Chechen

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A language of Russian Federation

ISO 639-3
che
Alternate Names
Galancho, Nokchiin Muott, Nokhchiin
Population

1,350,000 in Russian Federation (2010 census). 233,000 monolinguals. Population total all countries: 1,361,000. Ethnic population: 1,360,000.

Location

Chechnya Republic, north Caucasus. 63% in rural areas. Also in Georgia, Germany, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Syria, Turkey, Uzbekistan.

Language Maps
Language Status

2 (Provincial). Statutory provincial language in Chechen Republic (1993, Constitution, Article 68(2)).

Classification
North Caucasian, East Caucasian, Nakh, Chechen-Ingush
Dialects

Akkin (Aux), Cheberloi, Itumkala (Shatoi), Kistin, Melkhin, Ploskost. Chechen partially intelligible with Ingush [inh]. Melkhi transitional dialect to Ingush.

Typology

Ergative case system; many consonants and vowels; extensive inflectional morphology, many nominal cases, several gender classes; complex sentences by chaining participial clauses; verbs have gender agreement with the direct object or intransitive subject, but no person agreement (Nichols 1995)

Language Use

Largest Nakh-Daghestanian language. Used in publishing. Most also use Russian [rus].

Language Development
Taught in primary schools. Newspapers. New media. Radio programs. Dictionary. Grammar. Bible: 2012.
Language Resources
OLAC resources in and about Chechen
Writing
Cyrillic script.
Other Comments

Many Russians, Ingush, Ossetins, and other peoples live among them. From 1944–1957, they were deported to Kazakhstan and Siberia losing 25%–50% of the population, much land, economic resources, and civil rights. They have been largely removed from productive lowlands. Muslim (Sunni), Muslim (Sufi).

Also spoken in:

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