Hinuchi language

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Hinuchish (Гьинузас мец [Hinuzas mec])

Spoken in

Dagestan ( Russian Federation )
speaker about 500
Linguistic
classification
Language codes
ISO 639 -1

cau

ISO 639 -2

cau

ISO 639-3

gin

Hinuchisch (also called "Ginuchisch", own name Гьинози Hinozi or Гьинузас мец Hinuzas mec ) is a Northeast Caucasian language that is spoken by around 500 people in the village of Hinuch in the Zunta Rayon in southwest Dagestan . Hinuchic belongs to the didoic languages ​​of the group of Avaro-Ando-Didoic languages ​​within the group of Dagestani languages, which in turn belong to the (Northeast Caucasian) post-Dagestani languages.

Hinuchi has no dialects . The language is the only feature that distinguishes the Hinuchen from neighboring peoples. The Hinuchische is near the Tsesischen and Chwarschinischen related, but an effortless communication is not possible.

Number of speakers

Hinuchisch (No. 28) belonging to the Northeast Caucasian language family

Information on the number of Hinuchi speakers is not very precise, as it is mainly based on estimates. The speakers of this language were recorded for the first time in the Soviet census of 1926 . In the following censuses, the Hinuchen were no longer considered and counted among the Avars . Estimates from 1958 and 1967 assume around 200 speakers. In the 2000 census of the Russian Federation , when the hinuchen were recorded for the first time since 1926, 525 people said they used this language.

Given the small number of speakers, the emigration and the low prestige of the language among its users, it is feared that Hinuchi could become extinct in the next few decades. Already today only about half of the children in Hinuch speak it.

status

Hinuchi has never been written down, it is only used in informal situations, e.g. a. used in the family area. For communication with neighboring peoples Hinuchen use the Zesische or Avar . Avar is also used as the literary language, and Russian is also widespread. In schools, the children learn Avar for the first five years, then Russian.

phonetics

In Hinuchi there are 6 vowels ( a, e, i, o, u, ü ), each of which can be short or long. Two vowels can also appear pharyngalized : ˤa and ˤe . The younger generation is replacing the ü with the i .

morphology

The language structure is agglutinating , mainly using suffixes . Hinuchisch is an ergative language and has a rich case system . -Be is always used as a plural suffix .

The tenses are marked synthetically with affixes . Like other didoic languages, Hinuchic differentiates between “experienced past” (ending in -s or -š ) and “unexperienced past” (ending in -no). The present tense is marked with the suffix -ho , the future tense with -n (1st person) or -s (other people).

Like other Caucasian languages, Hinuchi has a mixed decimal - vigesimal number system .

Lexicons

The Hinuchic vocabulary shows strong influences from Avar, Tsesian, Georgian and Russian.

State of research

The Hinuchen were already mentioned in medieval Georgian chronicles. The first information about Hinuchi comes from the Russian ethnologist and traveler Aleksandr Serzhpotovsky, who toured the Dagestani mountain regions in 1916 . D. Imnaishvili, E. Lomtadze and J. Bokarjow carried out further research. Lomtadze saw Hinuchi as a dialect of Tsesian, Bokarjow, however, sees Hinuchi as a separate language between the Western and Eastern Didoic languages.

literature

  • EA Bokarëv: Cezskie (didojskie jazyki Dagestana) . Moscow 1959.
  • EA Bokarëv: Ginuchskij jazyk . In: Jazyki narodov SSSR . Vol. 4. Moscow 1967, pp. 436-454.
  • M. Š. Chalilov: Ginuchsky jazyk . In: Jazyki mira. Kavkazskie jazyki . Moscow 1999.
  • D. Forker: A Grammar of Hinuq . Berlin 2013.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ M. Š. Khalilov and IA Isakov: Гинухско-русский словар. Makhachkala: Russian Academy of Sciences. Page 568.