Hinuq language

Spoken in

• Northeast Caucasian languages Dagestan languages Awaro - Ando - Didoische languages Didoische languages Hinuchisch

Cau

Cau

Gin

Hinuchisch (also called " Ginuchisch " proper name Гьинози Hinozi or Гьинузас мец Hinuzas mec ) is a Northeast Caucasian language that is spoken by about 500 people in the village Hinuch Rayon Zunta in southwestern Dagestan. The Hinuchische is one of the languages ​​didoischen the group of awaro - ando - didoischen languages ​​within the group of Dagestani languages ​​, which in turn belong to the ( Northeast Caucasian ) nachisch - Dagestani languages.

The Hinuchische has no dialects. Language is the only feature that distinguishes the Hinuchen of the neighboring peoples. The Hinuchische is closely related to the Tsesischen and the Chwarschinischen, but an effortless understanding is not possible.

Number of speakers

Information on the number of speakers of Hinuchischen are not very accurate, since they mainly rely on estimates. Were the first to identify the speakers of this language in the Soviet census of 1926. During the following censuses Hinuchen were no longer considered and counted as Avars. Estimates from the 1958 and 1967 are based on approximately 200 speakers. In the census of the Russian Federation of 2000, when the Hinuchen were recorded for the first time since 1926, reported 525 people to use this language.

In view of the small number of speakers, the emigration and the low prestige of the language among their users, it is feared that the Hinuchische could become extinct in the next decades. Already today it speaks only about half of the children in Hinuch.

Status

The Hinuchische was never verschriftlicht, it is only used in informal situations esp. within the family. Use to communicate with the neighboring peoples Hinuchen the Zesische or the Avar. As a literary language, the Avar is also used, even the Russian is widespread. Children learn in the schools the first five years Avar, then Russian.

Phonetics

In Hinuchischen one distinguishes six vowels (a, e, i, o, u, ü), which can each be short or long. Two vowels can also occur pharyngalisiert: ˤ ˤ a and e The younger generation, however, replaces the above by the previous

Morphology

The linguistic structure is agglutinative, mainly suffixes are used. Hinuchisch is a Ergativsprache and has a rich case system. As a plural suffix is always -be used.

The tenses will synthetically labeled with affixes. Like other didoische languages ​​distinguishes between Hinuchische " experienced past" (ending in-s or - š ) and "non- experienced past" (ending in - no). The present tense is marked with the suffix -ho, the future tense with -n ( 1 person) or -s (other people).

Like other Caucasian languages ​​has the Hinuchische a mixed decimal - vigesimal number system.

Lexis

The hinuchische vocabulary shows strong influences of the Avar, Tsesischen, Georgian and Russian.

State of research

The Hinuchen have already been mentioned in medieval Georgian chronicles. Getting information about the Hinuchische originate from the Russian ethnologists and travelers Aleksandr Serschpotowski, the Dagestani mountain regions visited in 1916. Further research operated Imnaischwili D., E. and J. Lomtadse Bokarjow. Lomtadse saw the Hinuchische to a dialect of Tsesischen, Bokarjow other hand, sees the Hinuchische as a separate language between the West and the ostdidoischen languages.