Ingush language

Ingush (/ˈɪŋɡʊʃ/; Гӏалгӏай мотт, Ghalghai mott, pronounced [ˈʁəlʁɑj mot]) is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by about 600,000 people, known as the Ingush, across a region covering the Russian republics of Ingushetia, Chechnya, North Ossetia, as well as the countries Turkey, Kazakhstan, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, et al.^[3]

Ingush
Гӏалгӏай мотт (Ghalghai mott)
Pronunciation	[ˈʁəlʁɑj mot]
Native to	Russia
Region	Ingushetia, Chechnya
Ethnicity	Ingush
Native speakers	350,000 (2020)[1]
Language family	Northeast Caucasian Nakh Vainakh Chechen–Ingush Ingush
Writing system	Cyrillic (current) Georgian, Arabic, Latin (historical)
Official status
Official language in	Russia  Ingushetia
Language codes
ISO 639-2	inh
ISO 639-3	inh
Glottolog	ingu1240
Ingush is classified as "vulnerable" by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger[2]
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

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.^[4]

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.^[1][3]

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 on 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.^[5] Furthermore, Georgian text was found on archaeological items in Ingushetia that could not be deciphered.^[6]

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,^[7] including the Latin orthography developed by Johanna Nichols:^[8]

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar		Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
						palatalized	plain
Nasal		m ⟨м, m⟩		n ⟨н, n⟩
Plosive	voiceless	p ⟨п, p⟩	t ⟨т, t⟩	t͡s ⟨ц, c⟩	t͡ʃ ⟨ч, ch⟩	kʲ ⟨к, jk⟩	k ⟨к, k⟩	q ⟨кх, q⟩	ʡ ⟨ӏ, w⟩	ʔ ⟨ъ, ʼ⟩
	ejective	pʼ ⟨пӏ, pʼ⟩	tʼ ⟨тӏ, tʼ⟩	t͡sʼ ⟨цӏ, cʼ⟩	t͡ʃʼ ⟨чӏ, ch’⟩	kʲʼ ⟨кӏ, jkʼ⟩	kʼ ⟨кӏ, kʼ⟩	qʼ ⟨къ, qʼ⟩
	voiced	b ⟨б, b⟩	d ⟨д, d⟩			ɡʲ ⟨г, jg⟩	ɡ ⟨г, g⟩
Fricative	voiceless	f ⟨ф, f⟩		s ⟨с, s⟩	ʃ ⟨ш, sh⟩		χ ⟨х, x⟩		ʜ ⟨хь, hw⟩	h ⟨хӏ, h⟩
	voiced	ʋ ⟨в, v⟩		z ⟨з, z⟩	ʒ ⟨ж, zh⟩		ʁ ⟨гӏ, gh⟩
Approximant			l ⟨л, l⟩		j ⟨й, j⟩
Trill	voiceless			r̥ ⟨рхӏ, rh⟩
	voiced			r ⟨р, r⟩

Single consonants can be geminated by various morphophonemic processes.

Dialects

Ingush is not divided into dialects with the exception of Galanchoz [ru] (native name: Галай-Чӏож/Галайн-Чӏаж), which is considered to be transitional between Chechen and Ingush.^[9]

Grammar

Ingush is a nominative–accusative language in its syntax, though it has ergative morphology.^[10][11]

Case

The most recent and in-depth analysis of the language^[11] shows eight cases: absolutive, ergative, genitive, dative, allative, instrumental, lative and comparative.

Cases	Singular	Plural
Absolutive	-⌀	-azh / -ii, -i[lower-alpha 1]
Ergative	-uo / -z, -aa[lower-alpha 2]	–azh
Genitive	-a, -n[lower-alpha 3]	-ii, -i
Dative	-aa, -na[lower-alpha 3]	-azh-ta
Allative	-ga	-azh-ka
Instrumental	-ca	-azh-ca
Lative	-gh	-egh
Comparative	-l	-el

1. The choice of -azh vs. -ii is lexically determined for the nominative, but other cases are predictable.
2. -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.
3. Allomorph after vowels

Tenses

^[12]

Stem	Suffix	Tense	Example
Infinitive Stem (INFS)	{-a}	Infinitive (INF)	laaca
	{-a}	Imperative (IMP)	laaca
Present Stem (unmarked)	---	Generic Present (PRES)	loac
	{-az&}	Simultaneous Converb (SCV)	loacaz&
	{-ar}	Imperfect (IMPF)	loacar
	{-agDa}	Future (FUT)	loacadda
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.

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

1. Note that "four" and its derivatives begin with noun-class marker. d- is merely the default value.

Pronouns

^[13]

	1st person			2nd person		3rd person
	singular	plural		singular	plural	singular	plural
		exclusive	inclusive
Nominative	so	txo	vai	hwo	sho/shu	yz	yzh
Genitive	sy	txy	vai	hwa	shyn	cyn/cun	caar
Dative	suona	txuona	vaina	hwuona	shoana	cynna	caana
Ergative	aaz	oaxa	vai	wa	oasha	cuo	caar
Allative	suoga	txuoga	vaiga	hwuoga	shuoga	cynga	caarga
Ablative	suogara	txuogara	vaigara	hwuogara	shuogara	cyngara	caargara
Instrumental	suoca(a)	txuoca(a)	vaica(a)	hwuoca	shuoca(a)	cynca	caarca(a)
Lative	sogh	txogh	vaigh	hwogh	shogh	cogh	caaregh
Comparative	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".^[14]

Muusaa

Musa

vy

V.PROG

hwuona

2S.DAT

telefon

telephone

jettazh

strike.CVsim

Muusaa vy hwuona telefon jettazh

Musa V.PROG 2S.DAT telephone strike.CVsim

It's Musa on the phone for you. (After answering the phone.)

References

1. Ingush at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
2. "Ingush in Russian Federation". UNESCO WAL. Retrieved 22 June 2024.
3. "Ингушский язык" [The Ingush language]. minlang.iling-ran.ru. Minority languages of Russia: A project of the Institute of Linguistics (Russian Academy of Sciences). Retrieved August 4, 2024.
4. Nichols & Sprouse (2004), p. 1.
5. Chentieva 1958, p. 13.
6. Chentieva 1958, p. 14.
7. Nichols (2011), p. 20.
8. Nichols (2011), pp. 19–21.
9. Koryakov 2006, p. 25.
10. Nichols (2008).
11. Nichols (2011).
12. Handel (2003), p. 6.
13. Nichols (2011), p. 174-175.
14. Nichols (2011), pp. 678ff.

Bibliography

English sources

• Handel, Zev (2003). "Ingush inflectional verb morphology: a synchronic classification and historical analysis with comparison to Chechen" (PDF). Current Trends in Caucasian, East European and Inner Asian Linguistics. pp. 123–175. doi:10.1075/cilt.246.11han. Archived from the original (PDF) on Feb 1, 2017.
• Nichols, Johanna; Sprouse, Ronald L. (2004). Ingush-English and English-Ingush Dictionary. Routledge.
• Nichols, Johanna (2008). "Case in Ingush syntax". Case and Grammatical Relations. John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 57–74. doi:10.1075/tsl.81.04nic.
• 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

• Russia portal
• Languages portal

• Appendix:Cyrillic script
• Indigenous Language of the Caucasus (Ingush)
• Ingush Language Project at UC Berkeley
• University of Graz report Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine
• Russian-Ghalghaj (Ingush) vocabulary
• Ingush 100-word Swadesh list at the Global Lexicostatistical Database