Ingush language

Ingush is a language spoken by approximately 415,000 people (2005), known as the Ingush, across a region covering Ingushetia, Chechnya, Kazakhstan and Russia. In Ingush, the language is called ГІалгІай Ğalğaj ().

Classification

Ingush and Chechen, together with Bats, constitute the Nakh branch of the Northeast Caucasian language family.

Geographic distribution

Ingush is spoken by about 415,000 people (2005), primarily across a region in the Caucasus covering parts of Russia, primarily Ingushetia and Chechnya. Speakers can also be found in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Belgium, Norway, Turkey and Jordan.

Official status

Ingush and Russian are the official languages of Ingushetia, a federal subject of Russia.

Writing system

Ingush became a written language with an Arabic-based writing system at the beginning of the 20th century. After the October revolution it first used a Latin alphabet which was later replaced by Cyrillic letters.

А а	Аь аь	Б б	В в	Г г	ГI гI	Д д	Е е
Ё ё	Ж ж	З з	И и	Й й	К к	Кх кх	Къ къ
КI кI	Л л	М м	Н н	О о	П п	ПI пI	Р р
С с	Т т	ТI тI	У у	Ф ф	Х х	Хь хь	ХI хI
Ц ц	ЦI цI	Ч ч	ЧI чI	Ш ш	Щ щ	Ъ ъ	Ы ы
Ь ь	Э э	Ю ю	Я я	Яь яь	I

External links

• News and History of Ingushetia
• Ethnologue report for Ingush
• Ingush Language Project at UC Berkeley
• University of Graz - Language Server
• Online Ingush grammar and related material
• Unofficial Ingush web-link