Summary Details
| Query: |
Replies related to 'Chechnia'
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| Author: | Maher Bahloul | |
| Submitter Email: | click here to access email | |
| Linguistic LingField(s): |
General Linguistics
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| Summary: |
Re: Linguist 13.601 Dear All, Thanks to the following colleagues, the etymology of the Ethnynom 'chechen' is, to some extent, no longer a puzzle. These are the answers I've got so far: Ben Fortson The word is supposed to come from Kabardian sheshen. I would check Max Vasmer's etymological dictionary of Russian for further info. Donald S. Cooper A starting point is probably given by Max Vasmer's Russisches etymologisches Woerterbuch III Heidelberg 1958. The Russian word cheche'nets is considered: "'Tschetschene, Angehoeriger des oestl. Zweiges des Nordkaukasischen' (Finck). Nach Finck Sprachstaemme 34 ist der Name dem Russischen entnommen und geht vielleicht auf kabard. sheshen zurueck. Anders Dirr Namen 207 der from ON Chachan am unteren Argun ausgeht. Der Stammesname findet sich in osset. cacan., dido chachanzi; awar.chachan (dirr. c.l.). Vgl. auch osman. Chaechaen 'Tschetschene' (Radloff Wb. 3, 1988 ff.)." I expand umlauted letters V to Ve. Consonant letters C with hacek are expanded to a sequence Ch, e.g. ch, sh. If you have a FAX, I can send you the plain copy. Donald F. Reindl The ethnonym and general toponym apparently come from the name of a village where the Russians had early contact with the Chechens. I don't have my Chechen materials with me (I'm temporarily living abroad), so I'm sorry that I can't look it up and tell you exactly which village it was. Supposedly the Czech designation for Austria (Rakousko) has a similar origin, connected with the town of Retz/R?tz. I've also seen the Greeks refer to the Republic of Macedonia as "Skopje" and I think they have a Skopje-based name for its citizens, although this is a deliberate politically-motivated choice. There are probably quite a few other examples of ethnic groups being designated by the name of a salient settlement. Paul Fallon "The Chechen self-name is (singular) _Nwoxc^uo_, (plural) _Nwoxc^i:_, the language is _nwoxc^i:n mwott_ (lit. 'language of the Chechens'). The Russian and general European term Chechen comes from the name of a lowlands village." note: _word_ = underlined word, c^ = c-wedge, final /n/ is superscript (in Chechen). Source: Nichols, Johanna. 1994. Chechen. North East Caucasian Languages, Part 2, ed. by Rieks Smeets, 1-77. Delmar, NY: Caravan Books. quote from p. 3. Johannes I was working on the Chechen language for a while. The word 'Chechnia' is taken from a little village where the Russians first met Chechens when they went south more than 2 centuries ago. I forgot whether the village is still called Chechnia but in fact it is a Russian name which was taken into nearly all languages apart from Caucasian languages which are neighbouring Chechnia. Magnus Liw As I've gathered it, the name Chechen actually's the name of a frontier village, the first to be visited by russians.' Marc Picard According to Webster's Third International, Chechen is a modification of Russian chechenets which is probably from chechenit' sya 'to talk mincingly', which is of imitative origin. Wolfgang The Ethnynom 'chechen' is probably related to the name of a small village in Northern Chechnya, which had been reached by Russian troops in 1708 and which was famous for the scene of the first heavy clashes between Zarist and Chechen troops. In a treaty between the Russians and the Kalmuq-Chief AyukiKhan of the same year, the ethnonym 'chechen' had been mentioned for the first time. From this we can induce that it was the village name that gave rise to the the ethnonym (Russian 'chechency' = 'those from 'Chachen' - a typical way how 'foreigners' develop a name for an ethnic group hitherto unknown to them). But this probably isn't the whole story. We have to bear in mind that there once was a 'taypa' (clan) called the 'cechoy' or 'cecoy' who dwelt in the village of Cechoy or Keshen-Aul at the Yaryk-Su. Finally, there is a village in Northern Avaristan called Burti which is named Chechni by its inhabitants. A connection is a bit unlikely, because the term 'chechen' is obviuously related to radition north(west) of Chechnya. Note that the Kabardians call the Chechens 'shashan', the Ossetians have the name 'cacan'. Most likely, both peoples have taken the term from Russian. Local names for the Chechens are normally derived from other place names such as Okoki ~ Akazy (< Akki), Misikizy (< Michik, a river name) etc. etc. Hence, a derivation from the village name Chechen is rather probable. All does not naturally explain 'what' 'chechen' historically meant. But it's always the same mystery with place names: sometimes they go far beyond what we can trace linguistically. The 'native' term (a rather recent formation, by the way', is - as you say - no:chiyn, a genitive plural from 'na:x' 'people'. But note that already in old Armenian sources (600 AD), there is an ethnonym naxch`amatyan which could be read 'no:chyn muott' '[people of the] Nax language'. |
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| LL Issue: | 13.637 | |
| Date Posted: | 08-Mar-2002 | |
| Original Query: | Read original query | |
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