Ingush

Ingush (ГӀалгӀай мотт ʻalġai mott) is a Northeast Caucasian language of the Nakh branch with ~350K speakers — co-official with Russian in the Republic of Ingushetia (capital Magas). Sister to Chechen (ce); together they form the Vainakh subgroup with ~80% mutual intelligibility, having diverged in the medieval period. Cyrillic script since 1938 (after Latin 1923-1938 and earlier Arabic-derived attempts). Ergative-absolutive case system with up to eight cases, four gender classes (B/D/J/V) marked on verbs, polysynthetic verb morphology, and a complex consonant inventory featuring ejectives, pharyngealized consonants, and uvulars. The Ingush diaspora was tragically affected by Stalin's 1944 deportation to Central Asia (Aardakh, returned 1957). Rich oral tradition of Nart epic sagas shared with neighboring Caucasian peoples.