Hunzib language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Hunzib гьонкьос мыц / honƛʼos mɨc |
||
|---|---|---|
| Pronunciation: | [ˈhont͡ɬʼos mɨʦ] | |
| Spoken in: | Russia | |
| Region: | Southern Dagestan | |
| Total speakers: | 2000 | |
| Language family: | North Caucasian Northeast Caucasian Tsezic East Tsezic Hunzib |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | cau | |
| ISO 639-3: | huz | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. | ||
Hunzib is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by about 2000 people in the south of Dagestan, near the Russian border with Georgia.
Contents |
[edit] Classification
Hunzib belongs to the Tsezic group of the Northeast Caucasian languages. It is most closely related to Bezhta, with which it forms the eastern branch of the Tsezic languages. Other Tsezic languages include Tsez, Hinukh and Khwarshi.
[edit] Geographic distribution
Hunzib is not an official language, nor is Hunzib written. It is spoken in the Tsunta and Kizilyurt districts in Dagestan and in two villages across the Russian border in Georgia.
[edit] Sounds
[edit] 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 | m | n | |||||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | t | k | q | ʔ | |||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | ||||||
| ejective | pʼ | tʼ | kʼ | qʼ | |||||
| Affricate | voiceless | t͡s | t͡ɬ | t͡ʃ | |||||
| ejective | t͡sʼ | t͡ɬʼ | t͡ʃʼ | ||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | s | ɬ | ʃ | x | χ | ħ | h | |
| voiced | z | ʒ | ʁ | ʕ | |||||
| Trill | r | ||||||||
| Approximant | l | j | w | ||||||
[edit] Vowels
Vowels in Hunzib may be short, long, or nazalized.
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | ɨ | u |
| Mid | e | ə | o |
| Open | a | ɑ |
[edit] Grammar
[edit] 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 absolutive, ergative, genitive and instrumental. A number of other case-like markers indicate direction and include dative, adessive, superessive, contactive, comitative and allative declensions.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Word order
Hunzib usually follows a "Subject Object Verb" word order.
[edit] References
- Berg, Helma van den (1995). A Grammar of Hunzib (with Texts and Lexicon). München: Lincom Europa. ISBN 3-89586-006-9.
