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96-446: Aukhs ( Chechen : Ӏовхой ) are an ethnographic (subroettic) group of Chechens . Aukhs are currently living in the territories of Novolaksky (former Aukh District ), Khasavyurtovsky , Babayurtovsky and Kazbekovsky (Western part of the Aukh ) areas of modern central Dagestan, along the rivers Yamansu, Yaryksu, Aktash and Aksai (earlier Eastern Chechnya). They speak the Aukh dialect of

192-674: A Salafist jihadist group through its strict adherence to the Sunni Hanbali obedience to the literal interpretation of the Quran and the Sunnah . The Chechen government has been outspoken in its support for the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , where a Chechen military force, the Kadyrovtsy , which is under Kadyrov's personal command, has played a leading role, notably in the Siege of Mariupol . Meanwhile,

288-635: A famine . As a result, many of the Ukrainians settled in Chechen-Ingush ASSR permanently and survived the famine. Although over 50,000 Chechens and over 12,000 Ingush were fighting against Nazi Germany on the front line (including Heroes of the USSR : Abukhadzhi Idrisov , Khanpasha Nuradilov , Movlid Visaitov ), and although Nazi German troops advanced as far as the Ossetian ASSR city of Ordzhonikidze and

384-514: A glottal stop before a " pharyngealized " (actually epiglottalized) vowel. However, it does not have the distribution constraints characteristic of the anterior pharyngealized (epiglottalized) consonants . Although these may be analyzed as an anterior consonant plus / ʢ / (they surface for example as [dʢ] when voiced and [ pʰʜ ] when voiceless ), Nichols argues that given the severe constraints against consonant clusters in Chechen, it

480-691: A satellite phone he was using. The widespread demoralisation of the Russian forces in the area and a successful offensive to re-take Grozny by Chechen rebel forces led by Aslan Maskhadov prompted Russian President Boris Yeltsin to declare a ceasefire in 1996, and sign a peace treaty a year later that saw a withdrawal of Russian forces. After the war, parliamentary and presidential elections took place in January 1997 in Chechnya and brought to power new President Aslan Maskhadov, chief of staff and prime minister in

576-744: A state of emergency . Tensions led to open clashes between the Chechen National Guard and Islamist militants, such as the July 1998 confrontation in Gudermes. The War of Dagestan began on 7 August 1999, during which the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade (IIPB) began an unsuccessful incursion into the neighboring Russian republic of Dagestan in favor of the Shura of Dagestan which sought independence from Russia. In September,

672-519: A Chechen Naqshbandi ( Sufi ) sheikh—with wavering military support from other North Caucasian tribes. Mansur hoped to establish a Transcaucasus Islamic state under sharia law. He was unable to fully achieve this because in the course of the war he was betrayed by the Ottomans , handed over to Russians, and executed in 1794. Following the forced ceding of the current territories of Dagestan, most of Azerbaijan , and Georgia by Persia to Russia, following

768-403: A consonant; as a consonant, it has an allophone [ v ] before front vowels. Approximately twenty pharyngealized consonants (marked with superscript ˤ ) also appear in the table above. Labial , alveolar and postalveolar consonants may be pharyngealized, except for ejectives . Except when following a consonant, / ʢ / is phonetically [ ʔˤ ] , and can be argued to be

864-550: A destroyed and no longer existent historical treasury of writings. The Chechen diaspora in Jordan , Turkey , and Syria is fluent but generally not literate in Chechen except for individuals who have made efforts to learn the writing system. The Cyrillic alphabet is not generally known in these countries, and thus for Jordan and Syria, they most use the Arabic alphabet, while in Turkey they use

960-511: A different approach at the end of the 1860s. They offered Chechens and Ingush to leave the Caucasus for the Ottoman Empire (see Muhajir (Caucasus) ). It is estimated that about 80% of Chechens and Ingush left the Caucasus during the deportation. It weakened the resistance which went from open warfare to insurgent warfare. One of the notable Chechen resistance fighters at the end of the 19th century

1056-539: A feature of the vowels. However, Nichols argues that this does not capture the situation in Chechen well, whereas it is more clearly a feature of the vowel in Ingush : Chechen [tsʜaʔ] "one", Ingush [tsaʔˤ] , which she analyzes as /tsˤaʔ/ and /tsaˤʔ/ . Vowels have a delayed murmured onset after pharyngealized voiced consonants and a noisy aspirated onset after pharyngealized voiceless consonants. The high vowels /i/, /y/, /u/ are diphthongized, [əi], [əy], [əu] , whereas

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1152-404: A great final step in creating a modified Arabic script that represents Chechen consonants. However, the Arabic alphabet still was not suitable in representing Chechen vowel sounds. Arabic script itself is an impure abjad , meaning that most but not all vowels are shown with diacritics , which are in most cases left unwritten. The process of transforming Arabic script into a full alphabet for use by

1248-593: A high life expectancy , one of the highest in Russia. But the pattern of life expectancy is unusual, and in according to numerous statistics, Chechnya stands out from the overall picture. In 2020, Chechnya had the deepest fall in life expectancy, but in 2021 it had the biggest rise. Chechnya has the highest excess of life expectancy in rural areas over cities. (In the territory of modern Chechnya) Practically all Chechen and Ingush people were deported to Central Asia in 1944. They were, however, allowed to return to

1344-612: A large number of postpositions to indicate the role of nouns in sentences. Word order is consistently left-branching (like in Japanese or Turkish ), so that adjectives , demonstratives and relative clauses precede the nouns they modify. Complementizers and adverbial subordinators , as in other Northeast and in Northwest Caucasian languages , are affixes rather than independent words. Chechen also presents interesting challenges for lexicography , as creating new words in

1440-408: A major campaign against hostage-takers, and on 25 October 1998, Shadid Bargishev, Chechnya's top anti-kidnapping official, was killed in a remote-controlled car bombing. Bargishev's colleagues then insisted they would not be intimidated by the attack and would go ahead with their offensive. Political violence and religious extremism, blamed on " Wahhabism ", was rife. In 1998, Grozny authorities declared

1536-559: A non-Arabic language has been a common occurrence, and has been done in Uyghur , Kazakh , Kurdish and several more Arabic-derived scripts. Thus a final revision on Chechen Arabic script occurred, in which vowel sounds were standardized. Table below lists the 41 letters of the final iteration of Chechen Arabic Alphabet, as published by Chechen Authorities at the time, prior to 1925, their IPA values, and their Cyrillic equivalents. The single letters and digraphs that count as separate letters of

1632-471: A part of Russia. Russian federal control was restored in the Second Chechen War of 1999–2009, with Chechen politics being dominated by the former Ichkerian Mufti Akhmad Kadyrov , and later his son Ramzan Kadyrov . The republic covers an area of 17,300 square kilometres (6,700 square miles), with a population of over 1.5 million residents as of 2021 . It is home to the indigenous Chechens , part of

1728-464: A poor human rights record, widespread use of torture , and a growing cult of personality . Allegations of anti-gay purges in Chechnya were initially reported on 1 April 2017. In April 2009, Russia ended its counter-terrorism operation and pulled out the bulk of its army. The insurgency in the North Caucasus continued even after this date. The Caucasus Emirate had fully adopted the tenets of

1824-553: A result of long-distance assimilation between vowel sounds. Additionally, the Himoy dialect preserves word-final, post-tonic vowels as a schwa [ə]. Literary Chechen is based on Plains Chechen, spoken around Grozny and Urus-Martan . According to the Russian Census of 2020 , 1,490,000 people reported being able to speak Chechen in Russia. Chechen is an official language of Chechnya . Chechens in Jordan have good relations with

1920-425: A school in the town of Beslan , North Ossetia , demanding recognition of the independence of Chechnya and a Russian withdrawal. 1,100 people (including 777 children) were taken hostage. The attack lasted three days, resulting in the deaths of over 331 people, including 186 children. After the 2004 school siege, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced sweeping security and political reforms, sealing borders in

2016-526: A series of apartment bombs that killed around 300 people in several Russian cities, including Moscow, were blamed on the Chechen separatists. Some journalists contested the official explanation, instead blaming the Russian Secret Service for blowing up the buildings to initiate a new military campaign against Chechnya. In response to the bombings, a prolonged air campaign of retaliatory strikes against

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2112-454: A specific prefix with which the verb or an accompanying adjective agrees. The verb does not agree with person or number, having only tense forms and participles. Among these are an optative and an antipassive . Some verbs, however, do not take these prefixes. Chechen is an ergative , dependent-marking language using eight cases ( absolutive , genitive , dative , ergative , allative , instrumental , locative and comparative ) and

2208-628: A substantial number of Chechen separatists have allied themselves to the Ukrainian cause and are fighting a mutual Russian enemy in the Donbas . Situated in the eastern part of the North Caucasus in Eastern Europe , Chechnya is surrounded on nearly all sides by Russian Federal territory. In the west, it borders North Ossetia and Ingushetia , in the north, Stavropol Krai , in the east, Dagestan, and to

2304-490: A vowel use when needed to avoid confusions. This modification did not persist in Chechen Alphabet. otherwise, the 1910 iteration of the Arabic script continued being used until 1920. In 1920, two Chechen literaturists, A. Tugaev and T. Eldarkhanov, published a document. In this document they proposed new modifications, which were the addition of two new consonants: These modifications by A. Tugaev and T. Eldarkhanov were

2400-602: Is considered the homeland for Terek Cossacks . The Russification policies towards Chechens continued after 1956, with Russian language proficiency required in many aspects of life to provide Chechens better opportunities for advancement in the Soviet system. On 26 November 1990, the Supreme Council of Chechen-Ingush ASSR adopted the "Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Chechen-Ingush Republic". This declaration

2496-436: Is divided into 15 districts and three cities of republican significance. According to the 2021 Census , the population of the republic is 1,510,824, up from 1,268,989 in the 2010 Census . As of the 2021 Census, Chechens at 1,456,792 make up 96.4% of the republic's population. Other groups include Russians (18,225, or 1.2%), Kumyks (12,184, or 0.8%) and a host of other small groups, each accounting for less than 0.5% of

2592-492: Is followed by a front vowel. The trill / r / is usually articulated with a single contact, and therefore sometimes described as a tap [ ɾ ] . Except in the literary register , and even then only for some speakers, the voiced affricates / dz / , / dʒ / have merged into the fricatives / z / , / ʒ / . A voiceless labial fricative / f / is found only in European loanwords . / w / appears both in diphthongs and as

2688-459: Is found in handwriting. Usually, palochka uppercase and lowercase forms consistent in print or upright, but only upper-case ⟨Ӏ⟩ is normally used in computers. In 1992, with the de facto secession of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria from Russia, a new Latin Chechen alphabet was introduced and used in parallel with the Cyrillic alphabet. This was the second time a Latin-based orthography

2784-421: Is found. Furthermore, all variants except the ejective are subject to phonemic pharyngealization. Nearly any consonant may be fortis because of focus gemination, but only the ones above are found in roots . The consonants of the t cell and / l / are denti-alveolar ; the others of that column are alveolar . / x / is a back velar , but not quite uvular . The lateral / l / may be velarized , unless it

2880-416: Is more useful to analyze them as single consonants. Unlike most other languages of the Caucasus, Chechen has an extensive inventory of vowel sounds, putting its range higher than most languages of Europe (most vowels being the product of environmentally conditioned allophonic variation, which varies by both dialect and method of analysis). Many of the vowels are due to umlaut , which is highly productive in

2976-629: Is the Cyrillic alphabet. This script was created and adopted in 1938, replacing the Latin script prior to it. Up until 1992, only the Cyrillic script was used for Chechen. After the collapse of the Soviet Union and the de facto secession of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria from Russia, a new Latin script was devised and was used parallel to Cyrillic until the dissolution of the separatist state . Modern alphabet: Lower-case palochka , ⟨ӏ⟩ ,

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3072-573: The Arabic script was introduced for Chechen, along with Islam . The Chechen Arabic alphabet was first reformed during the reign of Imam Shamil , and then again in 1910, 1920 and 1922. At the same time, the alphabet devised by Peter von Uslar , consisting of Cyrillic, Latin, and Georgian letters, was used for academic purposes. In 1911 it too was reformed but never gained popularity among the Chechens themselves. The current official script for Chechen language

3168-526: The Battle of the Terek River (see Tokhtamysh–Timur war ). The Chechen tribes built fortresses, castles, and defensive walls, protecting the mountains from the invaders (see Vainakh tower architecture ). Part of the lowland tribes were occupied by Mongols. However, during the mid-14th century a strong Chechen Princedom called Simsim emerged under Khour II , a Chechen king that led the Chechen politics and wars. He

3264-570: The Chechen Republic , is a republic of Russia . It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe , between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea . The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federal District , and shares land borders with Georgia to its south; with the Russian republics of Dagestan , Ingushetia , and North Ossetia–Alania to its east, north, and west; and with Stavropol Krai to its northwest. After

3360-777: The European Parliament recognized the deportation of Chechens and Ingush as an act of genocide . The territory of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was divided between Stavropol Krai (where Grozny Okrug was formed), the Dagestan ASSR , the North Ossetian ASSR , and the Georgian SSR . The Chechens and Ingush were allowed to return to their land after 1956 during de-Stalinisation under Nikita Khrushchev when

3456-535: The Nakh peoples , and of primarily Muslim faith. Grozny is the capital and largest city. According to Leonti Mroveli , the 11th-century Georgian chronicler, the word Caucasian is derived from the Nakh ancestor Kavkas . According to George Anchabadze of Ilia State University : The Vainakhs are the ancient natives of the Caucasus . It is noteworthy, that according to the genealogical table drawn up by Leonti Mroveli,

3552-608: The Northern Caucasus in 1957 by Nikita Khrushchev . See Deportation of the Chechens and Ingush . Sunni Islam is the predominant religion in Chechnya, practiced by 95% of those polled in Grozny in 2010. Most of the population is Sunni and follows either the Shafi'i or the Hanafi schools of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence ). The Shafi'i school of jurisprudence has a long tradition among

3648-612: The Russo-Persian War of 1722–1723 . Russian forces succeeded in taking much of the Caucasian territories from Iran for several years. As the Russians took control of the Caspian corridor and moved into Persian-ruled Dagestan , Peter's forces ran into mountain tribes. Peter sent a cavalry force to subdue them, but the Chechens routed them. In 1732, after Russia had already ceded back most of

3744-481: The Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813 and its resultant Treaty of Gulistan , Russia significantly widened its foothold in the Caucasus at the expense of Persia. Another successful Caucasus war against Persia several years later, starting in 1826 and ending in 1828 with the Treaty of Turkmenchay , and a successful war against Ottoman Turkey in 1828 and 1829, enabled Russia to use a much larger portion of its army in subduing

3840-500: The Salishan languages of North America, as well as a large vowel system resembling those of Swedish and German . The Chechen language has, like most indigenous languages of the Caucasus , a large number of consonants : about 40 to 60 (depending on the dialect and the analysis), far more than most European languages . Typical of the region, a four-way distinction between voiced , voiceless , ejective and geminate fortis stops

3936-494: The diphthongs /je/, /wo/ undergo metathesis , [ej], [ow] . Chechen permits syllable-initial clusters /st px tx/ and non-initially also allows /x r l/ plus any consonant, and any obstruent plus a uvular of the same manner of articulation . The only cluster of three consonants permitted is /rst/ . Numerous inscriptions in the Georgian script are found in mountainous Chechnya, but they are not necessarily in Chechen. Later,

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4032-678: The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Checheno-Ingush ASSR split into two parts: the Republic of Ingushetia and the Chechen Republic. The latter proclaimed the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria , which declared independence, while the former sided with Russia. Following the First Chechen War of 1994–1996 with Russia, Chechnya gained de facto independence as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, although de jure it remained

4128-399: The Arabic script was well established among the speakers of Chechen. However, the Arabic alphabet, without modifications, would not be suitable for Chechen, and modifications would be needed. The Arabic alphabet underwent various iterations, improvements and modifications for the Chechen language. Within Chechen society, these modifications were not without controversy. The Muslim clergy and

4224-420: The Caucasus region and revealing plans to give the central government more power. He also vowed to take tougher action against domestic terrorism, including preemptive strikes against Chechen separatists. In 2005 and 2006, separatist leaders Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil Basayev were killed. Since 2007, Chechnya has been governed by Ramzan Kadyrov . Kadyrov's rule has been characterized by high-level corruption,

4320-530: The Caucasus to Persia, now led by Nader Shah , following the Treaty of Resht , Russian troops clashed again with Chechens in a village called Chechen-aul along the Argun River . The Russians were defeated again and withdrew, but this battle is responsible for the apocryphal story about how the Nokchi came to be known as "Chechens" – the people ostensibly named for the place the battle had taken place. The name "Chechen"

4416-551: The Chechen Republic. The dialects of the northern lowlands are often referred to as " Oharoy muott " (literally "lowlander's language") and the dialect of the southern mountain tribes is known as " Laamaroy muott " (lit. "mountainer's language"). Oharoy muott forms the basis for much of the standard and literary Chechen language, which can largely be traced to the regional dialects of Urus-Martan and contemporary Grozny . Laamaroy dialects include Chebarloish, Sharoish, Itum-Qalish, Kisti, and Himoish. Until recently, however, Himoy

4512-532: The Chechen coalition government, for a five-year term. Maskhadov sought to maintain Chechen sovereignty while pressing the Russian government to help rebuild the republic, whose formal economy and infrastructure were virtually destroyed. Russia continued to send money for the rehabilitation of the republic; it also provided pensions and funds for schools and hospitals. Nearly half a million people (40% of Chechnya's prewar population) had been internally displaced and lived in refugee camps or overcrowded villages. There

4608-594: The Chechen language. Nowadays, the Aukh District has not yet been restored. The leadership of the Republic of Dagestan conducts some actions to solve the problem of Aukhs, the effectiveness of which is evaluated in different ways. For example, today there is a gradual resettlement of Laks from the Novolaksky district closer to Makhachkala in Novostroy and the return of Aukhs to their former villages. On October 18, 2000, by

4704-628: The Chechen-Ingush ASSR city of Malgobek after capturing half of the Caucasus in less than a month, Chechens and Ingush were falsely accused as Nazi supporters and entire nations were deported during Operation Lentil to the Kazakh SSR (later Kazakhstan ) in 1944 near the end of World War II where over 60% of Chechen and Ingush populations perished. American historian Norman Naimark writes: Troops assembled villagers and townspeople, loaded them onto trucks – many deportees remembered that they were Studebakers, fresh from Lend-Lease deliveries over

4800-514: The Chechen-Ingush ASSR was restored but with both the boundaries and ethnic composition of the territory significantly changed. There were many (predominantly Russian) migrants from other parts of the Soviet Union , who often settled in the abandoned family homes of Chechens and Ingushes. The republic lost its Prigorodny District which transferred to North Ossetian ASSR but gained predominantly Russian Naursky District and Shelkovskoy District that

4896-723: The Decree of the State Council of the Republic of Dagestan No. 191, the Chechens-Aukhs were attributed to the indigenous peoples of the Republic of Dagestan. Aukhovsky Society includes the following clans ( teips ): Chechen language Before the Russian conquest , most writings in Chechnya consisted of Islamic texts and clan histories, written usually in Arabic but sometimes also in Chechen using Arabic script. The Chechen literary language

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4992-556: The German forces. Many of the materials were later proven to be fabricated. Even distinguished Red Army officers who fought bravely against Germans (e.g. the commander of 255th Separate Chechen-Ingush regiment Movlid Visaitov , the first to contact American forces at Elbe river) were deported. There is a theory that the real reason why Chechens and Ingush were deported was the desire of Russia to attack Turkey, an anti-communist country, as Chechens and Ingush could impede such plans. In 2004,

5088-652: The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and are able to practice their own culture and language. Chechen language usage is strong among the Chechen community in Jordan. Jordanian Chechens are bilingual in both Chechen and Arabic, but do not speak Arabic among themselves, only speaking Chechen to other Chechens. Some Jordanians are literate in Chechen as well, having managed to read and write to people visiting Jordan from Chechnya. Some phonological characteristics of Chechen include its wealth of consonants and sounds similar to Arabic and

5184-740: The Ichkerian regime and a ground offensive that began in October 1999 marked the beginning of the Second Chechen War. Much better organized and planned than the First Chechen War, the Russian armed forces took control of most regions. The Russian forces used brutal force, killing 60 Chechen civilians during a mop-up operation in Aldy, Chechnya on 5 February 2000. After the re-capture of Grozny in February 2000,

5280-531: The Ichkerian regime fell apart. Chechen separatists continued to fight Russian troops and conduct terror attacks. In October 2002, 40–50 Chechen rebels seized a Moscow theater and took about 900 civilians hostage. The crisis ended with 117 hostages and up to 50 rebels dead, mostly due to an unknown aerosol pumped into the building by Russian special forces to incapacitate the people inside. In response to these attacks, Russia tightened its grip on Chechnya and expanded its anti-terrorist operations throughout

5376-493: The Iranian border – and delivered them at previously designated railheads. ... Those who could not be moved were shot. ... [A] few fighters aside, the entire Chechen and Ingush nations, 496,460 people, were deported from their homeland. The deportation was justified by the materials prepared by NKVD officer Bogdan Kobulov accusing Chechens and Ingush in a mass conspiracy preparing rebellion and providing assistance to

5472-529: The Latin alphabet. Chechen is the most-spoken Northeast Caucasian language . Together with the closely related Ingush , with which there exists a large degree of mutual intelligibility and shared vocabulary, it forms the Vainakh branch . There are a number of Chechen dialects: Aukh , Chebarloish, Malkhish, Nokhchmakhkakhoish, Orstkhoish, Sharoish, Shuotoish, Terloish, Itum-Qalish and Himoish. Dialects of Chechen can be classified by their geographic position within

5568-409: The Northern Caucasus ) which was recognized by major world powers. The capital of the new state was moved to Temir-Khan-Shura (Dagestan). Tapa Tchermoeff , a prominent Chechen statesman, was elected the first prime minister of the state. The second prime minister elected was Vassan-Girey Dzhabagiev, an Ingush statesman, who also was the author of the constitution of the republic in 1917, and in 1920 he

5664-438: The Russian Federation if Chechnya were granted that right. Finally, it argued that Chechnya was a major hub in the oil infrastructure of Russia and hence its secession would hurt the country's economy and energy access. During the Chechen Revolution , the Soviet Chechen leader Doku Zavgayev was overthrown and Dzhokhar Dudayev seized power. On 1 November 1991, Dudaev's Chechnya issued a unilateral declaration of independence. In

5760-403: The Transcaucasia which it considered useful in its wars against Persia and Turkey, the Russian Empire began conquering the Northern Caucasus mountains. The Russian Empire used Christianity to justify its conquests, allowing Islam to spread widely because it positioned itself as the religion of liberation from tsardom, which viewed Nakh tribes as "bandits". The rebellion was led by Mansur Ushurma ,

5856-489: The alphabet, along with their correspondences, are as follows. Those in parentheses are optional or only found in Russian words: In addition, several sequences of letters for long vowels and consonants, while not counted as separate letters in their own right, are presented here to clarify their correspondences: Chechen is an agglutinative language with an ergative–absolutive morphosyntactic alignment . Chechen nouns belong to one of several genders or classes (6), each with

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5952-442: The appearance of the wheel (3000 BC), horseback riding, metal works (copper, gold, silver, iron), dishes, armor, daggers, knives and arrow tips in the region. The artifacts were found near Nasare-Cort , Muzhichi , Ja-E-Bortz (alternatively known as Surkha-khi ), Abbey-Gove (also known as Nazran or Nasare). In the 14th and 15th centuries, there was frequent warfare between the Chechens, Tamerlane and Tokhtamysh , culminating in

6048-404: The borders of Chechnya from invasions of Kabardinians and Avars during the Battle of Khachara . The Chechens converted over the next few centuries to Sunni Islam , as Islam was associated with resistance to Russian encroachment. Peter the Great first sought to increase Russia's political influence in the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea at the expense of Safavid Persia when he launched

6144-407: The dialect. /æ/, /æː/ and /e/, /eː/ are in complementary distribution ( /æ/ occurs after pharyngealized consonants, whereas /e/ does not and /æː/ —identical with /æ/ for most speakers—occurs in closed syllables, while /eː/ does not) but speakers strongly feel that they are distinct sounds. Pharyngealization appears to be a feature of the consonants, though some analyses treat it as

6240-414: The ensuing decade, the territory was locked in an ongoing struggle between various factions, usually fighting unconventionally. The First Chechen War, during which Russian forces attempted to regain control over Chechnya, took place from 1994 to 1996. Despite overwhelming numerical superiority in troops, weaponry, and air support , the Russian forces were unable to establish effective permanent control over

6336-422: The first Russian involvement in the Caucasus. In 1558, Temryuk of Kabarda sent his emissaries to Moscow requesting help from Ivan the Terrible against the Vainakh tribes. Ivan the Terrible married Temryuk's daughter Maria Temryukovna . An alliance was formed to gain the ground in the central Caucasus for the expanding Tsardom of Russia against stubborn Vainakh defenders. In 1667 Mehk-Da Aldaman Gheza defended

6432-500: The introduction of agriculture , irrigation , and the domestication of animals in the region. Settlements near Ali-Yurt and Magas , discovered in modern times, revealed tools made out of stone: stone axes, polished stones, stone knives, stones with holes drilled in them, clay dishes etc. Settlements made out of clay bricks were discovered in the plains. In the mountains there were settlements made from stone and surrounded by walls; some of them dated back to 8000 BC. This period also saw

6528-573: The language relies on fixation of whole phrases rather than adding to the end of existing words or combining existing words. It can be difficult to decide which phrases belong in the dictionary, because the language's grammar does not permit the borrowing of new verbal morphemes to express new concepts. Instead, the verb dan (to do) is combined with nominal phrases to correspond with new concepts imported from other languages. Chechen nouns are divided into six lexically arbitrary noun classes . Morphologically, noun classes may be indexed by changes in

6624-470: The legendary forefather of the Vainakhs was "Kavkas", hence the name Kavkasians, one of the ethnicons met in the ancient Georgian written sources, signifying the ancestors of the Chechens and Ingush . As appears from the above, the Vainakhs, at least by name, are presented as the most "Caucasian" people of all the Caucasians (Caucasus – Kavkas – Kavkasians) in the Georgian historical tradition. American linguist Johanna Nichols "has used language to connect

6720-581: The letters ص ‎ ( ṣād/sād ) and ض ‎ ( zād/ḍād ) had their usage limited to Arabic loanwords but were not eliminated due to opposition from Clergy and conservative segments of Chechen society. In another short-lasting modification, Sugaip Gaisunov proposed adding a overline (◌ٙ) ( U+0659 ) over letters that can be read as either a consonant or a vowel, namely the letters و ‎ ( waw ) (equivalent to Cyrillic letter "В" or to letters "О, Оь, У, Уь") and ی ‎ ( yāʼ ) (equivalent to Cyrillic letter "Й" or to letter "И"). The overbar signified

6816-470: The literature. Classed adjectives are listed with the d-class prefix in the romanizations below: Whereas Indo-European languages code noun class and case conflated in the same morphemes , Chechen nouns show no gender marking but decline in eight grammatical cases , four of which are core cases (i.e. absolutive , ergative , genitive , and dative ) in singular and plural. Below the paradigm for "говр" (horse). Chechnya Chechnya , officially

6912-787: The modern people of the Caucasus region to the ancient farmers of the Fertile Crescent " and her research suggests that "farmers of the region were proto-Nakh-Daghestanians". Nichols stated: "The Nakh–Dagestanian languages are the closest thing we have to a direct continuation of the cultural and linguistic community that gave rise to Western civilisation ." Traces of human settlement dating back to 40,000 BC were found near Lake Kezanoi . Cave paintings, artifacts, and other archaeological evidence indicate continuous habitation for some 8,000 years. People living in these settlements used tools, fire, and clothing made of animal skins. The Caucasian Epipaleolithic and early Caucasian Neolithic era saw

7008-637: The modifications in Chechen were done independently from these two nearby and influential literary traditions and were focused on needs of Chechen language. Initially, the Chechen Arabic alphabet looked like this. ي ﻻ ه و ن م ل ڮ ك ڨ ق ف غ ع ظ ط ض ص ش س ز ر ذ د خ ح ج ث ت ب ا In this alphabet, two additional letters were added to the base Arabic script: In 1910, Sugaip Gaisunov proposed additional reforms that brought Arabic alphabet closer to Chechen's phonetic requirements. Sugaip Gaisunov introduced four additional consonants: In Sugaip Gaisunov's reforms,

7104-493: The more conservative segments of Chechen society initially resisted any changes to the Arabic script, with the belief that this script was sacred due to its association with Islam, and was not to be changed. The clergy and Islamic educational institutions opposed each and every iteration of proposed reforms in the Arabic script. While modifications to the Arabic script to match local languages had been common practice for centuries, for languages such as Persian and Ottoman Turkish ,

7200-404: The mountainous area due to numerous successful full-scale battles and insurgency raids. The Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis in 1995 shocked the Russian public. In April 1996, the first democratically elected president of Chechnya, Dzhokhar Dudayev , was killed by Russian forces using a booby trap bomb and a missile fired from a warplane after he was located by triangulating the position of

7296-466: The natives of the North Caucasus . The resistance of the Nakh tribes never ended and was a fertile ground for a new Muslim- Avar commander, Imam Shamil , who fought against the Russians from 1834 to 1859 (see Murid War ). In 1859, Shamil was captured by Russians at aul Gunib. Shamil left Baysangur of Benoa , a Chechen with one arm, one eye, and one leg, in charge of command at Gunib. Baysangur broke through

7392-469: The prefix of the accompanying verb and, in many cases, the adjective too. The first two of these classes apply to human beings, although some grammarians count these as two and some as a single class; the other classes however are much more lexically arbitrary. Chechen noun classes are named according to the prefix that indexes them: When a noun denotes a human being, it usually falls into v- or y-Classes (1 or 2). Most nouns referring to male entities fall into

7488-463: The prefixes before the nouns indicates grammatical gender; thus: [vоsha] Error: {{Transliteration}}: transliteration text not Latin script ( help ) ' brother ' → yisha ' sister ' . Some nouns denoting human beings, however, are not in Classes 1 or 2: bēr ' child ' , for example, is in class 3. Only a few of Chechen's adjectives index noun class agreement, termed classed adjectives in

7584-712: The recognition of Chechnya as a separate nation. This movement was opposed by Boris Yeltsin 's Russian Federation , which argued that Chechnya had not been an independent entity within the Soviet Union—as the Baltic, Central Asian, and other Caucasian states such as Georgia had—but was part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and hence did not have a right under the Soviet constitution to secede. It also argued that other republics of Russia , such as Tatarstan , would consider seceding from

7680-507: The region. Russia installed a pro-Russian Chechen regime. In 2003, a referendum was held on a constitution that reintegrated Chechnya within Russia but provided limited autonomy. According to the Chechen government, the referendum passed with 95.5% of the votes and almost 80% turnout. The Economist was skeptical of the results, arguing that "few outside the Kremlin regard the referendum as fair". In September 2004, separatist rebels occupied

7776-516: The siege and continued to fight Russia for another two years until he was captured and killed by Russians. The Russian tsar hoped that by sparing the life of Shamil, the resistance in the North Caucasus would stop, but it did not. Russia began to use a colonization tactic by destroying Nakh settlements and building Cossack defense lines in the lowlands. The Cossacks suffered defeat after defeat and were constantly attacked by mountaineers, who were robbing them of food and weaponry. The tsarists' regime used

7872-452: The south, Georgia . Its capital is Grozny. Chechnya is well known for being mountainous, but it is in fact split between the more flat areas north of the Terek, and the highlands south of the Terek. Rivers: Despite a relatively small territory, Chechnya is characterized by a variety of climate conditions. The average temperature in Grozny is 11.2 °C (52.2 °F). The Chechen Republic

7968-764: The standard dialect. None of the spelling systems used so far have distinguished the vowels with complete accuracy. All vowels may be nasalized . Nasalization is imposed by the genitive , infinitive , and for some speakers the nominative case of adjectives . Nasalization is not strong, but it is audible even in final vowels, which are devoiced. Some of the diphthongs have significant allophony : /ɥø/ = [ɥø], [ɥe], [we] ; /yø/ = [yø], [ye] ; /uo/ = [woː], [uə] . In closed syllables , long vowels become short in most dialects (not Kisti ), but are often still distinct from short vowels (shortened [i] , [u] , [ɔ] and [ɑ̈] vs. short [ɪ] , [ʊ] , [o] , and [ə] , for example), although which ones remain distinct depends on

8064-761: The total population. The birth rate was 25.41 in 2004. (25.7 in Achkhoi Martan, 19.8 in Groznyy, 17.5 in Kurchaloi, 28.3 in Urus Martan and 11.1 in Vedeno ). The languages used in the Republic are Chechen and Russian . Chechen belongs to the Vaynakh or North-central Caucasian language family, which also includes Ingush and Batsb . Some scholars place it in a wider North Caucasian languages . Despite its difficult past, Chechnya has

8160-595: The twentieth century. The war between Nakh tribes and Russia resurfaced during the times of the Russian Revolution , which saw the Nakh struggle against Anton Denikin and later against the Soviet Union . On 21 December 1917, Ingushetia , Chechnya, and Dagestan declared independence from Russia and formed a single state: "United Mountain Dwellers of the North Caucasus" (also known as the Mountainous Republic of

8256-469: The v-class, whereas Class 2 contains words related to female entities. Thus lūlaxuo ' a neighbour ' is normally considered class 1, but it takes v- if referring to a male neighbour and y- if a female. This is similar to the Spanish word estudiante ' student ' , where el estudiante refers to a male student, and la estudiante refers to a female student. In a few words, changing

8352-505: Was a Chechen abrek Zelimkhan Gushmazukaev and his comrade-in-arms Ingush abrek Sulom-Beck Sagopshinski. Together they built up small units which constantly harassed Russian military convoys, government mints, and government post-service, mainly in Ingushetia and Chechnya. Ingush aul Kek was completely burned when the Ingush refused to hand over Zelimkhan. Zelimkhan was killed at the beginning of

8448-465: Was an economic downturn. Two Russian brigades were permanently stationed in Chechnya. In light of the devastated economic structure, kidnapping emerged as the principal source of income countrywide, procuring over US$ 200 million during the three-year independence of the chaotic fledgling state, although victims were rarely killed. In 1998, 176 people were kidnapped, 90 of whom were released, according to official accounts. President Maskhadov started

8544-515: Was created after the October Revolution , and the Latin script began to be used instead of Arabic for Chechen writing in the mid-1920s. The Cyrillic script was adopted in 1938. Almost the entire library of Chechen medieval writing in Arabic and Georgian script about the land of Chechnya and its people was destroyed by Soviet authorities in 1944, leaving the modern Chechens and modern historians with

8640-538: Was created for Chechen. But after the defeat of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria government by the Russian Armed Forces , the Cyrillic alphabet was restored. The first time that the Latin alphabet was introduced , was in 1925, replacing Arabic alphabet. Further minor modifications in 1934, unified Chechen orthography with Ingush. But the Latin alphabet was abolished in 1938, being replaced with Cyrillic. The first, most widespread modern orthography for Chechen

8736-451: Was however already used from as early as 1692. Under intermittent Persian rule since 1555, in 1783 the eastern Georgians of Kartl-Kakheti led by Erekle II and Russia signed the Treaty of Georgievsk . According to this treaty, Kartl-Kakheti received protection from Russia, and Georgia abjured any dependence on Iran . In order to increase its influence in the Caucasus and to secure communications with Kartli and other Christian regions of

8832-626: Was in charge of an army of Chechens against the rogue warlord Mamai and defeated him in the Battle of Tatar-tup in 1362. The kingdom of Simsim was almost destroyed during the Timurid invasion of the Caucasus, when Khour II allied himself with the Golden Horde Khan Tokhtamysh in the Battle of the Terek River. Timur sought to punish the highlanders for their allegiance to Tokhtamysh and as a consequence invaded Simsim in 1395. The 16th century saw

8928-567: Was part of the reorganisation of the Soviet Union. This new treaty was to be signed 22 August 1991, which would have transformed 15 republic states into more than 80. The 19–21 August 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt led to the abandonment of this reorganisation. With the impending dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, an independence movement, the Chechen National Congress , was formed, led by ex- Soviet Air Force general and new Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev . It campaigned for

9024-506: Was re-elected for the third term. In 1921 the Russians attacked and occupied the country and forcibly absorbed it into the Soviet state. The Caucasian war for independence restarted, and the government went into exile. During Soviet rule, Chechnya and Ingushetia were combined to form the Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic . In the 1930s, Chechnya was flooded with many Ukrainians fleeing

9120-516: Was the Arabic script, adopted in the 19th century. Chechen was not a traditionally written language, but due to the public's familiarity with the Arabic script - as the script of instruction in the region's Islamic and Quranic schools - the Arabic alphabet was first standardized and adopted for Chechen during the reign of Imam Shamil . Islam has been the dominant religion in Chechnya since the 16th century, and there were 200 religious schools as well as more than 3000 pupils in Chechnya and Ingushetia. Thus

9216-407: Was undocumented and was considered a branch of Sharoish, as many dialects are also used as the basis of intertribal (teip) communication within a larger Chechen " tukkhum ". Laamaroy dialects such as Sharoish, Himoish and Chebarloish are more conservative and retain many features from Proto-Chechen. For instance, many of these dialects lack a number of vowels found in the standard language which were

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