Hunzib language

Last updated
Hunzib
Gunzib
гьонкьос мыцhonƛʼos mɨc
Pronunciation[ˈhont͡ɬʼosmɨt͡s]
Native to North Caucasus
RegionSouthern Dagestan
Native speakers
1,400 (2006–2010) [1]
3,466 (2020) [2]
Northeast Caucasian
  • Tsezic
    • Bezhta–Hunzib–Khwarshi
      • Hunzib
Cyrillic
Language codes
ISO 639-3 huz
Glottolog hunz1247
ELP Hunzib
Northeast Caucasus languages map en.svg
  Hunzib
Lang Status 60-DE.svg
Hunzib is classified as Definitely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (2010)
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Hunzib is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by the Hunzib people in southern Dagestan, [3] near the Russian border with Georgia.

Contents

Classification

Hunzib belongs to the Tsezic group of the Northeast Caucasian languages. It is most closely related to Bezhta and Khwarshi, according to the latest research. [4] Other Tsezic languages include Tsez and Hinukh. Khwarshi was previously grouped together with Tsez and Hinukh instead of with Hunzib.

Geographic distribution

Hunzib is not an official language, and it is rarely written. [5] It is spoken in the Tsunta and Kizilyurt districts of Dagestan and in two villages across the Russian border in Georgia. [6]

Phonology

Vowels

Vowels in Hunzib may be short, long, or nasalized.

  Front Central Back
Close iɨu
Mid eəo
Open aɑ

Consonants

Hunzib has 35 consonants. Three consonants, /x/, /ħ/, and /ʕ/, are only found in loanwords.

  Bilabial Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal
central lateral
Nasal mn      
Plosive voiceless ptkqʔ
voiced bdɡ
ejective
Affricate voicelesst͡st͡ɬt͡ʃ
ejectivet͡sʼt͡ɬʼt͡ʃʼ
Fricative voicelesssɬʃxχħh
voicedzʒʁʕ
Trill r
Approximant ljw

Grammar

Gender

Like a number of other Northeast Caucasian languages, Hunzib has a grammatical gender system with five classes. The first classes, I and II mark male and female rationals, respectively, while the remaining classes mark non-humans. Gender marking is covert on nouns, but appears in agreement on verbs, adjectives, pronouns, and adverbial constructions. [7]

ClassSg.Pl.
I∅-b-1
IIj-
IIIj-r-1
IVb-1
Vr-1
  1. When preceding a nasalized vowel, class markers b- and r- surface as m- and n- respectively.

Nouns

Nouns in Hunzib come in five noun classes: male, female, and three classes for inanimate objects. There are a number of cases in Hunzib, including the absolutive, ergative, genitive, instrumental. A number of other case-like markers indicate direction and include dative, adessive, superessive, contactive, comitative and allative declensions. The following are taken from Helma van den Berg's A Grammar of Hunzib. [7]

Case

Hunzib has four basic grammatical cases, the absolutive, ergative, genitive, and instrumental. The absolutive case is formed from the base stem, and the other cases are formed from the oblique stem.

CaseMarker
Absolutive-∅
Ergative-l1 / -lo2, -y
Genitive-s
Instrumental-d1 / -do2
  1. After vowels
  2. After consonants

Hunzib also has a series of local cases, where localizations are combined with directional suffixes. The dative and adessive cases have syntactic functions as well, but are morphologically local.

LocalizationMarker Elative Translative
Dative-V1-V1-sə-V1-ƛʼ(i)
Adessive -g(o)-go-s***
Superessive -ƛʼ(o)-ƛo-s-ƛʼo-ƛʼ
Subessive (-ƛ-sə)***
Contacting-λ-sə-λ-ƛʼi
Comitative -ǧur-ǧur-sə-ǧur-ƛʼi
Allative -dər-dər-sə-dər-ƛʼi
Approximative-do-do-V
  1. The vowel in these forms will be a duplicate of the vowel in the syllable to which it attaches.

Oblique stem

Cases other than the absolutive are formed by attaching the relevant case marker to an oblique stem, which is often the base stem plus some lexically determined extension.

ExtensionNotesExtensionNotes
-liProductive; found more with nouns ending in a consonant-baRare
-aCommon; with nouns ending in a consonant or vowel (but esp. -u)-yRare
-loCommon; mostly with nouns ending in -i-ɑ/e/o/uRare
-yoCommon; mostly with nouns ending in -i-laRare
-iCommon; mostly with nouns ending in a vowel-moRare
-boCommon; with nouns ending in a consonant or vowel-di/u/oRare
-ra/o/uRare
-tʼuRare

Some nouns (around 7%) do not use any extension and the oblique and base stems are identical. These words generally end in a vowel, like "father" ABS [ɑbu], GEN [ɑbu-s]. A small number of Hunzib nouns exhibit stem alternation, like "moon" ABS [bot͡so], GEN [t͡sə].

Verbs

Most verbs agree in class and number with the noun in the phrase that is in the absolutive case. As Hunzib has ergative alignment, that equals the subject of intransitive sentences and the direct object of transitive sentences.

Word order

Hunzib usually follows a subject–object–verb word order.

Related Research Articles

An adessive case is a grammatical case generally denoting location at, upon, or adjacent to the referent of the noun; the term is used most frequently for Uralic studies. For Uralic languages, such as Finnish, Estonian and Hungarian, it is the fourth of the locative cases, with the basic meaning of "on"—for example, Estonian laud (table) and laual, Hungarian asztal and asztalnál. It is also used as an instrumental case in Finnish.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sumerian language</span> Language of ancient Sumer

Sumerian was the language of ancient Sumer. It is one of the oldest attested languages, dating back to at least 2900 BC. It is a local language isolate that was spoken in ancient Mesopotamia, in the area that is modern-day Iraq.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northeast Caucasian languages</span> Language family

The Northeast Caucasian languages, also called East Caucasian, Nakh-Daghestani or Vainakh-Daghestani, or sometimes Caspian languages, is a family of languages spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia and in Northern Azerbaijan as well as in Georgia and diaspora populations in Western Europe and the Middle East. According to Glottolog, there are currently 36 Nakh-Dagestanian languages.

Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Someone who engages in this study is called a linguist. See also the Outline of linguistics, the List of phonetics topics, the List of linguists, and the List of cognitive science topics. Articles related to linguistics include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chechen language</span> Northeast Caucasian language of Chechnya, Russia

Chechen is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by approximately 1.8 million people, mostly in the Chechen Republic and by members of the Chechen diaspora throughout Russia and the rest of Europe, Jordan, Austria, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Central Asia and Georgia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ubykh language</span> Extinct Northwest Caucasian language

Ubykh is an extinct Northwest Caucasian language once spoken by the Ubykh people, a subgroup of Circassians who originally inhabited the eastern coast of the Black Sea before being deported en masse to the Ottoman Empire in the Circassian genocide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abkhaz language</span> Northwest Caucasian language of Abkhazia

Abkhaz, also known as Abkhazian, is a Northwest Caucasian language most closely related to Abaza. It is spoken mostly by the Abkhaz people. It is one of the official languages of Abkhazia, where around 190,000 people speak it. Furthermore, it is spoken by thousands of members of the Abkhazian diaspora in Turkey, Georgia's autonomous republic of Adjara, Syria, Jordan, and several Western countries. 27 October is the day of the Abkhazian language in Georgia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hurrian language</span> Extinct ancient language of Mesopotamia

Hurrian is an extinct Hurro-Urartian language spoken by the Hurrians (Khurrites), a people who entered northern Mesopotamia around 2300 BC and had mostly vanished by 1000 BC. Hurrian was the language of the Mitanni kingdom in northern Mesopotamia and was likely spoken at least initially in Hurrian settlements in modern-day Syria.

Lezgian, also called Lezgi or Lezgin, is a Northeast Caucasian language. It is spoken by the Lezgins, who live in southern Dagestan (Russia); northern Azerbaijan; and to a much lesser degree Turkmenistan; Uzbekistan; Kazakhstan; Turkey, and other countries. It is a much-written literary language and an official language of Dagestan. It is classified as "vulnerable" by UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

Warrongo is an Australian Aboriginal language, one of the dozen languages of the Maric branch of the Pama–Nyungan family. It was formerly spoken by the Warrongo people in the area around Townsville, Queensland, Australia. Its last native speaker was Alf Palmer, who died in 1981.

Georgian grammar has many distinctive and extremely complex features, such as split ergativity and a polypersonal verb agreement system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tabasaran language</span> Lezgic language of southern Dagestan, Russia

Tabasaran is a Northeast Caucasian language of the Lezgic branch. It is spoken by the Tabasaran people in the southern part of the Russian Republic of Dagestan. There are two main dialects: North (Khanag) and South Tabasaran. It has a literary language based on the Southern dialect, one of the official languages of Dagestan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bezhta language</span> Tsezic language of southwest Dagestan, Russia

The Bezhta language, also known as Kapucha, belongs to the Tsezic group of the North Caucasian language family. It is spoken by about 6,200 people in southern Dagestan, Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tsez language</span> Northeast Caucasian language

Tsez, also known as Dido, is a Northeast Caucasian language with about 15,000 speakers spoken by the Tsez, a Muslim people in the mountainous Tsunta District of southwestern Dagestan in Russia. The name is said to derive from the Tsez word for 'eagle', but this is most likely a folk etymology. The name Dido is derived from the Georgian word დიდი, meaning 'big'.

Canela is a dialect of the Canela-Krahô language, a Timbira variety of the Northern Jê language group spoken by the Apànjêkra (Apaniêkrá) and by the Mẽmõrtũmre in Maranhão, Brazil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khwarshi language</span> Northeast Caucasian language spoken in Dagestan

Khwarshi is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken in the Tsumadinsky-, Kizilyurtovsky- and Khasavyurtovsky districts of Dagestan by the Khwarshi people. The exact number of speakers is not known, but the linguist Zaira Khalilova, who has carried out fieldwork in the period from 2005 to 2009, gives the figure 8,500. Other sources give much lower figures, such as Ethnologue with the figure 1,870 and the latest population census of Russia with the figure 3,296. The low figures are because many Khwarshi have registered themselves as being Avar speakers, because Avar is their literary language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hinuq language</span> Northeast Caucasian language

The Hinuq language 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 is very closely related to Tsez, but they are not entirely mutually intelligible.

The grammar of the Marathi language shares similarities with other modern Indo-Aryan languages such as Odia, Gujarati or Punjabi. The first modern book exclusively about the grammar of Marathi was printed in 1805 by Willam Carey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tsezic languages</span> One of the seven main branches of Northeast Caucasian language family

The Tsezic languages form one of the seven main branches of the Northeast Caucasian language family. It branches into Tsez–Hinukh and Bezhta–Hunzib–Khwarshi, according to research published in 2009. They were formerly classified geographically into East Tsezic and West Tsezic . The Avar language serves as the literary language for speakers of Tsezic languages.

Konda-Dora, also known simply as Konda or Kubi, is a Dravidian language spoken in India. It is spoken by the scheduled tribe of the Konda-Dora, who mostly live in the districts of Vizianagaram, Srikakulam, and East Godavari in Andhra Pradesh, and the Koraput district in Odisha.

References

  1. "Hunzib Summary". ethnologue.com. SIL International. 2024. Retrieved 17 January 2025. Eberhard, David M., Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.). 2024. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Twenty-seventh edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International.
  2. "Том 5. «Национальный состав и владение языками». Таблица 7. Население наиболее многочисленных национальностей по родному языку" [Volume 5 "National composition and language proficiency". Table 7. Population of the most numerous nationalities by native language](xlsx). rosstat.gov.ru (in Russian). Rosstat, Federal State Statistics Service (Russia). 2025. Entry 48.
  3. Ethnologue entry for Hunzib
  4. The Languages of the Caucasus, by Wolfgang Schulze (2009)
  5. "Hunzib alphabet, language and prounciation". omniglot.com. Retrieved 2023-05-29.
  6. "Hunzib | Ethnologue".
  7. 1 2 Berg, Helma van den, A Grammar of Hunzib (with Texts and Lexicon) (Lincom Europa, München 1995) ISBN   3-89586-006-9.