Discrepancies in the Noun Phonetic Structure in the Chechen and

Ingush Languages

Aza Sultanovna Tokaeva and Petimat Khalidovna Almurzaeva

Kadyrov Chechen State University, Grozny, Russian Federation

Keywords: Ablaut, Umlaut, Assimilation, Vocal System, Original Vowels, Secondary or Derived Vowels.

Abstract: To the greatest extent, discrepancies in the phonetic structure of nouns in the Chechen and Ingush languages

appeared at the level of phonetic changes in stressed root syllables, that were reflected, first of all, in vowels

of stressed syllables. Despite the significant similarities between the phonetic systems of the Ingush and

Chechen languages, certain specific features of the Chechen and Ingush languages are also observed,

manifested both in the set of sounds and phonemes, and in their combination in the structure of the word,

and in phonetic processes. In the languages under consideration, such a phonetic process as Umlaut was

widespread, with the only difference being that in the Chechen language there are more umlated vowels

than in the Ingush language. In the Ingush language, there are no matches to the Chechen umlated vowels

оь, уь, but umlated аь is more often found in the Ingush language, as well as diphthongs оа, ий, иэ, уй, ув.

1 INTRODUCTION

The object of the research are the noun stems of the

Chechen and Ingush languages in the nominative

case and in the singular. Most phonetic changes in

the languages under consideration occurred during

the word formation and inflectional processes in

different parts of speech, primarily the stem vowels

change when change grammatical flexions, which

makes it possible to say the phonetic processes such

as ablaut and umlaut are clearly visible in both

languages. This is too voluminous a topic for the

article, so the subject of the research in our work is

the noun stems of the two languages in the

nominative case and in the singular.

We believe that the process of splitting the

previously one Pranakh language (or the divergence

of its dialects) does not go so far into the history,

since the languages under consideration bare no

more difference from each other than the dialects of

the same language.

For example, the Cheberloev dialect retained the

oldest system of vocalism, and it does not have the

secondary or derived vowels, which appeared in

abundance in all other dialects of the Chechen

language, as well as in the Ingush language,

although to a lesser extent.

After the fragmentation of the ancient Nakh

language into separate languages – Chechen, Ingush,

Batsbian – each of the formed languages underwent

to natural and not only natural phonetic changes.

The divergence of languages implies the beginning

of the process of language changes, which entails the

separation of variants of one language unit and the

transformation of these variants into independent

language units. The presence of various sounds

within the monosemantic words in the Chechen and

Ingush languages is explained by the action of

various phonetic laws that cause changes in the

isoglosses’ original or primary root vowels and their

combinations.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

Chechen linguists S.-H. Ireziyev and T. Usmanov

“the complexity of Chechen vowel system in

comparison to Ingush one” explain by the presence

in it of vowels of mixed series ü, ǖ, uö, uöȫ”

(Ireziyev, Usmanov, 2020). According to Timaev

A.D. there are 30 pure (unnasalized) vowels in the

Chechen language (Timaev, 2011), according to

Gandaloeva A.Z. there are 23 vowels in the Ingush

language (Gandaloeva, 2019).

The number of vowels in Chechen and Ingush

increased due to secondary or derived vowels, which

appeared as a result of phonetic processes such as

Tokaeva, A. and Almurzaeva, P.

Discrepancies in the Noun Phonetic Structure in the Chechen and Ingush Languages.

DOI: 10.5220/0011600700003577

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Actual Issues of Linguistics, Linguodidactics and Intercultural Communication (TLLIC 2022), pages 18-22

ISBN: 978-989-758-655-2

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

assimilation and accommodation for regressive

distant assimilation of vowels is especially common

in the languages under consideration. For example,

vowels of the first syllable [a, o, y] as a result of

assimilation to final [и, е] underwent to

palatalization and changed into the sounds [a> аь, a>

е, a> ие, o> оь, y> уь] and into their long

allophones, also vowels а, и, ие, of the front syllable

under the influence of final syllable [y] or affixal

vowels turned into [a> o, e> оь, y> уь, a> оа, и> уь,

ие>оь] and into their long allophones. S.-H. Ireziyev

notes that “in Ingush language Present Tense stems

are formed from archaic Bats language stems: Ing.

lawa>low>luw «wants»; dawa>dow>duw «sows»

(Ireziyev, 2013).

Tsurova Z.S. emphasizes that «some specific

pronunciation features with the common for the both

languages grapheme ä are observed in Ingush,

behind which the corresponding palatal sound ä

really stands in the Chechen language, but in the

Ingush language in the place of this grapheme is

pronounced not the same ä that sounds in the

Chechen speech: Ing. änna ‘said’, for example, is

pronounced with a barely audible glottal stop and

with a previous gamsa, after which e is pronounced,

– 'ienna (Tsurova, 2006)».

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

It’s generally known that strong dynamic stress on

the front syllable specific to Chechen and Ingush

affects the sound structure of the lexical unit. Strong

dynamic stress on the front syllable causes the sound

change of the lexical unit, such as like reduction,

dropping of sounds and, as a result the reduction of

word syllables number.

In prevailing cases discrepancies in the phonetic

structure of nouns in the Chechen and Ingush

languages related to vowel sounds, the considered

isoglosses preserve their consonant structure in a

whole, and as the matter stands, most commonly

stressed vowels are subject to changes and this

phenomena is very widespread irrespective of the

fact whether the vowels are original or secondary.

More than that, the diphtongs of the Ingush language

may correspond to monophtongs of the Chechen

language and vice versa.

Diphthong uo is widespread in the Chechen

language.

у – уо/а

Ing. muh ‘wind’ – Che. muoh;

Muh' ‘fat’ – muoh’;

mux ‘burden’ – muox.

Typical examples of vowel change:

uv - u:

Ing. guv - guvnash "hill" – Che. gu:;

yuv "shilo" – yu:;

ghuv "bolt" – ghu:.

ov - u'u

Ing. khovsh "knowledgeable" – Che. hu'ush;

lovsh "willing" – lu’ush.

a - a'a/o'a

Ing. ha "know" – Che. ha'a;

ha: "sit down" – ha'a;

a – ie

Ing. akha "to go" – Che. iekha;

khanal khalkha "timeless" – khienal khalkha.

o-a

Ing. lozadar/lozavar – lazadar/lazavar;

loradar "guard" – lardar;

The appearance of the labial-dental spirant [f] in

the Ingush which regularly corresponds to the

Chechen laryngal spirant [h], linguists attribute to a

later period, some believe that this sound is

borrowed from the Ossetian language, others from

Arabic. The phonetic transition (Ing. fetting "wicker

button" – Che. veta) appeared as a result of

alignment according to the analogy principle and is a

secondary phenomenon.

The Ingush labial-dental sound [f] regularly

corresponds to the Chechen laryngeal spirant [h]:

[f-h]

Ing. fu? What? – Che. hu?

Ing. fu "seed" – Che. hu;

ford ‘sea’ – hord;

futtarina "on purpose" – hyttarenna ‘from spite’;

fo "air" – huo/hava’;

fusam "housing" – husam;

fega "in the air" – havaekh;

funah "that was" – hu’a;

fos-fesash ‘prey’ – honts;

But: [f > v]

Ing. feting "wicker button" – Che.veta;

fort "neck" - vuort;

futta ‘plane’ - Che. vottana

fashkarg "tick" - Che. vechchalg;

fata "drum" - Che. vota (Malsagov, 1963).

According to A.Z. Gandaloeva: «The phonetic

process of dieresis is often found in the Ingush

language, this process is characterized by the loss of

word sounds, especially sonorous ones often drop

out - r, l, n (Gandaloeva, 2019)». An interesting fact:

the Chechen class adjective do:tsa (vo:tsa, yo:tsa,

bo:tsa) in Ingush is reflected as lo:tsa, and does not

change in classes. The class prefix l is available in

most Dagestan languages, and how it appeared in the

Ingush language is unfamiliar.

Discrepancies in the Noun Phonetic Structure in the Chechen and Ingush Languages

In some cases, the reason for the discrepancies is

the use of different class prefixes by each language,

since modern speakers of languages do not always

realize the word motivation when determining the

noun class (e.g.: Ing. yoakhar ‘rumor’ – Che.

baghar/bahar, diitzar ‘story, legend’).

Metathesis, simplification and syneresis or

metaplasm of the word stem in Chechen-Ingush

isoglosses:

Ing. ust ‘bull’ – Che. stu (plural – Ing. serch

‘oxen’ – Che. sterchij) [ust > stu – metathesis];

Ing. q’amarg ‘throat’ - Che. q’amq’arg [q'am >

q'amq’– dieresis];

Ing. tsq’anah ‘suddenly’ – Che. ts’ahhana;

Ing. osta ‘chisel’ – Che. sto-stanarsh [ost > sto -

metathesis];

niz ‘force’ – nits’q’ [niz < nic'q’ - dieresis];

serdalo ‘light’ – serlo [serda < ser - dieresis];

t‘ehk-t‘ehkish ‘bone’ – dae‘akhk [t'e < dae‘a];

b‘ijg-b‘ijgish ‘goat’ – byhig [b‘iy < by‘h];

gijg - gijgish – ‘stomach’ - gay ‘belly’ (Che. hier:

‘stomach’) [gijg > gai];

saergij "rods" – seriy [saerg > ser];

t‘irg "rope, twine" – t‘ijrg [t‘ir > t‘ijr];

k‘uvs ‘carpet’ – ku:z [k'uvs> ku:z];

puram ‘permissition’ – purb [purm > purb];

t’ehale ‘offspring’ – t’aehie [t'ehal > t'aehie];

qode-qodarch ‘scissors’ – ch’od [q'od > ch'od];

lorha "cautious" – le:rhine ‘neat’ [lorh > le:rn];

hana ‘why’ – hunda [han > hund];

oapash ‘lies’ – ashpash/pytash [o:psh < aeshp];

sedq’a ‘star’ – se:da [sedq’< se:d];

tsisk ‘cat’ – tsitsk [tsisk < tsitsk];

yoahar ‘rumor‘ – baghar/bahar-diitzar [jaxar -

ba:xar];

kerda ‘new’ – kerla [kerd < kerl];

darha ‘evil’ – de:ra [darx < de:r];

t‘oargats ‘chest’ – t‘orkaz [gats > kaz];

ziza ‘flower’ – zezag [ziz < ziez];

d‘am ‘wedge’ – da‘am;

hetolg ‘pod’ – hu:tal ‘cucumber bush’.

Initial laryngeal spirant [h] dropping out in

Ingush:

Ing. ukhunna ‘to him’ – Che. h’okhunna;

ukhun ‘his’ – hokhun;

ottada ‘put’ – hottadan;

otar ‘stand up – hottar (Ozdoev, 1980).

The similar process of initial laryngeal spirant

[h] dropping out in Bats language in comparison

with Chechen is described in another our work

(Tokaeva, Usmanov, 2019).

Dropping of initial voiced explosive pharyngal

('ain) sound [‘ or 1] in Chechen

Ing. ‘aighar ‘stallion’ – Che. aighar/beq’a;

‘asa ‘calf’ – e:sa;

1a ‘you, you’ – ah’.

Voicing of final consonants in Ingush:

Ing. ghand ‘chair’ – ghant;

Az ‘I, me’ (ergative) – as;

hanz "now" – hints (Ozdoev, 1980).

The Ingush diphthong oa almost always

corresponds to the long vowels of the Chechen

language, but here there are also exceptions

depending on whether they are opened or closed.

Ing. oa - Che. o:/a:/a/e: (Here long vowels are

marked by a colon to avoid mismatch of characters

in different computer programs).

voatsa (boatsa, yoatsa) ‘not being’ – vo:tsa

(bo:tsa, yo:tsa);

hoartso ‘injustice’ – hartso;

oaz ‘voice’ – az;

boarom "measure" – ba:ram;

k’oarga ‘deep’ – k’o:rga;

doakhkha ‘big’ – dokhkha;

doa-zuv ‘border – do:za;

soa ‘my’ – sa;

boad ‘darkness’ – bo:da (Ozdoev, 1980).

Umlaut is more frequently spread in the Chechen

language than in Ingush.

In the languages under consideration, such a

process as umlaut, assimilation of a root vowel to an

affixal vowel, that is, assimilation of the previous

vowel to a subsequent one, is widespread, with the

only difference that there are more umlauted vowels

in the Chechen language than in Ingush (Cheche.

dilu > dylu ‘I wash’; digu > dy:gu ‘lead’; ie:tsa >

oe:tsu ‘take’; die:ha > doehu ‘ask’). The most

characteristic manifestation of umlaut is observed

during the formation of verbs, the declension of

nouns, as well as with various kinds of noun

inflections (phyosh – Nom. case ‘sleeve’ – phy:shan

– Gen. case; luom – Nom. case ‘lion’ – loeman-

Gen.case; luor – Nom. case ‘doctor’ – loe:ran – Gen.

case).

In Ingush, umlated ae more often corresponds to

the orogonal vowel [e/a] in the Chechen language, in

both languages there are enough examples

demonstrating this transition [Ing. ae > Che. a; Ing. a

> Che. ae], although much less often, there is a

reverse transition when the Ingush a corresponds to

the Chechen sound of ae:

e.g.: Ing. ae (аь), Che. a :/e :/a

Maere tsakhilar "unmarried" - ma: reh tsakhilar;

Daela voatsa "godless" – Che. De:la vo:tsa (Ing.

Daelara - Daera (dial.) – Che. De:lera);

k'aenk "boy" – k'ant;

kaehat "paper" – ke:hut;

‘aedal "power" – ‘e:dal;

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haekal "wisdom" – h’e:q’al;

p’aerask "Friday" – p’e:raska;

laetta "land" - latta;

maechi "shoes" - ma:cha;

daeq’aza "unfortunate" - de:q’aza.

But: a - ae

Ing. b’arg "eye" - Che. b’aerg;

h’azhk’a "corn" – h’aezhk’a.

e - y/oe (е – уь/оь)

Ing. denal "ability" - Che. doennalla;

keesa "beardless" - kyisa;

shera "wide" – shy:ra;

khe "beans" – khoe.

e – oe (e-oь)

Ing. eshash (when indicating the time), phi minut

eshash sah’at "five minutes to one" - Che. oeshush;

ezdel "decency" - oezdalla;

eghazal "malice" - oeghazlo;

al "huddle" – oela.

o-oe/e (o-oь/e)

Ing. dojzash tsakhilar "obscurity" – Che.

doevzash tsakhilar;

dovzash doatsa "unknown" – doevzash do:tsa;

mottig "place" – mettig.

In the Ingush language, there are no matches to

the Chechen umlated oь, yь, previously koer

‘milvus’ were written through oь (Ing. koir/kier -

Chech. kyira), and now they write through иэ.

According to Gandaloeva A.Z. "vowels оь, уь were

also indicated on the letter, since these vowels sound

clearer in the lips of the elderly, but young people

almost did not use these vowels. In the scientific

literature, linguists replaced them with уь//уй,

оь//иэ/e. For example: ujce, uyla, guira, shera, kerta

[1, p.24-25]. "

The analyzed material demonstrate that Chechen

umlauted secondary or derived vowels in many

cases correspond to original or primary vowels of

Ingush language. Moreover, there are a lot of cases

when Chechen umlauted vowels like [y] are changed

into secondary diphthongs of Ingush language like

[ij]. Meanwhile, in some cases Ingush diphthongs

like [ij] change into the most widely spread

diphthong of Chechen language [uo].

Examples of vowel change:

ij- i/y:/uo (ий – и/уь/уо)

Ing. hij "water" - Che. hi;

‘ijrie "morning" – ‘y:rie;

gijrie "autumn" – gy:rie;

ijla "thought" - uojla.

i/ij- y/yi

Ing. khinar "will" – Che. Hynar;

bijsa "night" – byisa;

Mista "sour" – mysta;

lijta - "stirrup" - lyita;

kizga "mirror" – kyzga [Ozdoev,1980].

It is quite unlike to both the Ingush and Chechen

languages to have clusters of consonants at the

beginning of the word, however, the Ingush

language is ahead of the Chechen language in the

process of simplifying sound combinations in word

initial. In the modern Chechen language, the process

of simplifying consonant combinations continues,

especially at the beginning of the word, in some

dialects this process is more intense than in the

literary language.

Examples of simplification of consonants in

word initial: st – s

Ing. soma "thick" – Che. stomma;

sag "man" – stag;

ma‘asag "man" – stag;

se: "female" – stie:;

sigale "sky" – stigal;

sim "bile" – stim.

In both Chechen and Ingush languages, the

voiced explosive pharyngal sound [1 (‘)] is found

only in anlaut in combination with consonant sounds

b, d, m, g. However, only the Ingush language is

characterized by a combination of sounds v1, y1 in

anlaut, almost always v and y are class prefixes of

nouns and adjectives. It should be noted that in the

Chechen language the voiced explosive pharyngal

sound [1] in combination with consonants is very

rare, although the character [1] is widely used in

spelling of all abruptive consonants.

Absence of explosive pharyngal sound

(Gandaloeva, 2019) in the anlaut after class prefixes

(v, d, j, b) in the Chechen language in some words in

comparison to Ingush:

v1 - v / b1- b (в1-в/б1-б)

Ing. v1ashagh "each other" - Che. vovshagh;

v1ashka - vovshashka "to each other";

v1aeha "long" – Che. ve:ha;

b1e:ha "dirty" – boe:ha;

v1ae:xi "rich" – ve:hash volu;

d1aeha "long" – de:ha;

y1ovkhal "heat" - yowhuo:;

B1archcha "whole" – Che. diyna "whole,"

baerchchie "in a prominent, honorable place"

(Malsagov, 1963).

4 CONCLUSIONS

Thus, the Chechen and Ingush languages are

characterized by dynamic type stress (expiratory

stress), which leads to the reduction of unstressed

syllables, the loss of sounds, and a change in the

Discrepancies in the Noun Phonetic Structure in the Chechen and Ingush Languages

structure of the lexical unit. The Chechen and Ingush

languages are characterized by the fact that the

alternation of vowels in nouns mainly affects the

stressed syllable, but at the same time the Ingush

language in some cases shows a deviation from this

norm. The presence of various sounds in the

composition of synonymous or univocal words and

grammatical forms in the Chechen and Ingush

languages is explained by the action of various

phonetic laws that cause changes in the common

initial sounds and their composition.

In prevailing cases discrepancies in the phonetic

structure of nouns in the Chechen and Ingush

languages related to vowel sounds, the considered

isoglosses preserve their consonant structure in a

whole, and as the matter stands, most commonly

stressed vowels are subject to changes and this

phenomena is very widespread irrespective of the

fact whether the vowels are original or secondary.

More than that, the diphtongs of the Ingush languge

may correspond to monophtongs of the Chechen

language and vice versa.

In the Ingush language, there are no matches to

the Chechen umlated oe, ye [оь, уь], but umlated ae

[аь] is more often found in the Ingush language. In

both Chechen and Ingush languages, the voiced

explosive pharyngal sound (Gandaloeva, 2019) is

found only in the anlaut in combination with

consonant sounds b, d, m, g, however, the sound

combinations v1, y1 in the anlaut are characteristic

only of the Ingush language, where v and y are class

prefixes of nouns and adjectives. The phonetic

transition [f > v] (fetting "wicker button" - veta)

appeared as a result of alignment according to the

principle of analogy and is a secondary

phenomenon. The Ingush language is characterized

by the falling out of the initial sound [h] in common

isoglosses, the voicing of the original consonants,

the appearance of the initial voiced explosive

pharyngal ('ain) sound (Gandaloeva, 2019) in some

words with class prefixes in contrast to Chechen,

and the Ingush language is also ahead of the

Chechen language in the process of simplifying

consonant combinations in the anlaut. The Ingush

labial-dental sound f regularly corresponds to the

Chechen laryngeal spirant h.

REFERENCES

Gandaloeva, A. Z., 2019. Modern Ingush language.

Phonetics. (Tutorial for university students). Nazran,

LLC “KEP”. p. 200.

Ireziyev S.-H., Usmanov, T., 2020. Peculiarities of vowel

systems of Chechen and Ingush languages. The World

of Science, Culture, Education. №6 (85). 1991-5497.

Ireziyev, S.-H., 2013. Peculiarities of vowel contact

assimilation in the structure of verb stems of Chechen

and Ingush languages. Proceedings of annual final

conference of CSU faculty. CSU Publishing Office.

pp. 341-345.

Malsagov, Z. K., 1963. Grammar of the Ingush language.

Grozny: Chechen-Ingush Book Publishing House. p.

160.

Ozdoev, I. A., 1980. Russian-Ingush dictionary. Moscow:

“Russian”. p. 832.

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Grozny: FSUE IPK “Groznensky Rabochiy”. p. 208.

Tsurova, Z. S., 2006. Phonetic, lexical, word-formative

and grammatical features of the Ingush literary

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leksiko-slovoobrazovatelnye-i-grammat.

Tokaeva, A. S., Usmanov, T. I., Arsalieva, E. H., Ilyasova,

R. S., 2019. Approach to Phonetic Changes in

Common Isoglosses of Chechen and Bats Languages

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