Дарс 1 : Салам
Lesson 1: Salam
Welcome to your first lesson in the Chechen language. This lesson will teach you the Chechen alphabet and how to give basic greetings and conversation skills. We will start with the alphabet. The Chechen language uses an extended version of the cyrillic alphabet which contains 49 letters. Nowadays, some Chechens prefer to use a latinized version when writing their language. Most people whom live in Chechnya will tend to favour the cyrillic alphabet, as any printed texts or books in Chechnya will be written in Chechen orthography. That being said, it should be essential for you to know the alphabet. But do not worry at all, the cyrillic alphabet is not as hard as you think.
Let's take a look at the Chechen alphabet: (Image from http://www.omniglot.com/writing/chechen.htm)
So, let's take a look first at the letters which have a similar sound and look as in English. They are А, Б, Е, К, Кх, М, О, С, and Т. If you view the phonetic transcription you can see the English equivalent. The second line is how the letter is pronounced in Chechen.
Ч is a ch sound, like in chair. And if you turn the letter upside down, doesn't it kind of look like a chair?
П is a p sound, like in pen. It is also the symbol for pi in mathematics, and the greek letter.
Ш is a sh sound, like in shoot. It is close to the Hebrew letter for sh too.
В Г З Н Р У and Х. Don't get confused between these letters and the English one. You just need to remember that these letters have different sounds. This might be the hardest part about the alphabet as an English speaker.
The two hardest sounds are the palochka I (sometimes written as 1), and Хь. These sounds are in Arabic too as 'ayn and Haa. I comes from your throat, and Хьis a very forceful H sound. ГI is similar to I and just like the Arabic letter ghayn. Its sound is similar to when you gargle water.
Since Chechen.cc supports free knowledge, there is a very nice Chechen alphabet guide on Wikibooks which also has a recording so you can hear how the alphabet sounds. It also has a more descriptive explanation about certain letters. Please go here to see it. This will help you a lot with learning the alphabet.
The best way to learn the alphabet is to just practise writing out the letters over and over again on a paper. Try writing your name. For example, if your name is Adam, it would be written as Адам, or John would be Джон.
Хьан цхьалгIа дешнаш нохчийн маттахь (Your first words in Chechen)
You might be getting turned off from learning Chechen by all of this information about the alphabet. For now, take a break from learning these letters, and let's just get right on with learning your first words in Chechen. We'll start with simple expressions such as how to say hello and your name. This time, so you can get a hands on with Chechen already, we will include the latin equivalent. Please keep in mind though in the future lessons, the cyrillic will be mainly used. But for now, take a break from the alphabet and practise these words and phrases.
| Chechen | English | Pronunciation |
| Ассаламу Iалайкум | Islamic greeting for hello | assalam-alaykum |
| Ва Iалайкум ассаламу | Islamic greeting response to above | wa alaykum-assalam |
| Салам | hello | salam |
| Сан цIе ... ю | my name is ... | sa tsay ... yu |
| Хьан цIе хIун ю? | what is your name? | ha tsay h'u-nyu? |
| ХIаъ | yes | h'a'h (glottal, quick stop of breath at end) |
| ХIан-хIа | no | haa-ha |
| Гур ду вай | see you | gur duu vai |
| КIант | boy | k'ant |
| ЙоI | girl | yo'h' (glottal, quick stop of breath at end) |
| Баркалла | thank you | barkall |
This concludes your first lesson of Chechen. If it looks hard, then why give up? Work on something that is challenging, because with enough practice, you can master anything! All languages have their difficult parts, all it takes is interest to stay motivated to learn the language. If you request help, please leave a message in the forum and someone can help you.
It is also a good idea at this early stage to start getting used to hearing the language. The best resource to hear spoken Chechen is the twice a day broadcasts from RFE/RL Radio Free Europe broadcasts, click on the second and fifth on the list under "Listen Now", Chechen is usually recorded at 04:20 UTC and 16:20 UTC, but you can hear the broadcasts on demand. The broadcast is called Marshal radio and you will also hear the broadcaster say Marshal du shug which means "Hello (everyone)" in a formal way. Can you hear these two phrases? Try to also listen for words which sound similar to English.
Click here for the next lesson