Hunzib language
| Hunzib | |
|---|---|
| гьонкьос мыц / honƛʼos mɨc | |
| Pronunciation | [ˈhont͡ɬʼos mɨt͡s] |
| Native to | Russia |
| Region | Southern Dagestan |
|
Native speakers
|
1,400 (2006–2010) |
|
Northeast Caucasian
|
|
| Cyrillic | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | hunz1247 |
Hunzib is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by about 1840 people in southern Dagestan, near the Russian border with Georgia.
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. Other Tsezic languages include Tsez and Hinukh. Khwarshi was previously grouped together with Tsez and Hinukh instead of with Hunzib.
Hunzib is not an official language, nor is it written. It is spoken in the Tsunta and Kizilyurt districts of Dagestan and in two villages across the Russian border in Georgia.
Vowels in Hunzib may be short, long, or nasalized.
Hunzib has 35 consonants. Three consonants, /x/, /ħ/, and /ʕ/, are only found in loanwords.
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.
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.
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