SOME USEFUL PHRASES IN CHUVASH FIVE REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD CHUVASH Салам. Эпӗ Джон ятлӑ. LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CHUVASH [sɑˈɫɑm, ˈebɘ dʐɔn ˈjɑtlə] PEOPLE AND THEIR LANGUAGE /sah-LAHM. EH-buh JOHN YAHT-luh/ Hi. My name is John. 1. Chuvash is spoken natively in Russia (specifically in the Chuvash Republic), TЭсӗ мӗн ятлӑ? Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan but [ˈezɘ mɘn ˈjɑtɫə] you can also find small groups of Chuvash /EH-zuh MUHN YAHT-luh/ speakers in other Central Asian countries. What is your name? Мӗнле пурӑнатӑн? Ӗҫсем лайӑх. 2. A member of the Turkic language family, [mɘnˈle puɾəˈnɑdən ɘɕˈsem ˈɫɑjəχ] Chuvash shares many structural similarities /muhn-LEH pood-ah-NAH-duhn. oosh-SEHM LAH-yuhkh/ to Turkish (agglutinative, SOV structure, How are you doing? I’m fine. postpositions, etc.). Эсӗ хӑш ҫӗршывран? [ˈezə χɒʃ ɕɘɾʃɯwˈrɑn] 3. Chuvash is greatly influenced by Finnic /EH-zuh KHAWSH shir-shoowv-RAN/ and Russian languages, and their modern Where are you from? lexicon uses borrowed words from Russian, Tartar, Mongolian, Arabic, and Persian. Эпӗ Индианаран килнӗ. [ˈebə indʲiˌɑnəˈɾɑn ˈkilnɘ] 4. Chuvash is considered an endangered /EH-buh een-dzee-AHN-uh-RAHN KEEL-nuh/ language, and is the only surviving language I’m from Indiana. of the Oghur branch of the Turkic language Санӑн пӳртӳ питӗ хитре. family. [ˈsɑnən pyrˈty ˈpidɘ xitˈre] /SAH-nuhn puer-TUE PEE-duh heet-REH/ 5. Because of their strong pagan roots, the You have a beautiful home. Chuvash have some interesting and unique traditions, such as their holidays and Ӑҫта аллӑна ҫума пулать? wedding rituals. [ɒɕˈtɑ ɑɫɫəˈnɑ ɕuˈmɑ puˈɫɑtʲ] /awsh-DAH ahl-luh-NAH shoo-MAH poo-LAHT/ Where is the bathroom? ABOUT US Пысӑк тав сана. The Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region [ˈpɯzək tɑw sɑˈnɑ] (CeLCAR) at Indiana University develops materials for /PUH-zuhk tahwv sah-NAH/ learning and teaching a wide variety of Central Asian Thank you very much. languages. For more information, go to celcar.indiana.edu. Чипер. [ʨiˈbeɾ] 238 Eigenmann Hall, 1900 East 10th Street, /chee-BEHR/ Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47406 Good bye. Phone: (812) 856-1230 E-mail : [email protected] Center for Languages of the Special thanks goes to www.facebook.com/Chuvash1 Website: https://celcar.indiana.edu and Eduard Lebedev for their contributions to this pamphlet. Central Asian Region (CeLCAR) WHO ARE THE CHUVASH PEOPLE an endangered language, because it is not the WHAT IS CHUVASH CULTURE LIKE? AND WHERE DO THEY LIVE? main language in any education systems or media of the regions in which it is spoken, The Chuvash people are predominately The Chuvash people are a Turkic ethnic group therefore there are consistently less active users Christian; however, they have a varied living throughout Eurasia and Central Asia. of the language. history of religious beliefs and practices. The Historically, the There are two dialects of Chuvash: Viryal foundation of Chuvash religion had pagan Chuvash people and Antari (also known as Upper and Lower, roots and centered on Tura (God). Over the are thought to be respectively). centuries, groups of Muslims and Christians from central Siberia Similar to other Altaic attempted to convert them; however the and migrated west, Chuvash retained their pagan traditions. mixing with other languages, Chuvash uses a subject-object-verb word Today, the majority of Chuvash people belong tribes along the to the Russian Orthodox Church, with small way. Today, the order and is an agglutinative language, where one root word populations of Chuvash identifying as Muslim Chuvash population or atheist. is estimated to be about 2,000,000 with the may have a series of suffixes majority (1.6 million) living in the Volga added to indicate discrete In Chuvash culture, Friday is a festive basin in the Chuvash Republic of Russia and grammatical functions. And day, called uyav kun, and is observed by significant populations in Kazakhstan, Ukraine, like many other Central Asian languages, many Chuvash families as a day to groom and Uzbekistan. Additionally, there are small Chuvash features vowel harmony, wherein the themselves, dress in white, and visit with populations of Chuvash people in other vowel quality of a vowel in a word directly one another. Typically, Chuvash do not work Central Asian countries, such as Turkmenistan, affects the vowel quality of the other vowels or build fires on this today, and they hold a Kyrgyzstan, and Azerbaijan. within the word. Another feature of Chuvash superstition that if they do, they will be struck is the use of postpositions, so instead of saying by lightning. WHAT KIND OF LANGUAGE IS CHUVASH? “on the table” like in English, a Chuvash Traditional Chuvash cuisine is based on speaker would say сӗтелте (table on). agriculture and cattle-breeding products. Chuvash belongs to Some common Chuvash dishes include pătă the Altaic group of WHAT ALPHABET DO THE CHUVASH USE? (porridge), Kakay-shurpy (giblets soup), and languages, which includes Chuvash is written using the Chuvash alphabet tultarmash languages such as Turkish, (чӑваш алфавичӗ) which is a modified (blood sausage). Mongolian, and arguably version of the Russian Cyrillic alphabet. A favorite even Korean and Japanese. Historically, Chuvash was written in a runic Chuvash drink Altaic languages have script called Orkhon, also known as Old Turkic is a sort of mead historically been spoken script, until it was replaced by an Arabic called sim-pıl, across areas of Asia and writing system when many Chuvash people made from Eastern Europe and are named after the Altai converted to Islam in the 14th century. For a fermented Mountains in Central Asia. More specifically, a short period, Chuvash was also written in honey. Chuvash is a member of the Oghur branch of a Latin script, before eventually adopting the The Chuvash are known for carving objects the Turkic language family, along with Khazar, Cyrillic writing system in 1873. The current (cups, jugs, spoons, etc.) out of a single Turkic Avar, Bulgar, and Hunnic. However, Chuvash alphabet used today is based on that piece of wood. Some other traditional folk Chuvash is the only one of these languages writing system; however it was significantly art includes hand embroidering, ceramics, that is not yet extinct. Despite having over two modified in 1938 to more accurately represent painting, and goldsmithing. million native speakers, Chuvash is considered the sounds of the Chuvash language.