Chuvash language

The modern Chuvash alphabet was devised in 1873 by school inspector Ivan Yakovlevich Yakovlev.[19]

In 1938, the alphabet underwent significant modification which brought it to its current form.

The most ancient writing system, known as the Old Turkic alphabet, disappeared after the Volga Bulgars converted to Islam. Later, the Arabic script was adopted. After the Mongol invasion, writing degraded. After Peter the Great's reforms Chuvash elites disappeared, blacksmiths and some other crafts were prohibited for non-Russian nations, the Chuvash were educated in Russian, while writing in runes recurred with simple folks.[20][21]

The consonants are the following (the corresponding Cyrillic letters are in brackets): The stops, sibilants and affricates are voiceless and fortes but become lenes (sounding similar to voiced) in intervocalic position and after liquids, nasals and semi-vowels. Аннепе sounds like annebe, but кушакпа sounds like kuzhakpa. However, geminate consonants do not undergo this lenition. Furthermore, the voiced consonants occurring in Russian are used in modern Russian-language loans. Consonants also become palatalized before and after front vowels.

A possible scheme for the diachronic development of Chuvash vowels (note that not all the sounds with an asterisk are necessarily separate phonemes).

According to Krueger (1961), the Chuvash vowel system is as follows (the precise IPA symbols are chosen based on his description since he uses a different transcription).

András Róna-Tas (1997)[22] provides a somewhat different description, also with a partly idiosyncratic transcription. The following table is based on his version, with additional information from Petrov (2001). Again, the IPA symbols are not directly taken from the works so they could be inaccurate.

The vowels ӑ and ӗ are described as reduced, thereby differing in quantity from the rest. In unstressed positions, they often resemble a schwa or tend to be dropped altogether in fast speech. At times, especially when stressed, they may be somewhat rounded and sound similar to /o/ and /ø/.

Additionally, ɔ (о) occurs in loanwords from Russian where the syllable is unstressed in Russian.

The usual rule given in grammars of Chuvash is that the last full (non-reduced) vowel of the word is stressed; if there are no full vowels, the first vowel is stressed.[23] Reduced vowels that precede or follow a stressed full vowel are extremely short and non-prominent. One scholar, Dobrovolsky, however, hypothesises that there is in fact no stress in disyllabic words in which both vowels are reduced.[24]

Chuvash nouns can take endings indicating the person of a possessor. They can take case-endings. There are six noun cases in the Chuvash declension system:

Grammatical case:

• Nominative -
• Possessive (of), after consonants: -ӑн/-ӗн, after vowels: -н according to the vowel harmony
• Dative-Accusative (for), after consonants: -а/-е, after vowels: -на/-не according to the vowel harmony
• Locative (in, on), formed by adding -ра/-ре, -та/-те according to the vowel harmony
• Ablative (from), formed by adding -ран/-рен, -тан/-тен according to the vowel harmony
• Instrumental (with), formed by adding -па(лан)/-пе(лен) according to the vowel harmony
• Abessive (without), formed by adding -сӑр/-сӗр according to the vowel harmony
• Causative, formed by adding -шӑн/-шӗн according to the vowel harmony

Plural:

• Nominative: -сем
• Possessive: -сен
• Dative-Accusative: -сене
• Locative: -сенче
• Ablative: -сенчен
• Instrumental: -семпе
• Abessive: -семсĕр
• Causative: -семшĕн

Also:

• Terminative–antessive (to), formed by adding -(ч)чен
• relic of distributive, formed by adding -серен: кунсерен "daily, every day", килсерен "per house", килмессерен "every time one comes"
• Semblative (as), formed by adding пек to pronouns in genitive or objective case (ман пек "like me", сан пек "like you", ун пек "like him, that way", пирӗн пек "like us", сирӗн пек "like you all", хам пек "like myself", хӑвӑн пек "like yourself", кун пек "like this"); adding -ла, -ле to nouns (этемле "humanlike", ленинла "like Lenin")
• Postfix: ха (ha)

Adjective:

• Comparative: -рах/-рех

Verb:

• Infinitive: -ма(лла|лли|лăх)/-ме(лле|лли|лĕх), negative postfix мар
• Gerund (-ing): positive -ни, negative -манни/-менни
• Conditional mood if: -са(сă)н/-се(сĕ)н, negative -маса(сă)н/-месе(сĕ)н, even if: -са(сă)н та/-се(сĕ)н те, negative -маса(сă)н та/-месе(сĕ)н те

Taking кун (day) as an example:

Possession is expressed by means of constructions based on verbs meaning "to exist" and "not to exist" ("пур" and "ҫук"). For example, to say, "My cat had no shoes":

кушак + -ӑн ура атӑ(и) + -сем ҫук + -ччӗ

(кушакӑн ура аттисем ҫукччӗ)

which literally translates as "cat-mine-of foot-cover(of)-plural-his non-existent-was."

Chuvash verbs exhibit person and can be made negative or impotential; they can also be made potential. Finally, Chuvash verbs exhibit various distinctions of tense mood, and aspect: a verb can be progressive, necessitative, aorist, future, inferential, present, past, conditional, imperative or optative.

Vowel harmony is the principle by which a native Chuvash word generally incorporates either exclusively back or hard vowels (а, ӑ, у, ы) and exclusively front or soft vowels (е, ӗ, ӳ, и). As such, a notation for a Chuvash suffix such as -тен means either -тан or -тен, whichever promotes vowel harmony; a notation such as -тпӗр means either -тпӑр, -тпӗр, again with vowel harmony constituting the deciding factor.

Chuvash has two classes of vowels: front and back (see the table above). Vowel harmony states that words may not contain both front and back vowels. Therefore, most grammatical suffixes come in front and back forms, e.g. Шупашкарта "in Cheboksary" but килте "at home".

Two vowels cannot occur in succession.

Compound words are considered separate words with respect to vowel harmony: vowels do not have to harmonize between members of the compound (so forms like сӗтел|пукан "furniture" are permissible). In addition, vowel harmony does not apply for loanwords and some invariant suffixes (such as -ӗ); there are also a few native Chuvash words that do not follow the rule (such as анне "mother"). In such words suffixes harmonize with the final vowel; thus Аннепе "with the mother".

Word order in Chuvash is generally subject–object–verb.

• 1 – пӗрре pĕrre, пӗр pĕr
• 2 – иккӗ ikkĕ, икӗ ikĕ, ик ik
• 3 – виҫҫӗ vişşĕ, виҫӗ vişĕ, виҫ viş
• 4 – тӑваттӑ tăvattă, тӑватӑ tăvată, тӑват tăvat
• 5 – пиллӗк pillĕk, пилӗк pilĕk
• 6 – улттӑ ulttă IPA: [ˈultːə], ултӑ ultă IPA: [ˈult̬ə], улт ult IPA: [ult]/IPA: [ult̬]
• 7 – ҫиччӗ şiccĕ IPA: [ˈɕitɕːɘ], ҫичӗ şicĕ IPA: [ˈɕitɕ̬ɘ], ҫич şic IPA: [ˈɕitɕ̬]
• 8 – саккӑр sakkăr IPA: [ˈsakːər], сакӑр sakăr IPA: [ˈsak̬ər]
• 9 – тӑххӑр tăhhăr, тӑхӑр tăhăr
• 10 – вуннӑ vunnă, вун vun
• 11 – вун пӗр vun pĕr
• 12 – вун иккӗ vun ikkĕ, вун икӗ vun ikĕ, вун ик vun ik
• 13 – вун виҫҫӗ vun vişşĕ, вун виҫӗ vun vişĕ, вун виҫ vun viş
• 14 – вун тӑваттӑ vun tăvattă, вун тӑватӑ vun tăvată, вун тӑват vun tăvat
• 15 – вун пиллӗк vun pillĕk, вун пилӗк vun pilĕk
• 16 – вун улттӑ vun ulttă, вун ултӑ vun ultă, вун улт vun ult
• 17 – вун ҫиччӗ vun şiccĕ, вун ҫичӗ vun şicĕ
• 18 – вун саккӑр vun sakkăr, вун сакӑр vun sakăr
• 19 – вун тӑххӑр vun tăhhăr, вун тӑхӑр vun tăhăr
• 20 – ҫирӗм şirĕm
• 30 – вӑтӑр vătăr
• 40 – хӗрӗх hĕrĕh
• 50 – аллӑ allă, алӑ ală, ал al
• 60 – утмӑл utmăl
• 70 – ҫитмӗл şitmĕl
• 80 – сакӑрвуннӑ sakărvunnă, сакӑрвун sakărvun
• 90 – тӑхӑрвуннӑ tăhărvunnă, тӑхӑрвун tăhărvun
• 100 – ҫӗр şĕr
• 1000 – пин pin
• 834236 - сакӑр ҫӗр вӑтӑр тӑватӑ пин те ик ҫӗр вӑтӑр улттӑ sakăr şĕr vătăr tăvată pin te ik şĕr vătăr ulttă IPA: [ˌsakərɕɘrʋət̬ərt̬əʋat̬ə↗p̬inʲt̬eǀikɕɘrʋət̬ər↘ultːəǁ], сакӑр ҫӗр вӑтӑр тӑватӑ пин те ик ҫӗр вӑтӑр ултӑ sakăr şĕr vătăr tăvată pin te ik şĕr vătăr ultă