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The Chuvash people (, ; , ) also called Chuvash Tatars, are a Turkic peoples ethnic group, a branch of the Oğurs, inhabiting an area stretching from the Idel-Ural region to Siberia.
Most of them live in the Russian republic of Chuvashia and the surrounding area, although Chuvash communities may be found throughout Russia as well as in Central Asia. They speak Chuvash language, a Turkic language that diverged from other languages in the family more than a millennium ago. Among the Chuvash believers, the majority are Eastern Orthodox Christians although a minority follow Vattisen Yaly or Sunni Islam.
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 Chinese) was used by some 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.Gerard Clauson, Studies in Turkic and Mongolic Linguistics. Routledge, 2002, p. 23.
Although there is no direct evidence, some scholars believe that Chuvash may be descendant from a dialect of Volga Bulgar language while others support the idea that Chuvash is another distinct Oghur Turkic language. Since the surviving literary records for the non-Chuvash members of Oghuric (Bulgar language and possibly Khazar language) are scant, the exact position of Chuvash within the Oghuric family cannot be determined.
Some scholars suggest Hunnic language had strong ties with Bulgar language and to modern Chuvash and refer to this extended grouping as separate Hunno-Bulgar languages. However, such speculations are not based on proper linguistic evidence, since the language of the Huns is almost unknown except for a few attested words and personal names. Scholars generally consider Hunnish as unclassifiable.
Italian historian and philologist Igor de Rachewiltz noted a significant distinction of the Chuvash language from other Turkic languages. According to him, the Chuvash language does not share certain common characteristics with Turkic languages to such a degree that some scholars consider Chuvash as an independent branch from Turkic and Mongolic. The Turkic classification of Chuvash was seen as a compromise solution for classification purposes. Rachewiltz, Igor de. Introduction to Altaic philology: Turkic, Mongolian, Manchu / by Igor de Rachewiltz and Volker Rybatzki; with the collaboration of Hung Chin-fu. p. cm. — (Handbook of Oriental Studies = Handbuch der Orientalistik. Section 8, Central Asia; 20). — Leiden; Boston, 2010. — P. 7.
Despite grammatical similarity with the rest of Turkic language family, the presence of changes in Chuvash pronunciation (which are hard to reconcile with other members of the Turkic family) has led some scholars to see Chuvash as originating not from Proto-Turkic, but from another proto-language spoken at the time of Proto-Turkic (in which case Chuvash and all the remaining Turkic languages would be part of a larger language family).
The Oghuric branch is distinguished from the rest of the Turkic family (the Common Turkic languages) by two Sound change: r corresponding to Common Turkic z and l corresponding to Common Turkic š.Johanson (1998); cf. Johanson (2000, 2007) and the articles pertaining to the subject in Johanson & Csató (ed., 1998). The first scientific fieldwork description of Chuvash, by August Ahlqvist in 1856, allowed researchers to establish its proper affiliation.
Chuvash is so divergent from the main body of Turkic languages that Chuvash was first believed to be a Turkification Uralic language language, or an intermediate branch between Turkic languages and Mongolic languages. Russian language language and neighboring Mari language and Volga Tatar heavily influenced the Chuvash language.
Mongolian, Arabic and Persian language also influenced Chuvash. Chuvash language has two to three dialects. (2025). 157958392X, Routledge. 157958392X Although Chuvash is taught at schools and sometimes used in the media, it is considered endangered by the UNESCO, since Russian language dominates in most spheres of life and few children learning the language are likely to become active users.
The subdivision of the Chuvash people are as below:
The Sabir people who believed to have come from Siberia, they lived there at least the end of the third millennium BC. They were skilled in warfare, used siege machinery, had a large army (including women) and were boatbuilders. Sabirs led incursions into Transcaucasia in the , but quickly began serving as soldiers and mercenaries during the Byzantine–Sasanian Wars on both sides. Their alliance with the Byzantines laid the basis for the later Khazar-Byzantine alliance.
Shortly after that, another state founded by Sabirs in Caucasus known as Suar Principality was forced 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. (2025). 9781579584689, Routledge. ISBN 9781579584689
After the Mongols destroyed Volga Bulgaria in 1236, the Golden Horde kept control of the region until its slow dissolution from 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. (2025). 9781579584689, Routledge. ISBN 9781579584689
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 Debt bondage in the timber industry or to work in due to growing poverty. 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.
After conversion, Russian historian Vasily Nikitich Tatishchev visited the lands of Volga Bulgaria and wrote that Bulgars also migrated to Bashkortostan and North of Kazan (i.e. modern-day Chuvashia).
On 24 June 1920, the Bolshevik government of the RSFSR established the Chuvash Autonomous Region; it became the Chuvash Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on 21 April 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.
The Chuvash language vanished from educational and public use. In 1989, another Chuvash cultural revival began - partly in response to these changes. Soon the Chuvash language once again came into use in educational, public, and political life. , 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.
Phenotypically, there is no particular differences among the Chuvash, as more Caucasoid or more Mongoloid phenotypes can be found among all subgroups.http://xn--c1acc6aafa1c.xn--p1ai/?question=chuvashi-kto-oni-na-samom-dele Chuvash people — who are they really Anthropological material about the origin of Chuvash people In 2017, a full genome study found Chuvash largely show a Finno-Ugric genetic component despite having a small common Turkic peoples component with Bashkirs and Tatars peoples. This study supported language shift hypothesis among Chuvash population.
A minority of Chuvash may have been exposed to Islam as early as the Volga Bulgaria era but most of those early Chuvash likely converted during the Golden Horde period. An inscription dated at 1307 indicates that some Chuvash were converted to Islam, and religious terms occur in Chuvash in the form of Tatar loanwords. However, sources do not specify the practices of the Chuvash during this period. Some Chuvash who converted to Christianity following the Russian conquest converted to Islam during the 19th and early 20th century. During this period, several Chuvash communities were influenced by Volga Tatars and became Muslim. This caused some Muslim Chuvash to define themselves as Tatars but they retained their language and several Chuvash customs.
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