Chuvash Language

Chuvash ( , ; , , ) is a Turkic language spoken in European Russia, primarily in the Chuvash Republic and adjacent areas. It is the only surviving member of the Oghur branch of Turkic languages, one of the two principal branches of the Turkic family.

The writing system for the Chuvash language is based on the Cyrillic script, employing all of the letters used in the Russian alphabet and adding four letters of its own: Ӑ, Ӗ, Ҫ and Ӳ.

Distribution

Chuvash is the native language of the Chuvash people and an official language of Chuvashia. There are contradictory numbers regarding the number of people able to speak Chuvash nowadays; some sources claim it is spoken by 1,640,000 persons in Russia and another 34,000 in other countries and that 86% of ethnic Chuvash and 8% of the people of other ethnicities living in Chuvashia claimed knowledge of Chuvash language during the 2002 census. However, other sources claim that the number of Chuvash speakers is on the decline, with a drop from 1 million speakers in 2010 to 700,000 in 2021; observers suggest this is due to Moscow having a lack of interest in preserving the language diversity in Russia. Although Chuvash is taught at schools and sometimes used in the media, it is considered endangered by the UNESCO, because Russian dominates in most spheres of life and few children learning the language are likely to become active users.

A fairly significant production and publication of literature in Chuvash still continues. According to UNESCO's ''Index Translationum'', at least 202 books translated from Chuvash were published in other languages (mostly Russian) since ca. 1979. However, as with most other languages of the former USSR, most of the translation activity took place before the dissolution of the USSR: out of the 202 translations, 170 books were published in the USSR and just 17, in the post-1991 Russia (mostly, in the 1990s). A similar situation takes place with the translation of books from other languages (mostly Russian) into Chuvash (the total of 175 titles published since ca. 1979, but just 18 of them in post-1991 Russia).

Classification

Chuvash is the most distinctive of the Turkic languages and cannot be understood by other Turkic speakers, whose languages have varying degrees of mutual intelligibility within their respective subgroups. Chuvash is classified, alongside the long-extinct Bulgar, as a member of the Oghuric branch of the Turkic language family, or equivalently, the sole surviving descendant of West Old Turkic. Since the surviving literary records for the non-Chuvash members of Oghuric (Bulgar and possibly Khazar) are scant, the exact position of Chuvash within the Oghuric family cannot be determined.

Despite grammatical similarity with the rest of Turkic language family, the presence of changes in Chuvash pronunciation (which are hard to reconcile with other members of the Turkic family) has led some scholars to see Chuvash as originating not from Proto-Turkic but from another proto-language spoken at the time of Proto-Turkic (in which case Chuvash and all the remaining Turkic languages would be part of a larger language family).

Italian historian and philologist Igor de Rachewiltz noted a significant distinction of the Chuvash language from other Turkic languages. According to him, the Chuvash language does not share certain common characteristics with Turkic languages to such a degree that some scholars consider Chuvash as an independent branch from Turkic and Mongolic. The Turkic classification of Chuvash was seen as a compromise solution for classification purposes.

The Oghuric branch is distinguished from the rest of the Turkic family (the Common Turkic languages) by two sound changes: ''r'' corresponding to Common Turkic ''z'' and ''l'' corresponding to Common Turkic ''š''. The first scientific fieldwork description of Chuvash, by August Ahlqvist in 1856, allowed researchers to establish its proper affiliation.

Some scholars suggest Hunnish had strong ties with Chuvash and classify Chuvash as separate Hunno-Bulgar. However, such speculations are not based on proper linguistic evidence, since the language of the Huns is almost unknown except for a few attested words and personal names. Scholars generally consider Hunnish as unclassifiable. Chuvash is so divergent from the main body of Turkic languages that some scholars formerly considered Chuvash to be a Uralic language. Conversely, other scholars today regard it as an Oghuric language significantly influenced by the Finno-Ugric languages.

The following sound changes and resulting sound correspondences are typical:Agyagási (2019: passim)

Most of the (non-allophonic) consonant changes listed in the table above are thought to date from the period before the Bulgars migrated to the Volga region in the 10th century; some notable exceptions are the ''č'' > ''ś'' shift and the final stage of the ''-d'' > ''-ð'' > ''-z'' > ''-r'' shift, which date from the following, Volga Bulgar period (between the 10th-century migration and the Mongol invasions of the 13th century). The vowel changes mostly occurred later, mainly during the Middle Chuvash period (between the invasions and the 17th century), except for the diphthongisation, which took place during the Volga Bulgar period. Many sound changes known from Chuvash can be observed in Turkic loanwords into Hungarian (from the pre-migration period) and in Volga Bulgar epitaphs or loanwords into languages of the Volga region (from the Volga Bulgar period). Nevertheless, these sources also indicate that there was significant dialectal variation within the Oguric-speaking population during both of these periods.

Comparison with Turkic languages

In the 8-10th centuries in Central Asia, the ancient Turkic script (the Orkhon-Yenisei runic script) was used for writing in Turkic languages. Turkic epitaphs of 7-9th centuries AD were left by speakers of various dialects (table):

* Often in the Chuvash language, the Common Turkic sounds of /j/ (''Oghuz''), /d/ (''Karluk''), /z/ (''Kipchak'') are replaced by /r/, example ''rhotacism'':

Words for "leg" and "put" in various Turkic languages:

j - languages (Oguz): ''ajaq, qoj-''

d - languages (Karluk): ''adaq, qod-''

z - languages (Kypchak): ''azaq, qoz-''

r - languages (Oghur): ''ura, hor-''

* Often in the Chuvash language, the Turkic sound /q/ is replaced by /h/, example ''hitaism'':

Comparison table

Сhitacism (Q > H)

* The -h- sound disappears if it is the final sound of a syllable.

''Dudaq - Tuta - Lips'' instead of ''Tutah''

''Ayaq - Ura - Leg'' instead of ''Urah''

''Balyq - Pulă - Fish'' instead of ''Pulăh''

''Ineq'' - ''Ĕne - Cow'' instead of ''Ĕneh''

* Turkic sound -j- (''oguz'') and -ž- (''kipchaks'') is replaced by chuvash -''ş''-, example:

Words in Turkic languages: ''egg, snake, rain, house, earth''

Oguz: ''jumurta'', ''jylan, jagmur, jurt, jer (''turk., azerb., tat.,'')''

Kipchaks: ''žumurtka, žylan, žamgyr, žort, žer (''kyrgyz., kazakh.'')''

Chuvash: ''şămarta, şĕlen, şămăr, şurt, şĕr''

* The Turkic sound -š- is replaced by the Chuvash -L-, example ''lambdaism'':

Comparison table

* In the field of vowels, we observe the following correspondences: the common Turkic -a- in the first syllable of the word in Chuvash correspond to -u-.

Comparison table

In modern times, in Chuvash remains, Tatar "kapka" ~ Chuvash "hapha" (gate), when there should be a "''hupha''" from the root "''hup - close''".

* In the field of vowels, G. F. Miller observes another example when -u- is replaced by -wu- or -wă-

Comparison table

* The fricative -g- in some words in Chuvash corresponds to -v-

Comparison table

Ogur and Oguz

It is well known that the '' Oguz'' group of Turkic languages differs from the '' Kipchak'' in that the word “I” was pronounced by the Oguz''es'' and Ogurs in ancient times by "''bä(n)"'', and the rest of the Turks - by "''män".'' Transition ''b < m''. There is such a difference in the modern Turkic languages of the Volga region:

tat., bash. ''Min'', ogur/chuv. ''Epĕn'' (< *pen), turk. ''Ben'', eng. «''I am''»;

tat., bash. ''Mең'', ogur/chuv. ''Pin','' turk. ''Bin,'' eng. «thousand»;

tat., bash. Milәš, ogur/chuv. Pileš, eng. «rowan»;

tat. ''Мәçә'', ogur/chuv. ''Pĕşi, Pĕşuk,'' az. ''Pišik,'' eng. «cat»;

tat. ''Miçеү'', ogur/chuv. ''Piçev,'' eng. «buckle»

Dialects

The linguistic landscape of the Chuvash language is quite homogeneous, and the differences between dialects are insignificant. Currently, the differences between dialects becoming more and more leveled out.

Researchers distinguish three main dialects:

* Upper dialect (Viryal) - upstream of the Sura, preserves the /o/ sound in words like ''ot'' "horse"
* Middle dialect (mixed, transitional);
* Lower dialect (Anatri) - downstream of the Sura, changes the /o/ sound to /u/ in words like ''ut'' "horse"

The ''Upper dialect'' is closer to the Oguz, the ''lower dialect'' - which is closer to the Kipchaks.

The ''Malokarachinsky dialect'' is designated as occupying a separate position.

The literary language is based on both the Lower and Upper dialects. Both Tatar

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