member of the Turkic branch of the Altaic language family, spoken in Chuvashia and nearby regions along the middle course of the Volga River, in the central part of European Russia. Chuvash constitutes a separate and distinct branch of the Turkic languages that differs considerably from the so-called Common Turkic languages; it is the only modern descendant of the extinct Volga-Bolgarian language. Formerly, scholars considered Chuvash to be a Turkicized Finno-Ugric (Uralic) language or an intermediary branch between Turkic and Mongolian. The distinct character of Chuvash is also indicated by its lack of mutual intelligibility with the other Turkic languages. See also Turkic languages.