Thread by @JohnLechner1

A mini thread on what "don" means in #Chechen.

First, it is a filler word, used by Chechens but perhaps not as liberally as Kadyrov... so what does it mean? (1/n)

https://twitter.com/francis_scarr/status/1563170969732403202

"don" comes from the Chechen дуй хьуна? (dui hwuna)
First: хьуна is the dative form of the second person singular, i.e., "to you." Literary Chechen has eight cases: nominative, genitive, dative, ergative, instrumental, substantive, comparative, and locative...

Nom. хьо
Gen. хьан
Dat. хьуна
Erg. ахь
Inst. хьоьца
Subs. хьох
Comp. хьол
Loc. хьоьга

The nominative, dative, and ergative can all be subjects of a Chechen verb. Ergativity is a widespread feature of indigenous languages of the Caucasus.

Essentially, if a Chechen verb doesn't take a direct object (intransitive), the subject will be in the nom. If it does take an DO (transitive), the subject will be in the ergative case, and the direct object in the "nominative." More on ergativity here:
medium.com/@jalechner/com…

Now let's look at дуй

Depending how you count, Chechen has six noun classes. Only two reflect gender in the Indo-European sense. We use ду to denote them

The combination of noun class and ergative verb structure makes Chechen particularly difficult for foreigners. Verbs often agree with noun class: in intransitive sentences with the nom., in transitive sentences with the direct object. Click on photo for example

The default noun class is ду. It is used when a noun is not specified, often as an implied "it."

The particle -й makes the sentence a question...

So дуй хьуна? Means "is it not to you?" Probably something close to "ain't it?" or innit?

In natural speech, dui hwuna becomes closer to dohwun or doʔun... which gets transliterated as "don"!