Waynakh language

 

Waynakh
Waynexan mott
Native to	Waynakhia
Ethnicity	Waynakhs
Native speakers	around 2.6 million (2020)
Language family	Northeast Caucasian Nakh Waynakh
Dialects	Akkin Shatoi Melkhin Kistin Cheberloi Ploskost
Writing system	Latin script (present, official) Cyrillic script (historically) Arabic script (historically) Georgian script (historically)
Official status
Official language in	Waynakhia
Language codes
ISO 639-1	wy
ISO 639-2	way
ISO 639-3	way

Waynakh (Waynakh: Waynexan mott, وینخان موت), is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by approximately 2.6 million people, mostly in Waynakhia, and by members of the Waynakh diaspora throughout the Caucasus, Middle East, and Europe, though mainly in Anatolia, Armenia, Dagestan, Georgia, and Greece.

Alphabets

Various historical writings have been discovered in Georgian script in the southern mountains of Waynakhia, though not all are necessarily written in the Waynakh language. The Arabic script was later introduced for the Waynakh language. The Waynakh Arabic alphabet was first reformed under Imam Shamil's reign, and was reformed again multiple times in the late 1910s to early 1920s.

During Russian rule over modern Waynakhia, the alphabet was changed first to Latin, and then to Cyrillic, in the 1920s. The language was written entirely in Cyrillic for several decades; during the Derzhavist period in Russia, before and during the Great War, many historical books and writings about Waynakhia and its people and history were destroyed by Derzhavist authorities, especially during the Highland Expulsions. Very few resources are known to have survived, and efforts have been made since independence to gather information and reconstruct the language's history and preserve all remaining information.

Following the independence of Waynakhia, plans were made to switch the language back to Latin script, though the outbreak of the Caucasus Wars in the late 1970s, lasting through the 1980s, prevented meaningful steps from being made towards the process. In 1992, a new experimental Latin script was introduced for the language, marking the first major step to moving away from the Cyrillic script and Russian influence on the language; the script quickly gained popularity, due to its simplicity and better ability to represent the sounds of the Waynakh language. The script was modified in 1999, with the modification of some letters, and in 2019, the Waynakh Orthographic Reform (2019) was introduced, simplifying the alphabet further by removing obsolete letters and most digraphs, as well as standardising the use of almost all letters.

Latin alphabet

The current script used officially for writing Waynakh is the Latin alphabet. This script was created and adopted in 1992, based heavily on the briefly-used Latin script of the 1920s, and replacing the Cyrillic script used previously for Waynakh. In 1999, and again in 2019, the script was reformed, and continues to be used today.

A a	Ä ä	B b	C c	Ċ ċ	Ç ç	Ç̇ ç̇
D d	E e	F f	G g	Ġ ġ	H h	X x
Ẋ ẋ	I i	K k	K' k'	L l	M m	N n
O o	Ö ö	P p	P' p'	Q q	Q̇ q̇	R r
S s	Ş ş	Ş' ş'	T t	T' t'	U u	Ü ü
W w	Y y	Z z	Ƶ ƶ	' '	(J j)	(Ŋ ŋ)

While the 2019 reform was credit for simplifying the language and resolving various issues with standardisation, it also received criticism from some orthographers, particularly due to the continued presence of the letter Ş', only used in foreign loan words, and effectively obsolete, as well as the continued undetermined use of J. Some linguists had also campaigned for the re-introduction of Ŋ into Waynakh, but it was ultimately not included. This has led to some inconsistency in the language, with some resources including J and Ŋ as unofficial letters. Other resources also exclude Ş'; the letter has been described as "a remnant of Russian influence", calling for its removal. The Waynakh Democratic Party acknowledged the calls, and has hinted that it may pass a minor reform if re-elected in 2024 to resolve the issues with the three letters.

Three digraphs from the Waynakh language remained present in the 2019 script: K', P', and T'. The letters are combined with the glottal stop symbol ' to indicate ejective pronunciation. These letters represent unique sounds in the Waynakh language, though they were never turned into single-letter units with a dot diacritic, such as Q̇. Some linguists have argued in favour of replacing the digraphs with single letters with a dot. Some online texts for Waynakh, written without the use of a Waynakh keyboard, show 'dot letters' by combining the original letter with the glottal stop (such as G' rather than Ġ, and Z' in place of Ƶ).

The letter and sound F did not traditionally appear in all dialects of Waynakh; it is most commonly used in its western dialects, especially in Ġalġai. In more eastern dialects, it is usually replaced by M or P, though it has received more significant usage in recent decades across all dialects of the language. In 2017, the name of the Marta River, known historically as the Forta in the Ġalġai dialect, was recognised in both of the dialects as an official name; together with the revival of the Ġalġai village of Furtoug as part of the Highland Recovery project, the letter F began to be used far more widely both in society and in official state documents.

Due to the wide variety of sounds in the Waynakh language, some extended versions of the Latin script have been created, including diacritics such as macrons above vowels. However, these letters are rarely used, as they are outside of the official Latin alphabet.

Arabic alphabet

Historically, the first modern and widespread script used to write the Waynakh language was the Arabic script, adopted in the 19th century. While Waynakh was not a traditionally written language, the population was generally familiar with Arabic script, due to its usage as the script of instruction in Islamic schools; therefore, Arabic was adopted and standardised for Waynakh language during Imam Shamil's reign. Islam had been the dominant religion in most of the region since the 16th century, and many religious schools existed across the Waynakh territory, allowing the Arabic script to gain influence among the population.

Due to significant differences between Arabic and Waynakh, the standard Arabic alphabet was unsuitable for the language, and was therefore given several modifications. The changes were controversial, with more conservative members of society and Muslim clergymen opposing almost all changes to the script, believing that it was sacred due to its association with Islam and was not to be modified. While modifications to Arabic script in order to match local languages had been practiced in other regions, modifications in Waynakhia were done independently and were focused on the specific needs of the language.

The Arabic script was officially used until 1925, when it was abolished by Russia and replaced with Latin, and then Cyrillic. At the time, 41 letters existed in Waynakh Arabic alphabet, after various modifications, including the creation of letters representing vowel sounds to match the needs of the spoken language. However, various Muslim scholars of Waynakh descent living outside of the region, mainly in Anatolia, continued to use and preserve the script. It began to regain popularity from the 1990s onwards, and while its usage has increased slightly within religious spheres in Waynakhia since the early 2010s, it has not been officially recognised by any Waynakh government, and continues to have several differences from the Latin script, complicating transliteration efforts.

Cyrillic alphabet

From the late 1920s to the early 1990s, the Waynakh language was written officially in Cyrillic; while Arabic and Latin scripts continued to be used unofficially for around 20 years, the Derzhavist authorities in Russia made efforts to abolish the usage of these scripts before and during the Great War. The script was officially adopted in 1934, and was maintained throughout the period of separation of Waynakh peoples by Derzhavist authorities into Chechen and Ingush populations. The Latin script began to be used again unofficially from the late 1970s, with usage alongside Cyrillic becoming increasingly common until 1992, when the Cyrillic alphabet was officially abolished. The Chechen and Ingush languages were officially reunified into Waynakh in 2004. The table below shows the Waynakh Cyrillic script (shared by both Chechen and Ingush) as it was when abolished in 1992.

А а	Аь аь	Б б	В в	Г г	Гӏ гӏ	Д д
Е е	Ё ё	Ж ж	З з	И и	Й й	К к
Кх кх	Къ къ	Кӏ кӏ	Л л	М м	Н н	О о
Оь оь	П п	Пӏ пӏ	Р р	С с	Т т	Тӏ тӏ
У у	Уь уь	Ф ф	Х х	Хь хь	Хӏ хӏ	Ц ц
Цӏ цӏ	Ч ч	Чӏ чӏ	Ш ш	Щ щ	Ъ ъ	Ы ы
Ь ь	Э э	Ю ю	Юь юь	Я я	Яь яь	Ӏ ӏ

Georgian alphabet

Historical inscriptions have been found in southern Waynakhia written in the Georgian script, though not all of them are in the Waynakh language. A script for Waynakh was devised by Peter von Uslar using Georgian letters, though it never gained significant popularity among Waynakh speakers and was never officially adopted as a script by any Waynakh government.

In 2018, an experimental version of the Waynakh alphabet using Georgian script appeared on the Internet, including original Georgian letters and various modified ones to meet the needs of the Waynakh language. While it received significant attention from orthographers, and was acknowledged by many native speakers and even the Waynakh government at the time, the script was never developed further. However, the Georgian script is officially used for the Batsbi and Kisti languages, members of the Nakh language family related to Waynakh, which are spoken in north-eastern Georgia.

Comparison chart

The following chart shows all single letters and some digraphs in Waynakh, along with their counterparts in other scripts and in IPA. Those in parentheses, or with an empty box (—), are either obsolete or only existed in foreign words.

Latin (1999-present)	Latin (old, TBD-TBD)	Arabic (TBD-TBD)	Cyrillic (obsolete)	IPA
A a	A a	آ	А а	/ɑ/, /ɑː/
Ä ä	Ä ä	ا	Аь аь	/æ/, /æː/
B b	B b	ب	Б б	/b/
C c	C c	ر̤	Ц ц	/ts/
Ċ ċ	Ch ch	ڗ	Цӏ цӏ	/tsʼ/
Ç ç	Č č	چ	Ч ч	/t͡ʃ/
Ç̇ ç̇	Čh čh	ڃ	Чӏ чӏ	/t͡ʃʼ/
D d	D d	د	Д д	/d/
E e	E e, Je je	اە ە	Е е	/e/, /ɛː/, /je/, /ie/
F f	F f	ف	Ф ф	/f/
G g	G g	گ	Г г	/g/
Ġ ġ	Gh gh	غ	Гӏ гӏ	/ɣ/
H h	H h	ھ	Хӏ хӏ	/h/
X x	X x	خ	Х х	/x/
Ẋ ẋ	X̌ x̌, Ꜧ ꜧ	ح	Хь хь	/ħ/
I i	I i	ای	И и	/i/
K k	K k	ک	К к	/k/
K' k'	Kh kh	ࢰ	Кӏ кӏ	/kʼ/
L l	L l	ل	Л л	/l/
M m	M m	م	М м	/m/
N n	N n, Ŋ ŋ	ن	Н н	/n/, /ŋ/
O o	O o	اوٓ	О о	/o/, /ɔː/, /wo/, /uo/
Ö ö	Ö ö	اوٓ	Оь оь	/ø/, /yø/
P p	P p	ف	П п	/p/
P' p'	Ph ph	ڢ	Пӏ пӏ	/pʼ/
Q q	Q q	ق	Кх кх	/q/
Q̇ q̇	Qh qh	ڨ	Къ къ	/qʼ/
R r	R r	ر	Р р	/r/
S s	S s	س	С с	/s/
Ş ş	Š š	ش	Ш ш	/ʃ/
(Ş' ş')	Šč šč	—	(Щ щ)
T t	T t	ت	Т т	/t/
T' t'	Th th	ط	Тӏ тӏ	/tʼ/
U u	U u	او	У у	/u/
Ü ü	Ü ü	او	Уь уь	/y/
W w	V v	و	В в	/v/
Y y	J j	ی	Й й	/j/
Z z	Z z	ز	З з	/z/, /dz/
Ƶ ƶ (J j)	Ž ž	ج	Ж ж	/ʒ/, /dʒ/
'	Y y	ع	Ӏ ӏ	/ʡ/, /ˤ/
—	—	—	(Ъ ъ)	/ʔ/
—	—	—	(Ы ы)
—	—	—	(Ь ь)
—	E e	اە	Э э	/e/
—	Ju ju	—	Ю ю	/ju/
—	Jü jü	—	Юь юь	/jy/
—	Ja ja	—	Я я	/ja/
—	Jä jä	—	Яь яь	/jæ/
—	Jo jo	—	Йо йо, (Ё ё)	/jo/