Chuvash people

Chuvash is a

Some scholars suggest Hunnish had strong ties with Bulgar and to modern Chuvash^[19] and refer to this extended grouping as separate Hunno-Bulgar languages.^[20][21] However, such speculations are not based on proper linguistic evidence, since the language of the Huns is almost unknown except for a few attested words and personal names. Scholars generally consider Hunnish as unclassifiable.^{[22][23][24][25]}

Italian historian and philologist Igor de Rachewiltz noted a significant distinction of the Chuvash language from other Turkic languages. According to him, the Chuvash language does not share certain common characteristics with Turkic languages to such a degree that some scholars consider Chuvash as an independent branch from Turkic and Mongolic. The Turkic classification of Chuvash was seen as a compromise solution for classification purposes.^[26][27][a]

Despite grammatical similarity with the rest of Turkic language family, the presence of changes in Chuvash pronunciation (which are hard to reconcile with other members of the Turkic family) has led some scholars to see Chuvash as originating not from Proto-Turkic but from another proto-language spoken at the time of Proto-Turkic (in which case Chuvash and all the remaining Turkic languages would be part of a larger language family).^[28]

The Oghuric branch is distinguished from the rest of the Turkic family (the Common Turkic languages) by two sound changes: r corresponding to Common Turkic z and l corresponding to Common Turkic š.^[29] The first scientific fieldwork description of Chuvash, by August Ahlqvist in 1856, allowed researchers to establish its proper affiliation.^[30]

Chuvash is so divergent from the main body of Turkic languages that Chuvash first believed to be a

Mongolian, Arabic and Persian also influenced Chuvash.^[35][36] Chuvash language has two to three dialects.^[37][38] Although Chuvash is taught at schools and sometimes used in the media, it is considered endangered by the UNESCO,^[39][40] because Russian dominates in most spheres of life and few children learning the language are likely to become active users.

The subdivision of the Chuvash people are as below:

• Virjal (вирьял, тури, 'upper')
• Anat jenchi (анат енчи, 'mid-lower')
• Anatri (анатри, 'lower')
• Hirti (хирти, 'steppe') (this is a sub-group that is recognized by some researchers)

History

Origins

There are two rival schools of thought on the origin of the Chuvash people. One is that they originated from a mixing between the

Khazar invasions. Sabirs who were a tribe within the Khazar Khanate, subsequently undertook a migration to the Volga-Kama region along with other Oghuric tribes, ultimately founded the Volga Bulgaria

, which eventually became extremely wealthy: its capital then being the 4th-largest city in the world.

Shortly after that, another state founded by Sabirs in Caucasus known as Suar Principality was forced to become a vassal state of Khazaria. About half a century later, the Suars took part in the Arab–Khazar wars of 732–737. The adoption of Islam in the early tenth century in Volga Bulgaria led to most of its people embracing that religion.^[48]

After the Mongols destroyed Volga Bulgaria in 1236, the Golden Horde kept control of the region until its slow dissolution from c. 1438. The Kazan Khanate then became the new authority of the region and of the Chuvash. The modern name "Chuvash" began to appear in records starting from the sixteenth century from Russian and other foreign sources.^[49]

In 1552, the Russians conquered the Kazan Khanate and its territories. The Chuvash, required to pay

Tsars never achieved their complete Russification.^{[49] [need quotation to verify}

]

After conversion, Russian Historian Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev personally visited the lands of Volga Bulgaria and wrote his travel in 1768 claim that Bulgars also migrated to Bashkortostan and North of Kazan (i.e. modern-day Chuvashia).

Down the Volga River, the Chuvash, the ancient Bulgars, filled the entire county of Kazan and Simbirsk. Now, after receiving baptism, very few of them remain, because many, not wanting to be baptized, moved to the Bashkirs and settled in other counties.

— V. N. Tatishchev. "Russian History". Part I. Chapter 22.^[51]

Modern History The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw the revival of Chuvash culture and the publication of many educational, literary, and linguistic works, along with the establishment of schools and other programs. The Chuvash language began to be used in local schools, and a special written script for the Chuvash language was created in 1871.^[49]

On June 24, 1920, the

Soviet authorities attempted to suppress nationalist movements by re-drawing the borders of the republic, leaving many Chuvash living in neighboring republics or in Russian districts. During most of the Soviet period of 1917–1991, the Chuvash were subjected to Russification campaigns and propaganda.^[52]

The Chuvash language vanished from educational and public use. In 1989, another Chuvash cultural revival began[53] - partly in response to these changes. Soon the Chuvash language once again came into use in educational, public, and political life.^[49] As of 2005^[update], schools in the Chuvash Republic and in areas outside that have large Chuvash populations teach the Chuvash language and culture. Chuvash people around Russia also have media available to them in their local communities.^{[49][need quotation to verify]}

Genetics

Oghur and possibly Bulgar ancestry in modern Chuvash. These Oghur tribes brought the Chuvash language with them.^[55] Another study found some Finno-Ugric components in Chuvash people.^[56]

Phenotypically, there is no particular differences among the Chuvash, as more Caucasoid or more Mongoloid phenotypes can be found among all subgroups.[57]^[58] In 2017, a full genome study found Chuvash largely show a Finno-Ugric genetic component despite having a small common Turkic component with Bashkir and Tatar peoples. This study supported language shift hypothesis among Chuvash population.^[59]

Culture

They speak the Chuvash language and have some pre-Christian traditions. The Chuvash have specific patterns used in embroidery, which is found in their traditional clothing.^[60] Many people also use the Russian and Tatar language, Spoken in Chuvashia and nearby regions along the middle course of the Volga River, in the central part of European Russia.

Religion

Most Chuvash people are

Sunni Muslims or practitioners of Vattisen Yaly. After the Russian subjugation of the Chuvash in the 16th century, a campaign of Christianization began. However, most Chuvash did not convert until the mid-19th century.^[61]

The Chuvash retain some pre-Christian and pre-Islamic shamanism traditions in their cultural activities.^[61][49] A minority of Chuvash may have been exposed to Islam as early as the Volga Bulgaria era but most of those Chuvash likely converted during the Golden Horde period.^[50]

An inscription dated at 1307 indicates that some Chuvash were converted to Islam, and religious terms occur in Chuvash in the form of Tatar loanwords.^[62] However, sources do not specify the practices of the Chuvash during this period. Some Chuvash who converted to Christianity following the Russian conquest converted to Islam during the 19th and early 20th century.^[50]

Some Chuvash people influenced by Tatars and became Muslim. This caused some Muslim Chuvash people to define themselves as Tatars.^[63][64] Parallel pray in the shrines called keremet and sacrifice geese there. One of the main shrines is located in the town of Bilyarsk. Vattisen Yaly is a contemporary revival of the ethnic religion of the Chuvash people.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Chuvash people.

• List of Chuvashes
• Chuvash National Congress
• Chuvash National Museum
• Chuvash national symbols
• Chuvash State Academic Song and Dance Ensemble
• Chuvash Wikipedia
• ChuvashTet
• Turkic peoples
• Bulgarism

References

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2. ^ Census 2010
3. ^ Census 2002
4. ^ "Russian Census of 2021". (in Russian)
5. ^ "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей". Demoscope.ru. 2013-03-21. Archived from the original on 2011-06-04. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
6. ^ "Всеукраїнський перепис населення 2001 - English version - Results - Nationality and citizenship - The distribution of the population by nationality and mother tongue - Selection". 2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua.
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8. ^ "Chuvash". Ethnologue. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
9. ^ "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей". Demoscope.ru. 2013-03-21. Archived from the original on 2012-03-14. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
10. ^ "НАЦИОНАЛЬНЫЙ СОСТАВ НАСЕЛЕНИЯ РЕСПУБЛИКИ БЕЛАРУСЬ (ETHNIC COMPOSITION OF POPULATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS)". Archived from the original on February 7, 2009. Retrieved October 21, 2009.
11. ^ "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей". Demoscope.ru. 2013-03-21. Archived from the original on 2016-01-25. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
12. ^ "Chuvash". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on June 12, 2020.
13. ^ "Chuvash". Lexico UK English Dictionary US English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on June 12, 2020.
14. ^ Gerard Clauson, Studies in Turkic and Mongolic Linguistics. Routledge, 2002, p. 23.
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17. ^ Agyagási, K. (2020). "A Volga Bulgarian Classifier: A Historical and Areal Linguistic Study". University of Debrecen. 3: 9. Modern Chuvash is the only descendant language of the Ogur branch.The ancestors of its speakers left the Khazar Empire in the 8th century and migrated to the region at the confluence of the Volga and Kama rivers, where they founded the Volga Bulgarian Empire in the 10th century. In the central Volga region three Volga Bulgarian dialects developed, and Chuvash is the descendant of the 3rd dialect of Volga Bulgarian (Agyagási 2019: 160–183). Sources refer to it as a separate language beginning with 1508
18. ISBN 9781003243809
    . Another Turkic people in the Volga area are the Chuvash, who, like the Tatars, regard themselves as descendants of the Volga Bulghars in the historical and cultural sense. It is clear that Chuvash belongs to the Oghur branch of Turkic, as the language of the Volga Bulghars did, but no direct evidence for diachronic development between the two has been established. As there were several distinct Oghur languages in the Middle Ages, Volga Bulghar could represent one of these and Chuvash another.
19. JSTOR 41036005
    . The language had strong ties to Bulgar language and to modern Chuvash, but also had some important connections, especially lexical and morphological, to Ottoman Turkish and Yakut
20. ^ Ramer, Alexis Manaster. "Proto-Bulgarian/Danube Bulgar/Hunno-Bulgar Bekven". Granberg's suggestion that we should revive the term Hunno-Bulgar may well became that replacement — once it is clear that Hunnic and Bulgar were closely related and perhaps even the same language.
21. JSTOR 41036005. Archived from the original
    on 2023-04-23. Retrieved 2023-04-23. p. 430 "I was able to establish a Danube- Bulgarian nominative- suffix /A/ from the consonant stems. Recalling that Danube- Bulgarian was a Hunnic language."
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26. ^ Rachewiltz, Igor de. Introduction to Altaic philology: Turkic, Mongolian, Manchu / by Igor de Rachewiltz and Volker Rybatzki; with the collaboration of Hung Chin-fu. p. cm. — (Handbook of Oriental Studies = Handbuch der Orientalistik. Section 8, Central Asia; 20). — Leiden; Boston, 2010. — P. 7.
27. ^ ^{a b c} Krueger, John R. (1961). Chuvash Manual. Introduction, Grammar, Reader, and Vocabulary. Hague. pp. 7–8.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
28. ^ Encyclopedia of Linguistics. p. 39.
29. ^ Johanson (1998); cf. Johanson (2000, 2007) and the articles pertaining to the subject in Johanson & Csató (ed., 1998).
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31. ^ Savelyev, Alexander (June 2020). "Chuvash and the Bulgharic languages". p. 446-464. Retrieved 2023-04-25.
32. ^ "Chuvash language | Alphabet, People, & Meaning | Britannica". Retrieved 2024-04-25. Formerly, scholars considered Chuvash to be a Turkicized Finno-Ugric (Uralic) language or an intermediary branch between Turkic and Mongolian. The distinct character of Chuvash is also indicated by its lack of mutual intelligibility with the other Turkic languages
33. ISBN 9781003243809
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34. ISBN 978-90-272-6864-8
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35. ^ "Chuvash". Encyclopedia. The Chuvash language by virtue of a number of peculiarities differs more widely than others from the Turkic languages. There are many Chuvash words in Mari, Udmurt, Russian, and other languages. Likewise, the Chuvash language has borrowings from Arabic, Persian, Kypchak-Tatar, Finnish-Ugric, and Russian.
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39. ^ "Zheltov, Pavel. An Attribute-Sample Database System for Describing Chuvash Affixes" (PDF). mt-archive.info. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 21 March 2018.
40. ^ Tapani Salminen (22 September 1999). "UNESCO red book on endangered languages: Europe".
41. ^ Graf, Orion M; John Mitchell; Stephen Wilcox; Gregory Livshits; and Michael H. Crawford. Chuvash origins: Evidence from mtDNA Markers. (2010). Their maternal markers appear to most closely resemble Finno-Ugric speakers rather than fellow Turkic speakers.
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43. ^ Golden, Peter B. An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples. p. 104.
44. ^ Golden, Peter B. Studies on the Peoples and Cultures of the Eurasian Steppes. p. 146.
45. ^ Golden, Peter B. Studies on the Peoples and Cultures of the Eurasian Steppes. p. 112.
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47. ^ Golden, Peter B. Khazar Studies. p. 35.
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52. ^ Skutsch, Carl, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities. New York: Routledge (published 2013). p. 313.
    ISBN 9781135193881
    . Retrieved 13 August 2021. During the Soviet era, the Chuvash [...] were subjected to Russification campaigns.
53. ^ Skutsch, Carl, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities. New York: Routledge (published 2013). p. 313.
    ISBN 9781135193881
    . Retrieved 13 August 2021. In the wake of the changes in 1989, a new Chuvash revival movement started [...].
54. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Chuvashes" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 350.
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57. ^ http://xn--c1acc6aafa1c.xn--p1ai/?question=chuvashi-kto-oni-na-samom-dele Chuvash people — who are they really
58. ^ Anthropological material about the origin of Chuvash people
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60. ^ "Неведомый, чудный узор" [Unknown, Wonderful Pattern. History of cross stitch in the Russian Empire]. pattern.rusneb.ru. Retrieved 2022-10-14.^{[permanent dead link]}
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63. ISSN 2228-0987
    . In some cases, the Chuvash perceived Tatar ethnic identity as parallel to Islam, although they retained the Chuvash language and kept some elements of Chuvash culture in everyday life as well as in rituals.
64. ISSN 1360-2004
    . Chuvashes who accepted Islam later on became imams, muezzins, teachers in madrasahs and the other religious employees. Many Chuvashes were influenced by Tatars who were strong representatives of Islam in the Volga-Urals region. This caused Chuvashes to define themselves as Tatars.

Notes

1. Altaic
   " language grouping, which is itself controversial and has no general consensus within linguistic circles.

External links

• Photos of the Chuvash people