Chuvash

[ choo-vahsh; Russian chyoo-vahsh ]

noun

, plural Chu·vash·es, Chu·va·shi [choo-, vah, -shee, chyoo-, vah, -shi, -vuh-, shi], (especially collectively) Chu·vash

1. a member of a people of mixed Uralic and Altaic ancestry who live in the middle Volga basin, mainly in the Chuvash Autonomous Republic.
2. the language of the Chuvash, generally considered Turkic though markedly divergent from all other modern Turkic languages.

Chuvash

/ tʃʊˈvɑːʃ /

noun

1. -vash-vashes a Turkic ethnic people living chiefly in the middle Volga region of Russia
2. the language of this people, generally classed within the Turkic branch of the Altaic family

Example Sentences

This collection of poetry and verse-infused prose from the celebrated Russian and Chuvash poet bows to the writers and artists who kept him creatively inspired during the Soviet era.

From New York Times

"Some extreme elements want a deeper cultural revival and have proposed Chuvash as the republic's sole official language. But this would force our ethnic Russians out and that would be an economic disaster," she adds.

From BBC

They also actively solicit the votes of the nationalist and elitist Muslims of the industrialized Volga - mainly the Tatars, Bashkirs and Chuvash.

From Project Gutenberg

Nonetheless, she says, Chuvashian culture has undergone a revival since the Soviet Union's demise - Chuvash is now taught alongside Russian in schools and streets signs are written in both languages.

From BBC