| Ingush | |
| Nativename: | Гӏалгӏай мотт (Ghalghai mott) |
| Pronunciation: | pronounced as /cau/ |
| States: | Russia |
| Region: | Ingushetia, Chechnya |
| Ethnicity: | Ingush |
| Speakers: | in RU |
| Date: | 2020 |
| Ref: | e27 |
| Familycolor: | Caucasian |
| Fam1: | Northeast Caucasian |
| Fam2: | Nakh |
| Fam4: | Chechen–Ingush |
| Script: | Cyrillic (current) Georgian, Arabic, Latin (historical) |
| Nation: | |
| Iso2: | inh |
| Iso3: | inh |
| Glotto: | ingu1240 |
| Glottorefname: | Ingush |
| Notice: | IPA |
| Map: | Lang Status 80-VU.svg |
Ingush (; Ingush: Гӏалгӏай мотт,, pronounced pronounced as /cau/) 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.[1]
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.
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]
Ingush is, alongside Russian, an official language of Ingushetia, a federal subject of Russia.
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. Furthermore, Georgian text was found on archaeological items in Ingushetia that could not be deciphered.
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 |
| Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | и/i pronounced as /link/ | varies pronounced as /link/ | у/u pronounced as /link/ | |
| Mid | э/e pronounced as /link/ | varies pronounced as /link/ | о/o pronounced as /link/ | |
| Low | аь/ea pronounced as /link/ | а/a pronounced as /link/ |
The diphthongs are иэ /ie/, уо /uo/, оа pronounced as //oɑ//, ий /ij/, эи /ei/, ои /oi/, уи /ui/, ов /ow/, ув /uw/.
The consonants of Ingush are as follows, including the Latin orthography developed by Johanna Nichols:
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /ink/ (м, m) | pronounced as /ink/ (н, n) | ||||||||
| Plosive | pronounced as /ink/ (п, p) | pronounced as /ink/ (т, t) | pronounced as /ink/ (ц, c) | pronounced as /ink/ (ч, ch) | pronounced as /ink/ (к, jk) | pronounced as /ink/ (к, k) | pronounced as /ink/ (кх, q) | pronounced as /ink/ (ӏ, w) | pronounced as /ink/ (ъ, ʼ) | |
| pronounced as /ink/ (пӏ, pʼ) | pronounced as /ink/ (тӏ, tʼ) | pronounced as /ink/ (цӏ, cʼ) | pronounced as /ink/ (чӏ, ch’) | pronounced as /ink/ (кӏ, jkʼ) | pronounced as /ink/ (кӏ, kʼ) | pronounced as /ink/ (къ, qʼ) | ||||
| pronounced as /ink/ (б, b) | pronounced as /ink/ (д, d) | pronounced as /ink/ (г, jg) | pronounced as /ink/ (г, g) | |||||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /ink/ (ф, f) | pronounced as /ink/ (с, s) | pronounced as /ink/ (ш, sh) | pronounced as /link/ (х, x) | pronounced as /ink/ (хь, hw) | pronounced as /ink/ (хӏ, h) | ||||
| pronounced as /ink/ (в, v) | pronounced as /ink/ (з, z) | pronounced as /ink/ (ж, zh) | pronounced as /ink/ (гӏ, gh) | |||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /ink/ (л, l) | pronounced as /ink/ (й, j) | ||||||||
| Trill | pronounced as /ink/ (рхӏ, rh) | |||||||||
| pronounced as /ink/ (р, r) | ||||||||||
Single consonants can be geminated by various morphophonemic processes.
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.
Ingush is a nominative–accusative language in its syntax, though it has ergative morphology.
The most recent and in-depth analysis of the language shows eight cases: absolutive, ergative, genitive, dative, allative, instrumental, lative and comparative.
| Cases | Singular | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Absolutive | -⌀ | -azh / -ii, -i | |
| Ergative | -uo / -z, -aa | –azh | |
| Genitive | -a, -n | -ii, -i | |
| Dative | -na, aa | -azh-ta | |
| Allative | -ga | -azh-ka | |
| Instrumental | -ca | -azh-ca | |
| Lative | -gh | -egh | |
| Comparative | -l | -el |
| Infinitive Stem (INFS) | Infinitive (INF) | laaca | |
| Imperative (IMP) | laaca | ||
| Present Stem (unmarked) | --- | Generic Present (PRES) | loac |
| Simultaneous Converb (SCV) | loacaz& | ||
| Imperfect (IMPF) | loacar | ||
| Future (FUT) | loacadda | ||
| Past Stem (PAST) | Witnessed Past (WIT) | leacar | |
| / | Anterior Converb (ACV) | leacaa | |
| + / + | Perfect (PERF) | leacaad | |
| + / + | Pluperfect (PLUP) | leacaadar |
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 |
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".