Discussion of the Latin spelling of Chechen used here

 

This section contains comments (sometimes technical) on the Latin spelling used here for Chechen consonants, vowels, nassalization, and schwa (silent vowels).

 

 

Consonants

 

ch, sh, zh:      As in English.

c:                     As in all Slavic languages written in the Latin alphabet (e.g. Czech, Polish).

j:                     As in most languages of Europe (though not English, French, or Spanish).

w:                    There is no standard way to indicate pharyngeal sounds and pharyngealization in the Latin alphabet.  The letter  "w" is used for pharyngeals here because it is not needed otherwise and is graphically similar to the letter used to spell pharyngealization in the Georgian alphabet.

            "w" is used at the beginnings of words to spell the independent sound /÷/, after consonants to indicate pharyngealization, and together with "h" in the digraph "hw" to spell the sound /�/.   In the current Cyrillic system, pharyngealization is spelled in two ways:  the numeral "1" after voiced consonants and "хь" after voiceless consonants.   Examples are below. 

            On a linguistic analysis, pharyngealization is a property of the vowel or the first consonant or the whole syllable. Some Chechens feel that pharyngealized consonants (or pharyngealized syllables) are actually sequences of consonant plus pharyngeal consonant.  Examples (the hyphen indicates that there are two separate consonants):

 

            Cyrillic                        Latin transcription       Native perception         Gloss

 

            д1а                               dwaa                            d-waa                           over there

            б1ов                            bwou                           b-wou                          tower

            н1аьна                         nwaena                        n-waena                       worm

            ж1аьла                        zhwaela                        zh-waela                      dog

 

            цхьацца                       cwacca                         c-hwacca                      one by one

            чхьаьвриг                   chwaeurag                   ch-hwaeurag                cockroach

            пхьагал                       pwaagal                       p-hwaagal                    rabbit, hare

            схьа                             swa                              s-hwa                           here (prefix)

 

The Cyrillic spelling suggests that in the first four words the initial consonant is followed by the voiced pharyngeal sound, and in the second four words the initial consonant is followed by the voiceless pharyngeal fricative.  However, phonologically, both sets simply have pharyngealization, which could logically be written the same for both sets.  Hence both sets are spelled with "w" here (rather than "w" in the first set and "hw" in the second set).  Note also that writing "hw" in words like the second set would often be ambiguous because "h" changes the reading of the preceding consonant: if cwacca 'one by one'  were written chwacca, the first "ch" could be read as in cha 'bear', and 'cockroach' would have to be spelled  chhwaeurag to distinguish its first sound from that of 'one by one'.  The frequent prefix swa- 'here, toward speaker' if spelled  shwa- would appear to begin with the sound sh.  Several spellings in the "Native perception" column above are ambiguous in this way (or would be without the hyphen).      

 

 

'  (apostrophe)    The apostrophe is used to spell the glottal stop in Hawaiian and other Polynesian languages, and in several native American languages (e.g. Navajo).  Following the usual practice, the glottal stop is not written at the beginnings of words (except the enclitic particle 'a; we follow current practice in writing this particle as a separate word, but in fact it is pronounced as though it were part of the preceding word).

 

q                      Although almost no European languages have this sound, the letter "q" descends (via the Greek alphabet) from Phoenician scripts where it spelled a sound like Chechen q.  It is used in European languages to spell Arabic words containing q, and is used to spell sounds like Chechen q in orthographies of various native American languages. 

 

p', t', c', etc.    Though the languages of Europe lack glottalized (ejective) consonants, many native American languages have them, and in the Latin orthographies of most of these languages the apostrophe is used for glottalization.

 

x                      Sounds like /x/ are rarely written with "x" in European languages; usual spellings are ch, kh, h, and (Spanish) j or g.  In Chechen, "h" is needed for another sound.  A letter combination like "kh" would be extremely clumsy for Chechen, where the sound /x/ often occurs next to other consonants, especially /k/, and this produces sequences like khk that are hard to read and clumsy to write:

 

           Cyrillic                    Our spelling             "kh" spelling            Meaning

 

           дохк                        doxk                         dokhk                       fog

           аьхке                      aexkie                       aekhkie                     in summer

           нохча                      noxchi                      nokhchi                    Chechen

           мехкакхел              mexkqial                   mekhkqial                 parliament

           нехамехкахо          neexamaxkxuo         neekhamakhkkhuo   foreigner

 

(The last two words are compounds, for which the current Cyrillic spelling writes a schwa between the elements but we leave it out where it is not required to indicate length of the preceding vowel.  Note especially the sequence "khkkh" in the "kh" spelling of the last word.  This sequence of five similarly shaped tall letters is impossible to read at a glance.)

 

 

gh                    Not usually used to spell the sounds similar to [gh] in the European languages that have them (French, German, and others with a uvular "r"), but used as a casual or editorial way to indicate such a sound in another language.  Used to spell [gh] in several native American orthographies.

 

rh                    No European language has such a sound.  The letter sequence "rh" is familiar from standard spellings of words from ancient Greek (though the Greek sound was not the same as the Chechen one).  

            Not all speakers of Chechen think of [rh] as a single sound.  For many it is a sequence of the consonants [r] and [h] or even [r] and [x].

 

 

 

 

 

Vowels

 

ii, yy, uu, etc.   A doubled letter indicates a long vowel.  This convention is used in Finnish and Estonian, and to some extent in German and Dutch.

 

y, yy    The letter "y" has this value in Finnish, the Scandinavian languages, and German.

 

o          Plain [o] and diphthongized [uo] are different sounds, but they are almost entirely in complementary distribution: diphthongized [uo] is found in monosyllables (so 'I', lo 'gives') and in closed syllables, while plain [o] is found only in open syllables.  Since the quality is largely predictable and the phonetic difference subtle, they can be written identically.

            Typical examples with [uo] in closed syllables:

 

                        мотт                mott                 language

                        борз                borz                 wolf

                        к1орни            k'orni               chick; baby animal

                        бож                 bozh                buck; male goat

                        х1орд              hord                 sea

                        ор                    or                     hole, pit

                        к1охцал          k'oxcal             thorn

                        пондар             pondar             musical instrument

                        шок                 shok                whistle

                        мох                  mox                 wind

                        т1ом                t'om                 war

                        топ                  top                   gun

                        отта                otta                  aide-de-camp

                        дош                 dosh                word

                        коч                  koch                dress, shirt

                        корсам            korsam            moss

                        кхор                qor                   pear

                        дог                   dog                  heart

                        доттаг1           dottagh            friend

                        мостаг1           mostagh           enemy

                        йо1                  jow                  daughter, girl

                        моз                  moz                 honey

                        ворда               vorda               cart, trailer

                        х1оз                hoz                  hoop, band, ring

                        ж1ов               zhwou              hammer

                        воттана           vottana             plane

                        бод                  bod                  dough

 

 

 

            Typical examples with [uo] in vowel-final monosyllables:

 

                        со                    so                    I, me

                        хьо                  hwo                 you (singular)

                        тхо                  txo                   we (exclusive)

                        ло                    lo                     give(s)

                        до                    do                    do(es), make(s)

                        шо                   sho                  year

                        сто                  sto                   chisel; screwdriver

                        чо                    cho                  hair

 

            Typical examples with plain [o] in open syllables:

 

                        моза                moza                fly, housefly

                        додам               dodam             ladybug

                        кхокха            qoqa                dove, pigeon

                        бокъа              boq'a                colt, foal

                        вота                 vota                  drum

                        дог1а               dogha              rain

                        локхар            loqar                belt, fan belt, conveyor belt

                        къора              q'ora                hail

                        локхалла         loqalla              height  (and other abstract nouns in -alla)

                        ц1ога               c'oga                tail

                        до1ах               dowax              liver

                        комар              komar              mulberry

                        хьокха            hwoqa              fencepost

                        чопа                chopa               foam, suds

                        дога                 doga                Cornelian cherry

                                               

 

            The few examples where diphthongized [uo]  occurs in an open syllable are:

                        б1от1а            bwot'a              hulk, giant, strongman

                        бохьа              bohwa              boss

                        х1оа                ho'a                  egg

 

 

            The one example with plain [o] in a vowel-final monosyllable is:

           

                        кхо                  qo                    3   (also nominal form qo')

 

            Examples where plain [o] occurs in a closed syllable:

 

                        нохчи              noxchi             Chechen

                        москал             moskal             turkey                         

                        х1орс              hors                 clapping (to accompany dancing)                   

                        к1омсар          k'omsar            tusk, canine tooth

                        лоппаг             loppag             bubble, blister

                        поп                  pop                  beech

                       

            Unclear cases, where either  [o] or [uo] seems to be possible:

 

                        ворх1              vorh                 7

                        тоа                  t o'a                  'suffice, be enough' (infinitive)

 

 

uo        This spelling is used for similar sounds in Finnish and Lithuanian.  Phonetically, the Chechen diphthong is close to [u:a].

 

ia         The short diphthongized vowel of jiatt 'cow', diatt 'beats', etc.  For central lowlands speakers this vowel is merging with the one spelled "ae".  We keep them separate because the merger is not yet complete.  /ia/ has a high onglide (or palatalization of the preceding consonant) and a fairly low nucleus (approximately IPA [æ] in the innovative lowlands dialect, IPA [E] in other dialects).

 

ae        The shortened counterpart to /ee/, appearing in closed syllables:  aella 'said', vaella 'started, went'.  (Other forms of these same verbs have /ee/ when the syllable is open:  eelira, veelira.)  It also appears in place of short plain /e/ adjacent to pharyngeals and laryngeals, e.g. t'aehwa 'afterwards'.

 

oe        Short [oe] and long [oe:] are different sounds, but almost entirely in complementary distribution and therefore predictable:  short [oe] is found in closed syllables and long [oe] in open syllables. 

 

            Typical examples, with short [oe] in closed syllables and long [oe:] in open syllables, are in the table above.  The few words we have found where short [oe] occurs in open syllables are:

 

            оьху                            oexu                go(es), flow(s)  (present tense)           

            тоьа                            toe'a                 suffices, is enough                                          

            доьалг1а                     doe'algha         fourth

            пхоьалг1а                   pxoe'algha       fifth

            боьритталг1а             boerittalgha      eighteenth  (also  berittalgha)

                       

            The only word we have found where long [oe] occurs in a closed syllable is: 

 

            доьзткъа                     d.oeztq'a          80

 

(Another numeral compounded with tq'a '20' is exceptional in a having long vowel in a closed syllable:  quuztq'a '60'.  The other such compound, shouztq'a '20', has a phonetically long variant of a diphthong that is phonetically short in closed syllables:  gour 'horse'.) 

 

oa                    The shortened counterpart to /oo/, appearing in closed syllables:  doaqqu 'take(s)', oaxku 'dig(s)', k'oarga 'deep'.  Also, for some speakers (and under some conditions), the shortened counterpart to /uo/.  For such speakers, ohwa  [uo hwa] 'down' is close to [oahwa], moz 'honey' is close to [moaz], and k'orni [kuorni:] 'baby animal' is close to k'oarnii.

 

ou                    Spelled ов (ov) in Cyrillic as though it were a sequence of vowel plus consonant, but in fact this is a diphthong both phonetically and phonologically (words such as txou 'roof' take the case endings typical of vowel-final or diphthong-final words and not those of consonant-final words).  The pronunciation of this diphthong is virtually the same as the Canadian pronunciation of the diphthong of house, south, etc.

 

 

Nasalization. 

 

            Final vowels of nouns in the genitive case (both singular and plural), final vowels of some or all infinitives, and final vowels of some or all adjectives are nasalized.  In the Cyrillic spelling this is shown with a final -n in all monosyllabic words and in some polysyllabic words.  The Latin spelling uses a -n in the genitive singular ending (since pronunciation of an actual /n/ in the genitive is possible in some contexts) but a tilde elsewhere:  dai~  'light (in weight)', tuoxa~ 'strike' (since pronunciation of an actual /n/ is apparently never possible here). 

The tilde is useful in dictionary entries but is not advisable for an orthography.

 

 

Schwa (silent vowel) and long vowels.

 

            The current spelling system for Chechen writes a "silent" vowel, spelled a in most places (but u in the present tense of first-conjugation verbs) which is rarely pronounced itself but which opens a preceding syllable (provided it is preceded by no more than one consonant).  The consonant preceding it is released, often aspirated, and sometimes followed by a whispered vowel.  If the vowel of the preceding syllable is long (ii, ie, aa, etc.), it is phonetically very long before a schwa.   (In the following examples, IPA = International Phonetic Alphabet.  The superscript "h" indicates a released consonant.  Colon = length.  Unreleased final consonants are regularly long.)

 

                        мах                  maax                IPA  [max:]     price

маха                maaxa              IPA  [ma:xh]    needle

 

                        лам                  laam                 IPA  [lam:]      mountain

                        зама                 zaama              IPA  [za:mh]    time

 

The Latin system used here spells this silent schwa with a, as in the Cyrillic orthography.

            Many languages that use the Latin alphabet have silent or minimally pronounced schwas which influence the pronunciation of preceding syllables.  Most European languages (e.g. English, French, German) use "e" to spell this schwa.  Other letters are occasionally used; in Albanian "a" has some schwa functions.