Ingush language

Ingush (; , , ) is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by about 350,000 people,

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.

Dialects

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

Geographic distribution

Ingush is spoken by about 350,000-400,000 people (2020) in Russia, primarily in the North Caucasian republics of Ingushetia, North Ossetia and Chechnya. Speakers can also be found in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Belgium, Norway, Turkey and Jordan.

! Arabic letters

| style="font-size:1.4em;" | څ

| style="font-size:1.4em;" | چ

| style="font-size:1.4em;" | ژ

| style="font-size:1.4em;" | ڕ

| style="font-size:1.4em;" | ڥ

| style="font-size:1.4em;" | ڢ

| style="font-size:1.4em;" | ڨ

| style="font-size:1.4em;" | ڭ

| style="font-size:1.4em;" | ڮ

! Cyrillic equivalents

| ч || чI || цI || ц || пI || п || кх || кI || г

After the October Revolution, in the 1920s, simultaneous with Chechen, Circassian, and Turkic languages of the USSR, there was a process of standardizng and indigenizing the already-utilized Arabic script for each of these langugages. By the late 1920s, with a change in Soviet policy, an adaptation of Latin alphabet was taken up, which was later replaced by Cyrillic.

{| style="font-family:Arial Unicode MS; font-size:1.4em; border-color:#000000; border-width:1px; border-style:solid; border-collapse:collapse; background-color:#F8F8EF"

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | А а

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Аь аь

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Б б

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | В в

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Г г

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Гӏ гӏ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Д д

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Е е

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Ё ё

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Ж ж

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | З з

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | И и

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Й й

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | К к

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Кх кх

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Къ къ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Кӏ кӏ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Л л

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | М м

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Н н

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | О о

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | П п

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Пӏ пӏ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Р р

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | С с

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Т т

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Тӏ тӏ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | У у

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Ф ф

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Х х

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Хь хь

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Хӏ хӏ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Ц ц

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Цӏ цӏ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Ч ч

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Чӏ чӏ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Ш ш

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Щ щ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Ъ ъ

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Ы ы

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Ь ь

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Э э

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Ю ю

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Я я

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Яь яь

| style="width:3em; text-align:center; padding: 3px;" | Ӏ ӏ

Grammar

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

Case

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

{| class="wikitable"

! Cases

! Singular

! Plural

| Absolutive

| -⌀

| -azh / -ii, -i

| Ergative

| -uo / -z, -aa

| –azh

| Genitive

| -a, -n

| -ii, -i

| Dative

| -aa, -na

| -azh-ta

| Allative

| -ga

| -azh-ka

| Instrumental

| -ca

| -azh-ca

| Lative

| -gh

| -egh

| Comparative

| -l

| -el

Tenses

{| class="wikitable"

! Stem !! Suffix !! Tense !! Example

| rowspan="2" | Infinitive Stem (INFS)

| {-a}

| Infinitive (INF)

| laaca

| {-a}

| Imperative (IMP)

| laaca

| rowspan="4" | Present Stem (unmarked)

| ---

| Generic Present (PRES)

| loac

| {-az&}

| Simultaneous Converb (SCV)

| loacaz&

| {-ar}

| Imperfect (IMPF)

| loacar

| {-agDa}

| Future (FUT)

| loacadda

| rowspan="4" | Past Stem (PAST)

| {-ar}

| Witnessed Past (WIT)

| leacar

| {-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.

{| class="wikitable"

! 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

{| class="wikitable"

! rowspan="3" |

! colspan="3" | 1st person

! colspan="2" | 2nd person

! colspan="2" | 3rd person

! rowspan="2" | singular

! colspan="2" | plural

! rowspan="2" | singular

! rowspan="2" | plural

! rowspan="2" | singular

! rowspan="2" | plural

! Nominative

! Genitive

! Dative

! Ergative

! Allative

! Ablative

! Instrumental

! Lative

! Comparative

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".

References

Bibliography

English sources

Russian sources

External links

Appendix:Cyrillic script
Indigenous Language of the Caucasus (Ingush)
Ingush Language Project at UC Berkeley
University of Graz report
Russian-Ghalghaj (Ingush) vocabulary
Ingush 100-word Swadesh list at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
PaydaDosh — Ingush-Russian online dictionary (66,000+ entries, text corpus, proverbs)