Ingush is not divided into dialects with the exception of Galanc̈oz̈[ru] (native name: Галай-ЧӀож/Галайн-ЧӀаж), which is considered to be transitional between Chechen and Ingush.
The diphthongs are иэ /ie/, уо /uo/, оа /oɑ/, ий /ij/, эи /ei/, ои /oi/, уи /ui/, ов /ow/, ув /uw/, and the schwa is mostly in unstressed syllables and ultra-short, marked with a breve in IPA.
Consonants
The consonants of Ingush are as follows, including the Latin orthography:
Single consonants can be geminated by various morphophonemic processes.
Writing system
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It is possible that during the period of the 8–12th centuries, when churches like Tkhaba-Yerdy emerged in Ingushetia, a writing system based on a Georgian script emerged. This is attested by the fact that a non-Georgian name, 'Enola', was found written on the arc of Tkhaba-Yerdy. Furthermore, Georgian text was found on archaeological items in Ingushetia that could not be deciphered.
It is impossible to pinpoint the precise date at when Arabic writing entered the territory of Chechnya and Ingushetia. One thing is certain: both the Arabic language and writing emerged among the Chechens and Ingush in connection with the spread of Islam. Consequently, Arabic writing appeared in Chechnya no earlier than the second half of the 17th century, and in Ingushetia even later. Already during Imam Shamil's reign, mullahs from among the local population appeared in Chechnya, teaching the Chechen children Arabic literacy; that is, how to read the foreign language of Arabic mechanically, as well as reciting Arabic prayers. Imam Shamil was not supportive of establishing a written language (similar to Persian and Ottoman Turkish) for the languages of the peoples of the Caucasus. He and the clergy tried to introduce the Arabic language and script, but this was unsuccessful because the people did not understand it. Written communication, all official and private correspondence in the part of Chechnya subordinated to Shamil, was conducted in Arabic, while in the part of Chechnya that was part of Russia, official correspondence was conducted in Russian, and private correspondence was conducted in both Russian and Arabic. However, from mid to late 19th century, parallel with efforts with Avar language, Chechnya and Ingushetia also saw the start of using Arabic for the first time for their orthography.
Ingush became a written language with an Arabic-based writing system at the beginning of the 20th century. In those eras, and in the letters written by native Ingush speakers, certain unique letters seem to have been in use:
Arabic Ingush letters
Arabic letters
څ
چ
ژ
ڕ
ڥ
ڢ
ڨ
ڭ
ڮ
Cyrillic equivalents
ч
чI
цI
ц
пI
п
кх
кI
г
After the October Revolution, in the 1920s, simultaneous with Chechen, Circassian, and Turkic languages of the USSR, there was a process of standardizing and indigenizing the already-utilized Arabic script for each of these languages. By the late 1920s, with a change in Soviet policy, an adaptation of Latin alphabet was taken up. In July 1938, a new Cyrillic script was announced for both Ingush and Chechen, and this script remains in use to this day.[update]
Lower-case palochka, ⟨ӏ⟩, 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.
↑The choice of -azh vs. -ii is lexically determined for the nominative, but other cases are predictable.
↑-uo is the only productive form. -z appears with personal names, kin terms, and other nouns referring to humans. -aa occurs with some declensions and is increasingly unproductive in colloquial use.
Like many Northeast Caucasian languages, Ingush uses a vigesimal system, where numbers lower than twenty are counted as in a base-ten system, but higher decads are base-twenty.
Orthography
Phonetic
Value
Composition
cwa
[t͡sʕʌ]
1
shi
[ʃɪ]
2
qo
[qo]
3
d.i'1
[dɪʔ]
4
pxi
[pxɪ]
5
jaalx
[jalx]
6
vorh
[vʷor̥]
7
baarh
[bar̥]
8
iis
[is]
9
itt
[itː]
10
cwaitt
[t͡sʕɛtː]
11
1+10
shiitt
[ʃitː]
12
2+10
qoitt
[qoitː]
13
3+10
d.iitt1
[ditː]
14
4+10
pxiitt
[pxitː]
15
5+10
jalxett
[jʌlxɛtː]
16
6+10
vuriit
[vʷʊritː]
17
7+10
bareitt
[bʌreitː]
18
8+10
tq'iesta
[tqʼiːestə̆]
19
tq'o
[tqʼo]
20
tq'ea itt
[tqʼɛ̯æjitː]
30
20+10
shouztq'a
[ʃouztqʼə̆]
40
2×20
shouztq'aj itt
[ʃouztqʼetː]
50
2×20+10
bwea
[bʕɛ̯æ]
100
shi bwea
[ʃɪ bʕɛ̯æ]
200
2×100
ezar
[ɛzər]
1000
loan from Persian
Note that "four" and its derivatives begin with noun-class marker. d- is merely the default value.
In Ingush, "for main clauses, other than episode-initial and other all-new ones, verb-second order is most common. The verb, or the finite part of a compound verb or analytic tense form (i.e. the light verb or the auxiliary), follows the first word or phrase in the clause".
Muusaa
Musa
vy
V.PROG
hwuona
2S.DAT
telefon
telephone
jettazh
strike.CVsim
Muusaa vy hwuona telefon jettazh
Musa V.PROG 2S.DAT telephone strike.CVsim
It's Musa on the phone for you. (After answering the phone.)
12"Ингушский язык"[The Ingush language]. minlang.iling-ran.ru. Minority languages of Russia: A project of the Institute of Linguistics (Russian Academy of Sciences). Retrieved August 4, 2024.
Chentieva, Maryam (1958). Oshaev, Khalid (ed.). История Чечено-Ингушской письменности[The History of Checheno-Ingush writing] (in Russian). Grozny: Checheno-Ingush Book Publishing House. pp.1–86.
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