Chuvash language

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chuvash ( Чӑваш чӗлхи )

Spoken in

Russia , Kazakhstan
speaker 1.8 million
Linguistic
classification
Official status
Official language in Chuvashia Chuvashia
Language codes
ISO 639 -1

cv

ISO 639 -2

chv

The Chuvash language (Chuvash Чӑваш чӗлхи / Čǎvaš čĕlchi , Чӑвашла / Čǎvašla ) is a Bolgar-Turkish language from the branch of the Oghur languages within the Turkic languages . Today it is assigned to the western branch of the Turkic languages ​​and has a special position within it. Along with Russian, it is the official language of the autonomous Russian republic of Chuvashia .

Main distribution area

Chuvash is spoken today mainly in Chuvashia, Tatarstan and Bashkortostan . There are also smaller linguistic islands along the Volga to Saratov . Furthermore, Chuvash minorities live in Kazakhstan , Ukraine , the Baltic States and Uzbekistan , where they were or settled during the Soviet Union . In the 1999 Russian census , 1.64 million, or 82%, of Chuvashes gave Chuvash as their mother tongue . A total of 1.8 million people speak Chuvash.

Classification options

Chuvash is classified differently. The "Fischer Lexikon Sprachen" (1987) lists Chuvash as follows:

  • Turkic languages
    • Western branch
      • Bulgarian group
        • Chuvash

In contrast, the Metzler Lexicon Language (1993) cites:

  • Turkic languages
    • Southwest Turkish (Oghusian)
    • Eastern Turkish (Karlukisch)
    • West Turkish (Kipchak)
    • Northern Turkish
    • Northeast Turkish
    • Bolgar Turkish
      • Chuvash

The current classification can be found in the article Turkic languages .

Dialects and alphabets

Today, Chuvash distinguishes between two major dialect groups:

  • Anatri ( Lower Chuvash ) and
  • Viryal ( Upper Chuvash )

The Chuvash language is now widely regarded as the linguistic legacy of the ancient Volga Bulgarians . The Volga Bulgarians penetrated into the Volga-Kama area by the end of the 10th century and founded an independent domain there. Numerous ethnic groups belonged to this rulership, some of which were later assimilated, making today's Chuvash stand out from the other Turkic languages. Most notably, Chuvash was influenced by the Finno-Ugric languages .

In the 13th century, the Chuvashes belonged to the Mongolian khanate of the Golden Horde and, after its defeat in 1502, to the Tatar khanate of Kazan .

In 1551 the Chuvashes voluntarily submitted to the sovereignty of the Russian tsar .

The Chuvashes wrote in different alphabets. When they came to the Volga region around the year 1000, they used a variant of the Turkish Orkhon alphabet . After adopting Islam , they introduced the Arabic alphabet . In the 18th century, the Chuvashes converted to the Christian Orthodox faith and adopted the Cyrillic alphabet at the end of the 19th century . With the creation of an independent written language , which was developed by Russian missionaries in 1878 , a modified Cyril alphabet was also created. The written Chuvash language was reformed several times.

At the beginning of 1926 the representatives of the Chuvashes also took part in the Turkologists ' Congress in Baku . At this congress it was advised to create a common script for all Turks and Turko-Tatars : the uniform Turkish alphabet . But this never found favor with the speakers of Chuvash. The Chuvashes decided not to adopt the proposed Latin alphabet and continued to write in Cyrillic.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union , a modern Latin alphabet was also developed for Chuvash . But in practice this Latin alphabet is not used.

Comparison of the Chuvash cyrillic and Latin alphabet

  • Cyrillic (officially used): Аа Ӑӑ Бб Вв Гг Дд Ее Ёё Ӗӗ Жж Зз Ии Йй Кк Лл Мм Нн Оо Пп Рр Сс Ҫҫ Тт Уу Ӳӳ Ффы Х х Цц Чч Шш
  • Latin (not used): Aa Ăă Bb Cc Dd Ee Ĕĕ Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn ​​Oo Pp Rr Ss Şş / Çç Tt Uu Üü / Ÿÿ Vv Yy Zz ja ju sh / š zh / ž

Known Chuvashes

literature

  • Heinz Friedrich Wendt (Ed.): Fischer Lexicon Languages . Fischer Taschenbuch 4561, Frankfurt am Main 1961, ISBN 3-596-24561-3 (new edition 1987).
  • Helmut Glück (Ed.): Metzler Lexicon Language . 1st edition. JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1993, ISBN 3-476-00937-8 .
  • Ármin Vámbéry (ed.): The Turkic people in their ethnological and ethnographic relationships . FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1885.
  • Ekrem Čaušević: Chuvash . In: M. Okuka (Ed.): Lexicon of the Languages ​​of the European East (=  Wieser Encyclopedia of the European East . No. 10 ). Klagenfurt 2002, p. 811 ( archive.org [PDF; 204 kB ]).

Web links

Commons : Chuvash language  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinz F. Wendt: Fischer Lexikon Sprache , p. 328
  2. ↑ Helmut Glück: Metzler Lexikon Sprache , p. 657
  3. ↑ omniglot.com
Wikipedia in Chuvash