- Official language in
- Russia
- Script
- Cyrillic
- Speakers
- 700K (2021)
Where it's spoken
Chuvash is one of the two state languages of the Chuvash Republic, together with Russian, according to the republic's constitution. Wiktionary's Chuvash category describes it as spoken in Russia.
Sources
- Конституция Чувашской Республики (Constitution of the Chuvash Republic) — Wikisource transcription; Article 8
- Wiktionary, "Category:Chuvash language"
Script & pronunciation
Chuvash is written in the Cyrillic script. Wiktionary lists ӑ as the second letter of the Chuvash alphabet, with the sound /ə/, ӗ as the ninth, with /ɘ/, ҫ as the twenty-second, with /ɕ/, and ӳ as the twenty-fifth, with /y/. This app's cards give a Latin romanization beside the Cyrillic text, writing ӑ as ă, ӗ as ĕ, ҫ as ç and ӳ as ÿ, and also х as kh, ш as sh and ч as ch, as in Лайӑх (Layăkh, "Good"), Чӑвашла калаҫатӑр-и? (Chăvashla kalaçatăr-i?, "Do you speak Chuvash?"), Ҫапла. (Çapla., "Yes") and Счета пайласа тӳлетпӗр. (Scheta paylasa tÿletpĕr., "We will split the bill").
Sources
Grammar essentials
Chuvash word order is described as SOV. An adjective comes before its noun and does not change its form. The present/future tense is negated with the suffix -мас or -мес (written -mas / -mes in Campbell's romanization), as in the app's Эпӗ чӑвашла калаҫмастӑп. (Epĕ chăvashla kalaçmastăp., "I don't speak Chuvash"). Suffixes follow vowel harmony: Zheltov writes that, as a rule, each affix has at least two forms, a "soft" one for front-vowel stems and a "hard" one for back-vowel stems. In this app's cards the question particle -и is attached to the verb with a hyphen, as in Чӑвашла калаҫатӑр-и? (Chăvashla kalaçatăr-i?, "Do you speak Chuvash?").
Sources
- Campbell, George L. (2000). Compendium of the World's Languages, 2nd ed. London: Routledge — Chuvash entry; read from the Rosetta Project scan on archive.org (images and OCR text)
- Zheltov, Pavel V. (2006). "An Attribute-Sample Database System for Describing Chuvash Affixes." — Read via the Wayback Machine copy; section 1. The PDF text is undated; 2006 is from the file metadata (creation date Sep 2006) and the filename LREC-2006-Zheltov.pdf
Politeness & etiquette
Wiktionary glosses эсӗ as "thou, you (singular)" and эсир as "ye, you (plural)". The app's card for Эсир (Esir) is labeled "You (polite or plural)" and says it is the polite "you" for strangers and elders, with эсӗ for one close person. Campbell gives the second-person plural ending of the present/future tense as -тӑр, and the app's polite question Чӑвашла калаҫатӑр-и? (Chăvashla kalaçatăr-i?, "Do you speak Chuvash?") uses it. Campbell says the bare verb stem is the second-person singular imperative; the app's Каҫарӑр! (Kaçarăr!, "Excuse me! / I'm sorry! (polite)") is described by the card as the plural/polite imperative, with Каҫар! for one close person.
Sources
- Campbell, George L. (2000). Compendium of the World's Languages, 2nd ed. London: Routledge — Chuvash entry; read from the Rosetta Project scan on archive.org (images and OCR text)
- Wiktionary, entry "эсӗ" (Chuvash)
- Wiktionary, entry "эсир" (Chuvash)