Chuvash people

Chuvash
чӑвашсем
çăvaşsem
Old Chuvash men, the beginning of 20th century
Total population
c. 1.5 million[1]
Regions with significant populations
 Russia 1,435,872
684,930[2][3][4]
 Kazakhstan22,305[5]
 Ukraine10,593[6]
 Uzbekistan10,074[7]
 Tajikistan3,904[8]
 Turkmenistan2,281[9]
 Belarus2,242[10]
 Moldova1,204[11]
 United States900
 Kyrgyzstan848[12]
 Georgia542[13]
 Latvia466–518[14][15]
 Azerbaijan489[16]
 Estonia373[17]
Languages
Chuvash
Russian
Religion
Majority:
Orthodox Christianity
Minority:
Vattisen Yaly
Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
Volga Tatars, Mari, Besermyan

The Chuvash people (UK: /ˈvɑːʃ/ CHOO-vahsh,[18] US: /ʊˈvɑːʃ/ chuu-VAHSH;[19] Chuvash: чӑваш [tɕəˈʋaʃ]; çăvaş), plural: чӑвашсем, çăvaşsem; Russian: чува́ши [tɕʊˈvaʂɨ]) are a Turkic ethnic group, a branch of the Ogurs, native to an area stretching from the Idel-Ural (Volga-Ural) region to Siberia.

Most of them live in Chuvashia and the surrounding areas, although Chuvash communities occur throughout the Russian Federation. They speak Chuvash, a unique Turkic language that diverged from other languages in the family more than a millennium ago. Among the Chuvash believers, the majority are Eastern Orthodox Christians.

Etymology[edit]

There is no universally accepted etymology of the word Chuvash, but there are few theories. First one suggests that Chuvash is an adaptation of Suvar, an ethnonym of people that controversially related to modern Chuvash people.[20]

One theory suggests that the word Chuvash may be derived from Common Turkic jăvaš ('friendly', 'peaceful'), as opposed to şarmăs ('warlike'). Another theory is that the word is derived from the Tabghach, an early medieval Xianbei clan and founders of the Northern Wei dynasty in China.

The Old Turkic name Tabghach (Tuoba in Mandarin) was used by some Inner Asian peoples to refer to China long after this dynasty. Gerard Clauson has shown that through regular sound changes, the clan name Tabghach may have transformed to the ethnonym Chuvash.[21]

Language[edit]

The Chuvash language is a member of the Turkic language family and is the only Oghur Turkic language that survives.[22][23] It's spoken in Chuvashia and nearby regions along the middle course of the Volga River, in the central part of European Russia.

Although there is no direct evidence some scholars believe that Chuvash may be descendant from a dialect of Volga Bulgar language[24] while others support the idea of Chuvash is an another distinct Oghur Turkic language.[25] Since surviving literary records for the non-Chuvash members of Oghuric are scant, exact position of Chuvash within the Oghuric family cannot be determined. Chuvash is so divergent that it was not easily recognized as Turkic.[26] Some scholars suggest Hunnish had strong ties with Bulgar and to modern Chuvash[27] and refer to this extended grouping as separate Hunno-Bulgar languages.[28][29]

Chuvash woman in traditional attire

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 language isolated. Turkic classification of Chuvash was seen as a compromise solution for the classification purposes.[30]

Scholars first believed Chuvash is a Turkified Finno-Ugric (Uralic) language due to strong Finno-Ugric elements or a language between Mongolic and Turkic, due to deep connections between Mongolian and Chuvash that don't exist to the same extent with other Turkic languages.[31][32] Volga Tatar language and the neighboring Mari, Russian, Mongolian heavily influenced the Chuvash language.[33][34][35] Arabic and Persian influence is also significant.

Chuvash language has two to three dialects.[36][37] Phenotypically, there is no particular differences among the Chuvash, as more Caucasoid or more Mongoloid phenotypes can be found among all subgroups.[38][39]

Chuvash girls in traditional costumes

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[edit]

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 Sabir tribes and the Finno-Ugrians.[40] The other is that they descendant from Volga Bulgars. Throughout history, they have experienced significant infusion and influence, not only from Russian and other Turkic peoples but also from neighboring Uralic tribes with whom they were persistently and mistakenly identified for centuries.[26]

Chuvash historians postulate that their nation is descended from Sabirs.[41] In the Mari language modern Volga Tatars are called Suas; Chuvash also are known as Suasenmari (which means Suar-icized Mari), or in Mongolian Suusenmori, Finnish Suaslanmari.[42]

The Sabirs who believed to have come from Siberia, they lived there at least the end of the third millennium BC.[43][44][45] They were skilled in warfare, used siege machinery,[46] had a large army (including women[47]) and were boatbuilders. Sabirs led incursions into Transcaucasia in the late-400s/early-500s, but quickly began serving as soldiers and mercenaries during the Byzantine-Sasanian Wars on both sides. Their alliance with the Byzantines laid the basis for the later Khazar-Byzantine alliance.[48]

Early History

In the early first century AD the Bulgars whom may related to Chuvash started moving west through Zhetysu and the steppes of modern-day Kazakhstan, reaching the North Caucasus in the 2nd to 3rd centuries AD. There they established several states (Old Bulgaria on the Black Sea coast and the Suar Duchy in modern-day Dagestan). Old Bulgaria broke up in the second half of the 7th century after a series of successful 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.[49]

Chuvash diaspora in Volga Federal District

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.[50]

In 1552, the Russians conquered the Kazan Khanate and its territories. The Chuvash, required to pay yasak, gradually became dispossessed of much of their land. Many Chuvash who traditionally engaged in agriculture were forced to become bonded laborers in the timber industry or to work in barges due to growing poverty.[51] The subsequent centuries saw the Christianization and Russification of the Chuvash. During this period, most Chuvash converted to Orthodox Christianity, but the Tsars never achieved their complete Russification.[50][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.[52]

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.[50]

On June 24, 1920, the Bolshevik government of the RSFSR established the Chuvash Autonomous Region; it became the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on April 21, 1925. Around this time Chuvash nationalism grew, but 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.[53]

The Chuvash language vanished from educational and public use. In 1989, another Chuvash cultural revival began[54] - partly in response to these changes. Soon the Chuvash language once again came into use in educational, public, and political life.[50] As of 2005, 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.[50][need quotation to verify]

Genetics[edit]

A group of Chuvash children with their traditional dress (Anat jenchi - Middle Low Chuvash)

Physical anthropologists using the racial frameworks of the early 20th century saw the Chuvash as a mixed Finno-Ugric and Turkic people.[55][26] An autosomal analysis (2015) detected an indication of Oghur and possibly Bulgar ancestry in modern Chuvash. These Oghur and Bulgar tribes brought the Chuvash language with them.[56] Another study found some Finno-Ugric components in Chuvash people.[57]

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.[58]

Culture[edit]

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.[59] 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[edit]

Baptized Chuvash people, 1870

Most Chuvash people are Eastern Orthodox Christians and belong to the Russian Orthodox Church while a minority 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.[60]

The Chuvash retain some pre-Christian and pre-Islamic shamanism traditions in their cultural activities.[60][50] 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.[51]

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.[61] 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.[51]

Some Chuvash people influenced by Tatars and became Muslim. This caused some Muslim Chuvash people to define themselves as Tatars.[62][63] 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[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Joshua Project
  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.
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  12. ^ "Демографические тенденции, формирование наций и межэтнические отношения в Киргизии". Demoscope.ru. Archived from the original on 2016-02-06. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  13. ^ "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей". Demoscope.ru. 2013-03-21. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  14. ^ "Population by ethnicity at the beginning of year – Time period and Ethnicity | National Statistical System of Latvia". data.stat.gov.lv.
  15. ^ Latvijas iedzīvotāju sadalījums pēc nacionālā sastāva un valstiskās piederības, 01.01.2023. - PMLP
  16. ^ "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей". Demoscope.ru. 2013-03-21. Archived from the original on 2011-07-28. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  17. ^ "RAHVASTIK RAHVUSE, SOO JA ELUKOHA JÄRGI, 31. DETSEMBER 2011". pub.stat.ee.
  18. ^ "Chuvash". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on June 12, 2020.
  19. ^ "Chuvash". Lexico UK English Dictionary US English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on June 12, 2020.
  20. ^ Salmin, Anton K. The History of the Chuvash People in Ethnographic Facts (PDF). pp. 1–2.
  21. ^ Gerard Clauson, Studies in Turkic and Mongolic Linguistics. Routledge, 2002, p. 23.
  22. ^ Clauson, Gerard (2002). Studies in Turkic and Mongolic linguistics. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-415-29772-9.
  23. ^ Price, Glanville (2000). Encyclopedia of the languages of Europe. Wiley-Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-22039-9.
  24. ^ 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
  25. ^ Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva Á, eds. (2021). The Turkic Languages. doi:10.4324/9781003243809. 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.
  26. ^ 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)
  27. ^ Pritsak, Omeljan (1982). "The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan". Harvard Ukrainian Studies. IV (4). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute: 470. ISSN 0363-5570. 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
  28. ^ 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.
  29. ^ PRITSAK, OMELJAN (1982). "The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan". Harvard Ukrainian Studies. 6 (4): 428–476. ISSN 0363-5570. JSTOR 41036005. 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."
  30. ^ 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.
  31. ^ Savelyev, Alexander (2020-01-01). "Chuvash and the Bulgharic languages". The Oxford Guide to the Transeurasian Languages: 446–464. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198804628.003.0028. ISBN 978-0-19-880462-8. Early scholarship from the 18th century associated Chuvash with the Uralic languages, being unable to disentangle complicated areal phenomena in the Volga-Kama region (see, e.g., language groupings in Pallas 1787–1789).
  32. ^ "Chuvash language". Britannica. 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. ^ Johanson, Lars; Csató, Éva Á, eds. (2021). The Turkic Languages. Routledge. p. 7. doi:10.4324/9781003243809. ISBN 9781003243809. Chuvash have a quite a different history than their neighbors, the Tatars, but they have been in a cultural contact with them, as is clear from linguistic evidence.
  34. ^ Matti Miestamo; Anne Tamm; Beáta Wagner-Nagy (24 June 2015). Negation in Uralic Languages. John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 646. ISBN 978-90-272-6864-8.
  35. ^ Savelyev, Alexander (June 2020). "Chuvash and the Bulgharic languages". Retrieved 2023-04-25.
  36. ^ Carl Skutsch; Martin Ryle (2005). Encyclopedia of the world's minorities. New York: Routledge. ISBN 1-57958-392-X. OCLC 56420105.
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  38. ^ http://xn--c1acc6aafa1c.xn--p1ai/?question=chuvashi-kto-oni-na-samom-dele Chuvash people — who are they really
  39. ^ Anthropological material about the origin of Chuvash people
  40. ^ 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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  46. ^ Golden, Peter B. Studies on the Peoples and Cultures of the Eurasian Steppes. p. 112.
  47. ^ Golden, Peter B. Studies on the Peoples and Cultures of the Eurasian Steppes. p. 91.
  48. ^ Golden, Peter B. Khazar Studies. p. 35.
  49. ^ Skutsch, Carl, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities. New York: Routledge. pp. 312, 313. ISBN 1-57958-468-3.
  50. ^ a b c d e f Skutsch, Carl, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities. New York: Routledge. pp. 312, 313. ISBN 1-57958-468-3.
  51. ^ a b c Akiner, Shirin (1986). Islamic Peoples Of The Soviet Union (With an Appendix on the non-Muslim Turkic peoples of the Soviet Union. Routledge. pp. 70–77. ISBN 978-1-136-14274-1.
  52. ^ Tatishchev, Vasily Nikitich (1768). Russian History (in Russian). АСТ. ISBN 9785170182688.
  53. ^ 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.
  54. ^ 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 [...].
  55. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Chuvashes" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 350.
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  57. ^ Suslova, T. A.; Burmistrova, A. L.; Chernova, M. S.; Khromova, E. B.; Lupar, E. I.; Timofeeva, S. V.; Devald, I. V.; Vavilov, M. N.; Darke, C. (1 October 2012). "HLA gene and haplotype frequencies in Russians, Bashkirs and Tatars, living in the Chelyabinsk Region (Russian South Urals)". International Journal of Immunogenetics. 39 (5): 394–408. doi:10.1111/j.1744-313X.2012.01117.x. ISSN 1744-313X. PMID 22520580. S2CID 20804610.
  58. ^ Triska, Petr; Chekanov, Nikolay; Stepanov, Vadim; Khusnutdinova, Elza K.; Kumar, Ganesh Prasad Arun; Akhmetova, Vita; Babalyan, Konstantin; Boulygina, Eugenia; Kharkov, Vladimir; Gubina, Marina; Khidiyatova, Irina; Khitrinskaya, Irina; Khrameeva, Ekaterina E.; Khusainova, Rita; Konovalova, Natalia (2017-12-28). "Between Lake Baikal and the Baltic Sea: genomic history of the gateway to Europe". BMC Genetics. 18 (1): 110. doi:10.1186/s12863-017-0578-3. ISSN 1471-2156. PMC 5751809. PMID 29297395.
  59. ^ "Неведомый, чудный узор" [Unknown, Wonderful Pattern. History of cross stitch in the Russian Empire]. pattern.rusneb.ru. Retrieved 2022-10-14.[permanent dead link]
  60. ^ a b Cole, Jeffrey (2011). Ethnic Groups of Europe: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 74. ISBN 978-1-59884-302-6.
  61. ^ "Chuvash | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 2023-04-21.
  62. ^ Iagafova, Ekaterina; Bondareva, Valeriia (2020-06-01). "Chuvash 'Paganism' at the Turn of the 21st Century: Traditional Rituals in the Religious Practice of Volga–Urals Chuvash Groups". Journal of Ethnology and Folkloristics. 14 (1): 111–120. doi:10.2478/jef-2020-0007. 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.
  63. ^ Arik, Durmuş (2007-04-01). "Islam among the Chuvashes and its Role in the Change of Chuvash Ethnicity". Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. 27 (1): 37–54. doi:10.1080/13602000701308814. 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.

External links[edit]