Çăvaşla, IPA: [tɕəʋaʃˈla])[a] is a Turkic language spoken in European Russia, primarily in the Chuvash Republic and adjacent areas.

[10] Although Chuvash is taught at schools and sometimes used in the media, it is considered endangered by the UNESCO,[11][12] because Russian dominates in most spheres of life and few children learning the language are likely to become active users.

According to UNESCO's Index Translationum, at least 202 books translated from Chuvash were published in other languages (mostly Russian) since ca.

[15] A similar situation takes place with the translation of books from other languages (mostly Russian) into Chuvash (the total of 175 titles published since ca.

[20] The first scientific fieldwork description of Chuvash, by August Ahlqvist in 1856, allowed researchers to establish its proper affiliation.

[23] 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.

[31] The consonants are the following (the corresponding Cyrillic letters are in brackets): The stops, sibilants and affricates are voiceless and fortes but become lenes (sounding similar to voiced) in intervocalic position and after liquids, nasals and semi-vowels.

However, some words like пульчӑклӑ "dirty", present palatalized consonants without preceding or succeeding front vowels, and should be understood that such are actually phonemic: lʲ ⟨ль⟩, nʲ ⟨нь⟩, tʲ ⟨ть⟩.

According to Krueger (1961), the Chuvash vowel system is as follows (the precise IPA symbols are chosen based on his description since he uses a different transcription).

Therefore, most grammatical suffixes come in front and back forms, e.g. Шупашкарта, "in Cheboksary" but килте, "at home".

As characteristic of all Turkic languages, Chuvash is an agglutinative language and as such, has an abundance of suffixes but no native prefixes or prepositions, apart from the partly reduplicative intensive prefix, such as in: шурӑ - white, шап-шурӑ - snow-white, хура - black, хуп-хура - jet black, такӑр - flat, так-такӑр - absolutely flat, тулли - full, тӑп-тулли - chock full (compare to Turkish beyaz - white, bem-beyaz snow-white, kara - black, kap-kara - jet black, düz - flat, dümdüz - absolutely flat, dolu - full, dopdolu - chock full).

Chuvash nouns decline in number and case and also take suffixes indicating the person of a possessor.

[40][41] In the genitive and dative-accusative cases, some nouns ending in -у and -ӳ were changed to -ӑв and -ӗв (ҫыру → ҫырӑван, ҫырӑва, but ҫырура; пӳ → пӗвен, пӗве, but пӳре).

In nouns ending in -ӑ, the last vowel simply deletes and may cause the last consonant to geminate (пулӑ 'fish' > пуллан).

[47] The superlative is formed by encliticising or procliticising the particles чи or чӑн to the adjective in the positive degree.

[49] Another notable feature is the formation of intensive forms via complete or partial reduplication: кǎтра 'curly' - кǎп-кǎтра 'completely curly'.

The same suffixes may form the equivalent of dependent clauses: ачисем килте-скер-ӗн мӗн хуйхӑрмалли пур унӑн?

There is a separate reflexive originally consisting of the stem in х- and personal possessive suffixes: Interrogatives are кам 'who', мӗн 'what', хаш/хӑшӗ 'which'.

Negative pronouns are formed by adding the prefix ни- to the interrogatives: никам, ним(ӗн), etc.

[63] There are two causative suffixes - a non-productive -ат/ар/ӑт and a productive -(т)тар (the single consonant allomorph occurring after monosyllabic stems).

The numbers from one to ten are: The teens are formed by juxtaposing the word 'ten' and the corresponding single digit: The tens are formed in somewhat different ways: from 20 to 50, they exhibit suppletion; 60 and 70 have a suffix -мӑл together with stem changes; while 80 and 90 juxtapose the corresponding single digit and the word 'ten'.

There are also alternate ordinal numerals formed with the suffix -ӑм/-ĕм, which are used only for days, nights and years and only for the numbers from three to seven, e.g. wişĕm (виҫӗм) 'third', tvatăm (тватӑм), pilĕm (пилӗм), ultăm (ултӑм), şiçĕm (ҫичӗм), wunăm (вунӑм).

Kalinin-Alikov subgroup) in the initial syllable, instead of the "lower" sound -U- is used -O- for example: In English: yes, six, found in Turi: por, olttă, toprăm in Anatri: pur, ulttă, tuprăm b) In the upper dialect in the Sundyr sub-dialect, instead of the sound -ü- (used in all other dialects), the sound -ö- is used, which is a correlative soft pair of the posterior -o-, for example: in English: hut, back, broth in Turi: pӧrt, tӧrt, šӧrpe in Anatri: pürt, türt, šürpe с) In the upper dialect (in most sub-dialects) the loss of the sound -j- before the sonorant -l-, -n-, -r- and stop -t- is characterized, which in turn entails palatalization of these consonants, for example: in English: russian woman, choose in Turi: mar'a, sul'l'a in Anatri: majra, sujla d) In the higher dialect (for most sub-dialects), gemination of intervocalic consonants is characteristic, as in the Finnish language, for example: in English: shawl, drunk, crooked in Turi: tottăr, ĕssĕr, kokkăr in Anatri: tutăr, üsĕr, kukăr In general, gemination itself is the norm for the Chuvash language, since many historically root words in both dialects contain gemination, for example: anne (mather), atte (father), picche (brother), appa (sister), kukka (uncle), pĕrre (one), ikkĕ (two), vişşĕ (three), tvattă (four), pillĕk (five), ulttă (six), şiççĕ (seven), sakkăr (eight), tăhhăr (nine), vunnă (ten), etc.

In one of the subgroups of the Trans-Kama Chuvash, in the same words there is no gemination at all, for example, the word father is pronounced as Adi, and mother as Ani, their counting looks like this: pĕr, ik, viş, tvat, pül, şiç, sagăr, tăgăr, vun - but many scientists assume that this is a consequence of the influence of the Tatar language.

In the latter case, the 2nd person affix -u (-ü) of the upper dialect usually corresponds to -ă (-ĕ) in the lower dialect; in English: your head, your daughter in Turi: san puşu, san hĕrü in Anatri: san puşă, san hĕrĕ There is also a mixed type d) In the upper dialect, the gemination of the temporal index -t- and -p- is used in the affixes of the 2nd person plural of the verb of the present tense, for example: in English: are you reading, we are going in Turi: esĕr vulattăr, epĕr pyrappăr in Anatri: esir vulatăr, epir pyrappăr The influence of Russian: we are going < epir pyratpăr There is also a mixed type, as already mentioned above.

g) in the upper dialect, individual phrases turn into a complex word by shortening (contraction): in English: apple tree, frying pan handle, earring, monkey, belt in Turi: ulmuşşi (olmaşşi), şatmari, hălhanki, upăte, pişĕhe in Anatri: ulma jyvăşşi / jyvăşĕ, şatma avri, hălha şakki (ear pendant), upa-etem (bear-man), pilĕk şihhi (lower back tie) Syntactic differences: a) In the upper dialect (in most dialects), the adverbial participle -sa (-se) performs the function of a simple predicate, which is not allowed in the middle and lower dialects: in English: I wrote in Turi: Ep şyrsa in Anatri: Epĕ şyrtăm b) In the upper dialect, analytical constructions are used instead of the lower synthetic one: in English: Go to lunch, It says in the newspaper in Turi: Apat şima kilĕr, Kaşit' şinçe şyrnă in Anatri: Apata kilĕr, Xaşatra şyrnă There is also a mixed type.

4) One of the rules says that the sound -T- standing at the end of a borrowed word in Chuvash falls out, for example: friend - dust - tus, cross - krest - hĕres...

The auslaut [t] is not pronounced in oral speech, it disappears in the position after the consonant [s] (the latter in this case is replaced by a soft [ş]): vlast' ~ vlaş, vedomost' - vetămăş, volost' - vulăs, pakost' - pakăş, sançast' - sançaş, oblast' - oblaş.

6) A simple shortened address in the literary language has become unacceptable, only respectful treatment has been left with the correct pronunciation: Instead of "Es juratan" - "Esĕ juratatăn" - "do you love".

Gemination as a primary phenomenon, as in the Upper, and not the influence from Finnish, is argued on the basis of the words: Anne - Mom, Atte - Dad, Šăllăm - Brother, Pĕrre - One, Şulla - Summer, Hĕlle - Winter ... *There is also a mixed type, where all variants of the case are used at once, this is especially noticeable in those settlements that arose at the turn of the 17th-20th centuries, such villages created by combining speakers of upper and lower dialects gave birth to a more universal dialect where both options were used .