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). Population total all countries: 1,393,900. 233,000 monolinguals. Ethnic population: 1,430,000 (2010 census).

Location

Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetiya Republics; Stavropol’skiy Kray; north Caucasus, most in rural areas.

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. 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 [Cyrl].

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).

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