Khinalug language


Khinalug is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by about 1,500 people in the villages of Khinalug and Gülüstan, Quba in the mountains of Quba Rayon, northern Azerbaijan. It forms its own independent branch within the Northeast Caucasian language family.
Khinalug is endangered, and classified as "severely endangered" by UNESCO's Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

History

Khinalug is the language of the village Khinalug in the Quba district of Azerbaijan. It has been tentatively classified by previous researchers as a member of the Lezgian family of the Dagestani branch of Northeast Caucasian languages Although Khinalug is the official language of the village, it is mostly spoken by villagers in informal circumstances, while the national language Azerbaijani is used formally for educational purposes and to communicate with non-Khinalug speakers. Khinalug is considered to be a threatened language. In recent years, the road leading to the villages where it is spoken has fallen into disrepair, leaving the area mostly isolated.

Phonology

A Latin orthography for Khinalug was developed in 2007 by a team of linguists from Moscow State University in collaboration with local school teachers in the village. It is presented in italics on the tables below.

ConsonantsKodzasov, S.V., et al., 2007. http://www.philol.msu.ru/~languedoc/assets/texts/xin-abc.pdf Khinalug language alphabet (in: Russian).

1 The cedilla in the orthography is in the, as is typical of Russian linguistics.
2 Kh and gh are rare.
3 Kx is very rare.
4 The pharyngeal sounds mostly appear in Arabic loanwords.

Vowels

Khinalug has nine vowels and four diphthongs.
Diphthongs include: .

Vocabulary

The following words were phonetically transcribed from Khinalug:
Khinalug singularKhinalug pluralTranslation
arhazarhazırdırpen
c’imirc’imirdirsparrow
izinizindirgingiva
kırabkırabırdırgaloshes
mısırmısırdırrope
nek’idnek’idirdirback
t’uk’unt’uk’undurcheek
t’umbolt’umboldurprune
ustotustoturdur
ustulustuldurtable
dalıgdalιgιrdιrwork
culozculozurdurtooth
jalkanjalkandιrmane
kotukkotukurdurtree stump
mektebmektebirdirschool
mizermizerdirtextile

Note: ı is roughly pronounced as the e in "fallen". u is roughly pronounced as the ou in "coup".

Alphabet