ABSTRACT
Noghay belongs to the South Kipchak group of Turkic languages, sharing the main characteristics of Kazakh, Karakalpak, and Kipchak Uzbek. The main bulk of Noghays live in the Northern Caucasus in the Russian Federation. Noghay settlements are scattered between the following administrative regions: Autonomous Republic of Dagestan, Chechenian Autonomous Republic, Karachay-Cherkessian Autonomous Republic and Stavropol region. In the Russian Federation, outside the Northern Caucasus, there are further small ethnic groups of Noghay origin, which have preserved their language to different extents. In 1928, a Latin-based alphabet was created for Noghay. In 1938, this Latin alphabet was replaced by an alphabet based on Cyrillic letters. Nominal phrases are built in the normal Turkic way, e.g. kiškey bala ‘a/the little child’. Adjective phrases are often formed without an indefinite article. Temporal clauses are usually based on converbs expressing different temporal and aspectual meanings.
