Ingush
Ghalghay, Ingus, Galgay, Kisti, Kistin[1]
гӏалгӏай мотт ghalghaj mott
Pronunciation	[ˈɣəɫɣəɪ mʷɔtː]
Native to	Russia
Region	Ingushetia, Chechnya, North Ossetia–Alania
Ethnicity	Ingush
Native speakers	350,000 (2020)[2]
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
Ingush is classified as Vulnerable by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger[3]
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Ingush (/ˈɪŋɡʊʃ/; гӏалгӏай мотт, ġalġay mott, IPA: [ˈɣəɫɣəɪ mʷɔtː]) is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by about 350,000 people,^[2] known as the Ingush, across a region covering the Russian republics of Ingushetia, Chechnya, North Ossetia, as well as the countries of Turkey, Kazakhstan, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and others.^[4]

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.^[5]

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.^[6]

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.^[2][4]

Phonology

Writing system

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It is possible that during the period of the 8–12th centuries, when churches 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.^[9] Furthermore, Georgian text was found on archaeological items in Ingushetia that could not be deciphered.^[10]

It is impossible to pinpoint the precise date at when Arabic writing entered the territory of Chechnya and Ingushetia. One thing is certain: both the Arabic language and writing emerged among the Chechens and Ingush in connection with the spread of Islam. Consequently, Arabic writing appeared in Chechnya no earlier than the second half of the 17th century, and in Ingushetia even later. Already during Imam Shamil's reign, mullahs from among the local population appeared in Chechnya, teaching the Chechen children Arabic literacy; that is, how to read the foreign language of Arabic mechanically, as well as reciting Arabic prayers. Imam Shamil was not supportive of establishing a written language (similar to Persian and Ottoman Turkish) for the languages of the peoples of the Caucasus. He and the clergy tried to introduce the Arabic language and script, but this was unsuccessful because the people did not understand it. Written communication, all official and private correspondence in the part of Chechnya subordinated to Shamil, was conducted in Arabic, while in the part of Chechnya that was part of Russia, official correspondence was conducted in Russian, and private correspondence was conducted in both Russian and Arabic. However, from mid to late 19th century, parallel with efforts with Avar language, Chechnya and Ingushetia also saw the start of using Arabic for the first time for their orthography.

Ingush became a written language with an Arabic-based writing system at the beginning of the 20th century. In those eras, and in the letters written by native Ingush speakers, certain unique letters seem to have been in use:

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.

Grammar

Ingush is a nominative–accusative language in its syntax, though it has ergative morphology.^[12][13]

References

Bibliography

External links

Ingush edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• 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
• PaydaDosh — Ingush-Russian online dictionary (66,000+ entries, text corpus, proverbs)