Not to be confused with the Chumash people.
Part of a series on the
History of Tatarstan
Coat of Arms of Tatarstan

The Chuvash people (UK: /ˈtʃuːvɑːʃ/ CHOO-vahsh,[15] US: /tʃʊˈvɑːʃ/ chuu-VAHSH;[16] Chuvash: чӑваш [tɕəˈʋaʃ]; Russian: чуваши [tɕʊˈvaʂɨ]) are a Turkic ethnic group, a branch of Oghurs, native to an area stretching from the Volga-Ural region to Siberia. Most of them live in Chuvashia and the surrounding areas, although Chuvash communities may be found throughout the Russian Federation. They speak Chuvash, a unique Turkic language that diverged from other languages in the family more than a millennium ago.

Etymology

There is no universally accepted etymology of the word Chuvash, but there are three main theories. The popular theory accepted by Chuvash people suggests that Chuvash is a Shaz-Turkic adaptation of Lir-Turkic Suvar (Sabir people), an ethnonym of people that are widely considered to be the ancestors of modern Chuvash people.[17] Compare Lir-Turkic Chuvash: huran to Shaz-Turkic Tatar: qazan (‘cauldron’).[18] 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.[19]

Language

Main article: Chuvash language

The Chuvash language is a member of the Turkic language family and is the only Oghur Turkic language that survives. It's spoken in Chuvashia and nearby regions along the middle course of the Volga River, in the central part of European Russia. Chuvash is the sole living representative of Volga Bulgar language[20][21][22][23] or classified alongside Bulgar and Khazar language from Oghur branch[24] A significantly divergent principal group itself.[25] Since the surviving literary records for the non-Chuvash members of Oghuric are scant, the exact position of Chuvash within the Oghuric family cannot be determined. Some scholars suggest Hunnic had strong ties with Chuvash.[26][27][28]

Chuvash language is agglutinative in the structure of grammar, phonetically it is synharmonic. In this respect, it's almost no different from other Turkic and Uralic languages. Oghuric family is distinguished from the rest of the Turkic family by sound changes and it has a special place. The distinct character of Chuvash and its relation with the Finnic languages formerly led some scholars to think that Chuvash is a Turkified Finno-Ugric (Uralic) language while modern scholars generally believe it's an Oghuric language.[29][30] Tatar and the neighbouring Volga Finns such as Mari have heavily influenced the Chuvash.[31] Russian loans are also notable. It has two to three dialects.[32][33] Phenotypically, there is no particular differences among the Chuvash, as more Caucasoid or more Mongoloid phenotypes can be found among all subgroups.[34][35]

The subdivision of the Chuvash people are as below:

  • Virjal or Turji (Chuvash: 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

Main article: History of Chuvashia

The Turkic ancestors of the Chuvash people are believed to have come from central Siberia, where they lived in the Irtysh basin (between Tian Shan and Altay) from at least the end of the third millennium BC.[citation needed] In the early first century AD the Bulgars 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. Some of its population fled north, to the Volga-Kama region, where they established Volga Bulgaria, which eventually became extremely wealthy: its capital then being the 4th-largest city in the world. Shortly after that, the Suar Duchy was forced[by whom?] 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.[36]

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.[36]

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.[37] 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.[36][need quotation to verify]

Russian Historian Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev personally visited the lands of Volga Bulgaria and wrote in 1768:

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.[38]

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[by whom?]

in 1871.[36]

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.[39] The Chuvash language vanished from educational and public use. In 1989, another Chuvash cultural revival began[40] - partly in response to these changes. Soon the Chuvash language once again came into use in educational, public, and political life.[36]

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.[36][need quotation to verify]

Origin

Distribution of Chuvash in the broader Volga-Ural region. Source: 2010 Russian Census.

There are two rival schools of thought on the origin of the Chuvash people. One is that they originated from a mixing between the Turkic Sabir tribes of Volga Bulgaria and also, according to some research, mixing with local Finno-Ugric populations.[41] The other belief is that the Chuvash may have descended from pre-Volga Bulgars, based on a linguistic connection of the Chuvash with the Turkic language group.[42]

The closest ancestors of the Chuvash people seem to be the Turkic Volga Bulgars. Naturally, they have been subjected to much infusion and influence, not only from Russian and Turkic peoples, but also from neighboring Finnic tribes, with whom they were persistently and mistakenly identified for centuries, perhaps aided by the fact that the Chuvash language is a highly divergent form of Turkic, and was not easily recognized as such.[42]

Linguistic and ancestral connections have been thought to exist between Chuvash and Turkic Khazars[43] as Volga Sabirs were at the service of Khazar Khanate and the languages of both nations are considered to share the Oghur branch of Turkic languages.[44] Dieter Ludwig suggested that the Khazars were early Sabirs who had formed an alliance with the Uar of Khwarezm in his doctoral thesis[45] (a people possibly linked to the White Huns and/or Pannonian Avars who later invaded Eastern Europe).[46]

Genetics

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.[47][42] 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.[48] Another study found some Finno-Ugric components in Chuvash people.[49] In 2017 a full genome study found Chuvash largely show a Finno-Ugric genetic component despite having a common Turkic component with Bashkir and Tatar peoples. This study supported elite domination hypothesis among Volga Turkic populations.[50]

A genomic research found that Chuvashes have a linear relationship between Northeastern Europe and Western Siberia.[51] Volga-Uralic Turkic peoples (including Chuvashes, Tatars, and Bashkirs) displayed membership in the k5 cluster, which contained the Uralic populations. However, most of the time, the Volga Turkic peoples showed a higher combined presence of the “eastern components” k6 and k8 than did their geographic neighbors.[48] In comparison with their neighbors, Chuvash has a foremost in the sharply increased frequency of haplogroups E and J which led geneticists to see the uniqueness of the gene pool. These haplogroups are typical to Near East and Caucasus.[52]

In mtDNA, Volga-Ural variants belonged to haplogroups H, U, T, J, W, I, R, and N1 characteristic of West Eurasian populations. The most frequent were haplogroups H (12–42%) which may related to Caucasus, and U (18–44%) which may found in North and Northeastern European populations. East Eurasian mtDNA types (A, B, Y, F, M, N9) were also observed. In this study, haplogroup U5, related to mesolithic WHG, was not only observed in the Finno-Ugric populations, it also occurred at a high frequency in Bashkirs, Tatars, and Chuvash.[53]

Culture

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.[54] 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.

Religion

Baptized Chuvash people, 1870

Most Chuvash people are Eastern Orthodox Christians and belong to the Russian Orthodox Church. After the Russian subjugation of the Chuvash in the 16th century, a campaign of Christianization began. Most Chuvash did not convert until the mid-19th century.[55] They retain some pre-Christian shamanism traditions in their cultural activities. They syncretized Orthodox Christianity and shamanism.[55] 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.

A minority of Chuvash follow Islam and they have also retained many traces of pre-Islamic beliefs and rituals.[36] This minority probably adopted Islam as early as the Volga Bulgaria era but most of those Chuvash likely converted during the Golden Horde period.[37] Some Chuvash who converted to Christianity following the Russian conquest converted to Islam during the 19th and early 20th century.[37]

See also

References

  1. ^ Joshua Project
  2. ^ Census 2010
  3. ^ Census 2002
  4. ^ "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей". Demoscope.ru. 2013-03-21. Archived from the original on 2011-06-04. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  5. ^ "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.
  6. ^ [1][dead link]
  7. ^ "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей". Demoscope.ru. 2013-03-21. Archived from the original on 2012-03-14. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  8. ^ "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.
  9. ^ "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей". Demoscope.ru. 2013-03-21. Archived from the original on 2016-01-25. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  10. ^ "Демографические тенденции, формирование наций и межэтнические отношения в Киргизии". Demoscope.ru. Archived from the original on 2016-02-06. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  11. ^ "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей". Demoscope.ru. 2013-03-21. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  12. ^ "Tabula: TSK11-03. IEDZĪVOTĀJU NACIONĀLAIS SASTĀVS". Archived from the original on 2012-07-07. Retrieved 2022-03-05.
  13. ^ "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей". Demoscope.ru. 2013-03-21. Archived from the original on 2011-07-28. Retrieved 2016-02-09.
  14. ^ "RAHVASTIK RAHVUSE, SOO JA ELUKOHA JÄRGI, 31. DETSEMBER 2011". pub.stat.ee.
  15. ^ "Chuvash". Lexico UK English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on June 12, 2020.
  16. ^ "Chuvash". Lexico UK English Dictionary US English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on June 12, 2020.
  17. ^ Salmin, Anton K. The History of the Chuvash People in Ethnographic Facts (PDF). pp. 1–2.
  18. ^ Piispanen, Peter (January 2019). "Chuvash Historical Phonetics". Journal of Old Turkic Studies (JOTS).
  19. ^ Gerard Clauson, Studies in Turkic and Mongolic Linguistics. Routledge, 2002, p. 23.
  20. ^ 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
  21. ^ Marcantonio, Angela (2002). The Uralic language family: facts, myths and statistics. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 167. ISBN 0-631-23170-6.
  22. ^ Price, Glanville (2000). Encyclopedia of the languages of Europe. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 88. ISBN 0-631-22039-9.
  23. ^ Clauson, Gerard (2002). Studies in Turkic and Mongolic linguistics. Taylor & Francis. p. 38. ISBN 0-415-29772-9.
  24. ^ 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.
  25. ^ [2] Chuvash is the sole living representative of the Bulgharic branch, one of the two principal branches of the Turkic family.
  26. ^ Pritsak, Omeljan (1982). "The Hunnic Language of the Attila Clan". Harvard Ukrainian Studies. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute. IV (4): 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
  27. ^ Pritsak, Omeljan (1981). "The Proto-Bulgarian Military Inventory Inscriptions". Turkic-Bulgarian-Hungarian relations. Budapest.
  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. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  29. ^ 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). The Turkic origin of Chuvash was proposed no later than by Klaproth in 1828 and convincingly proved by Schott in 1841. In 1863, Feizkhanov managed to read three grave epitaphs in the Volga Bulghar language based on his knowledge of the contemporary Chuvash. Strong arguments relating Chuvash to Volga Bulghar were summarized by Ašmarin in 1902; since then, the Volga Bulghar → Chuvash linguistic continuity has gained general acceptance in the field. Together with its extinct relatives, Chuvash forms the separate Bulgharic branch of the Turkic family, which exhibits many differences from the so-called Common Turkic languages
  30. ^ "Chuvash language | Alphabet, People, & Meaning | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-11-02.
  31. ^ 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.
  32. ^ Encyclopedia of the world's minorities. Carl Skutsch, Martin Ryle. New York: Routledge. 2005. ISBN 1-57958-392-X. OCLC 56420105.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  33. ^ Savelyev, Alexander (2020-06-30). "Chuvash and the Bulgharic languages". The Oxford Guide to the Transeurasian Languages. pp. 446–464. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198804628.003.0028. ISBN 978-0-19-880462-8.
  34. ^ http://xn--c1acc6aafa1c.xn--p1ai/?question=chuvashi-kto-oni-na-samom-dele Chuvash people — who are they really
  35. ^ Anthropological material about the origin of Chuvash people
  36. ^ a b c d e f g Skutsch, Carl, ed. (2005). Encyclopedia of the World's Minorities. New York: Routledge. pp. 312, 313. ISBN 1-57958-468-3.
  37. ^ 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.
  38. ^ Tatishchev, Vasily Nikitich (1768). Russian History (in Russian). ISBN 9785170182688.
  39. ^ 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.
  40. ^ 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 [...].
  41. ^ 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.
  42. ^ a b c Krueger, John R. (1961). Chuvash Manual. Introduction, Grammar, Reader, and Vocabulary. Hague. pp. 7–8.
  43. ^ Shapira, Dan (2020-12-14), "KHAZARS", Encyclopaedia Iranica Online, Brill, retrieved 2022-05-05 "Eṣṭaḵri stated in one place that the Bulḡar language is like the language of the Khazars, thus giving rise to the Chuvash-Bulḡar"
  44. ^ Shapira, Dan (2020-12-14), "KHAZARS", Encyclopaedia Iranica Online, Brill, retrieved 2022-05-05
  45. ^ Ludwig, Dieter (1982). Struktur und Gesellschaft des Chazaren-Reiches im Licht der schriftlichen Quellen (Thesis). Münster.
  46. ^ Silić, Ana; Heršak, Emil (2002-09-30). "The Avars: A Review of Their Ethnogenesis and History". Migracijske I Etničke Teme (in Croatian). 18 (2–3): 197–224. ISSN 1333-2546.
  47. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Chuvashes" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 350.
  48. ^ a b Yunusbayev, Bayazit; Metspalu, Mait; Metspalu, Ene; Valeev, Albert; Litvinov, Sergei; Valiev, Ruslan; Akhmetova, Vita; Balanovska, Elena; Balanovsky, Oleg; Turdikulova, Shahlo; Dalimova, Dilbar; Nymadawa, Pagbajabyn; Bahmanimehr, Ardeshir; Sahakyan, Hovhannes; Tambets, Kristiina; Fedorova, Sardana; Barashkov, Nikolay; Khidiyatova, Irina; Mihailov, Evelin; Khusainova, Rita; Damba, Larisa; Derenko, Miroslava; Malyarchuk, Boris; Osipova, Ludmila; Voevoda, Mikhail; Yepiskoposyan, Levon; Kivisild, Toomas; Khusnutdinova, Elza; Villems, Richard (21 April 2015). "The Genetic Legacy of the Expansion of Turkic-Speaking Nomads across Eurasia". PLOS Genet. 11 (4): e1005068. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1005068. ISSN 1553-7404. PMC 4405460. PMID 25898006.
  49. ^ 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.
  50. ^ 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.
  51. ^ Spitsin, V. A.; Batsevich, V. A.; El'chinova, G. I.; Kobylianskiĭ, E. D. (2009). "[Genetic position of Chuvashes in the system of Finno-Ugric and Turkic speaking peoples]". Genetika. 45 (9): 1270–1276. ISSN 0016-6758. PMID 19824548.
  52. ^ Salmin, Anton K. (February 28, 2022). Genetic Geography of the Historical Ancestors of the Chuvash. Scientific Research Publishing. pp. 4–12.
  53. ^ Bermisheva, M. A.; Tambets, Kristina; Villems, R.; Khusnutdinova, E. K. (2002). "Diversity of Mitochondrial DNA Haplogroups in Ethnic Populations of the Volga-Ural Region". Molecular Biology. 36 (6): 802–812. doi:10.1023/A:1021677708482. S2CID 16959586.
  54. ^ "Неведомый, чудный узор" [Unknown, Wonderful Pattern. History of cross stitch in the Russian Empire]. pattern.rusneb.ru. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  55. ^ a b Cole, Jeffrey (2011). Ethnic Groups of Europe: An Encyclopedia. ABC-CLIO. p. 74. ISBN 978-1-59884-302-6.

External links