russian Census 2002. 6. Владение языками (кроме русского) населением отдельных национальностей по республикам, автономной области и автономным округам Российской Федерации(Knowledge of languages other than Russian by the population of republics, autonomous oblast and autonomous districts)(Russian)
  4. ^ Zheltov, Pavel. An Attribute-Sample Database System for Describing Chuvash Affixes
  5. ^ UNESCO RED BOOK ON ENDANGERED LANGUAGES: EUROPE by Tapani Salminen. Last updated 22 September 1999
  6. ^ Encyclopædia Britannica (1997)
  7. ^ TELEGRAM TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE SIMBIRSK SOVIET

References

See also

External links

The Cyrillic alphabet (səˈrɪlɪk also called azbuka, from the old name of the first two letters is actually a family of Alphabets, subsets of which are used by The Hunnic language is an extinct Language of the Huns. The records for this language are sparse The Turkic languages constitute a Language family of some thirty languages spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the
© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
 Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic