[Fwd: 13.637, Sum: Origin of "Chechnia"]

Mon Mar 11 01:52:56 UTC 2002

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> LINGUIST List:  Vol-13-637. Fri Mar 8 2002. ISSN: 1068-4875.
> 
> Subject: 13.637, Sum: Origin of "Chechnia"
> 
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> =================================Directory=================================
> 
> 1)
> Date:  Fri, 08 Mar 2002 13:09:04 +0400
> From:  "Maher Bahloul" <mbahloul at aus.ac.ae>
> Subject:  Replies related to 'Chechnia'
> 
> -------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------
> 
> Date:  Fri, 08 Mar 2002 13:09:04 +0400
> From:  "Maher Bahloul" <mbahloul at aus.ac.ae>
> Subject:  Replies related to 'Chechnia'
> 
> 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/Rötz. 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'.
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> LINGUIST List: Vol-13-637

-- 
Loren A. Billings, Ph.D.
Assistant professor of linguistics

Department of English Language,
     Literature and Linguistics
Providence University
200 Chung Chi Road
Shalu, Taichung County
Taiwan 43301 Republic of China

Primary e-mail address: <billings at pu.edu.tw>
Alternate e-mail address: <billings at onebox.com>

Telephone numbers: 
+886-4-2632-8001 ext. 2221 (my office)
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