Hinuq language

The Hinuq language (autonym: гьинузас мец hinuzas mec, also known as Hinukh, Hinux, Ginukh, or Ginux) is a Northeast Caucasian language of the Tsezic subgroup. It is spoken by about 200 to 500 people, the Hinukhs, in the Tsuntinsky District of southwestern Dagestan, mainly in the village of Genukh (Hinukh: Hino). Hinukh is very closely related to Tsez, but they are not entirely mutually intelligible.

Hinuq
гьинузас мец / hinuzas mec
Pronunciation[hiˈnuzas mɛt͡s]
Native toNorth Caucasus
RegionSouthern Dagestan
EthnicityHinukh people
Native speakers
350 (2010 census)[1]
Northeast Caucasian
Language codes
ISO 639-3gin
Glottologhinu1240
ELPHinukh

Only half of the children of the village speak the Hinukh language. As Hinukh is unwritten, Avar and Russian are used as literary languages. Hinukh is not considered to have dialects, but due to its linguistic proximity to Tsez, it was once considered a Tsez dialect.

The Hinukh people were already mentioned in the Georgian chronicles of the Early Middle Ages. The language itself was first described in 1916 by Russian ethnographer A. Serzhputovsky.

Phonology

Vowels

Hinukh distinguishes 6 vowel qualities /a, e, i, o, u, y/, all of which can be either long or short. Two vowels can occur pharyngealized: /aˤ/ and /eˤ/. However, these are only used by the older generation. Today they are usually replaced by /i/.

Vowels of Hinuq[2]
Front Central Back
High /ɪ/ i /ʏ/ ü   /ʊ/ u
Mid /ɛ/ e   /ɔ/ o
Low   /a/ a  

Consonants

Like many Caucasian languages, Hinuq has a large number of consonants. In addition to voiced and unvoiced consonants, there are also ejectives.

Consonants of Hinuq[3]
Labial Dental Alveolar (Post)-
alveolar		 Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal
plain lab. plain lab.
Nasal /m/ m /n̪/ n̪
Plosive voiced /b/ b /d/ d /ɡ/ g /ɡʷ/ gʷ (/ʡ/) ʡ
voiceless /p/ p /t/ t /k/ k /kʷ/ kʷ /q/ q /qʷ/ qʷ /ʔ/ ʔ
ejective /pʼ/ pʼ /tʼ/ tʼ /kʼ/ kʼ /kʼʷ/ kʼʷ /qʼ/ qʼ /qʼʷ/ qʼʷ
Affricate voiceless /t͡s/ c /t͡ɬ/ ƛ /t͡ʃ/ č
ejective /t͡sʼ/ cʼ /tɬʼ/ ƛʼ /t͡ʃʼ/ čʼ
Fricative voiced /z/ z /ʒ/ ž /ʁ/ ʁ /ʁʷ/ ʁʷ /ħ/ ħ
voiceless (/f/) f /s/ s /ɬ/ ɬ /ʃ/ š /χ/ χ /χʷ/ χʷ /h/ h
Approximant /l/ l /j/ y /w/ w
Trill /r/ r

Morphology

It is an agglutinative language which makes mainly use of suffixes.

Nouns

Hinukh is an ergative-absolutive language and, like most Northeast Caucasian languages, shows a rich case system. There are six non-spatial cases (Absolutive, Ergative, First Genitive, Second Genitive, Dative, Instrumental) as well as 35 spatial cases. The spatial case system itself consists of two categories, location (cont, in, sub, spr, at, aloc, iloc) and orientation, expressed by the use of direction markers (Essive, Lative, First Ablative, Second Ablative, Directional). The plural suffix is almost invariably -be.

Hinuq distinguishes a direct and oblique stem. Case suffixes are primarily added to the oblique stem. To form the oblique stem, there are different options, including oblique suffixes, epenthetic vowels, deletion of the base-stem-final consonant, vowel, or semivowel; stress shift or ablaut. The oblique stem suffixes are -mo, -a, -la, -i, -ya, -o, -li, -yi, -ra, -ro, -ru, -do, -u, -na, -nu. Some examples of nominal declension are given below.

  gani
'bull'
Vowel stem		 čeq
'forest'
Consonantic stem		 humer
'face'
Consonantic stem
Singular Absolutive
Ergative
Genitive 1
Genitive 2
cont-Essive
at-Essive		 gani
ganíː
ganiš
ganižo
ganiɬ
ganiqo		 čeq
čeqi
čeqiš
čeqzo
čeqeɬ
čeqqo		 humer
humelii
humeliš
humeližo
humeliɬ
humeliqo
Plural Absolutive
Ergative
Genitive 1
Genitive 2
cont-Essive
at-Essive		 ganibe
ganižay
ganižas
ganižazo
ganižaɬ
ganižaqo		 čeqbe
čeqzay
čeqzas
čeqzazo
čeqzaɬ
čeqzaqo		 humerbe
humeližay
humeližas
humeližazo
humeližaɬ
humeližaqo

There are five genders in Hinuq which play an important role in the language's grammar.

Verbs

Tenses are marked synthetically on the verbs by means of affixes. As its sister languages Bezhta and Tsez, Hinukh differentiates between "witnessed past" (ending in -s or -š) and "unwitnessed past" (in -no); the present tense is marked with the suffix -ho. In the future tense, Hinukh distinguishes a "direct future" (-n), which is used only in the first person and an "indirect future" (-s) used for all other persons.

Numerals

The numeral system is vigesimal, which means that it is a base-20 system, a feature commonly found among the languages of the Caucasus.

References
  1. Hinuq at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
  2. Forker, Diana. A sketch grammar of Hinuq, p. 2
    • Forker, Diana. (2013). A Grammar of Hinuq. (Mouton grammar library; 63). Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter, p. 29
  • Forker, Diana. A Grammar of Hinuq. Mouton Grammar Library [MGL] 63. DE GRUYTER Mouton, 2013. - 827 pages. ISBN 978-3-11-030397-1


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