Khinalug (also spelled Khinalig, Khinalugi, Xinalug(h), Xinaliq or Khinalugh) is a

Northeast Caucasian The Northeast Caucasian languages, also called East Caucasian, Nakh-Daghestani or ''Vainakh-Daghestani'', is a family of languages spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia and in Northern Azerbaijan as well as ...

language spoken by about 3,000 people in the villages of Khinalug and Gülüstan,

Quba Quba () is a city and the administrative centre of the Quba District of Azerbaijan. The city lies on the north-eastern slopes of Shahdag mountain, at an altitude of 600 metres above sea level, on the right bank of the Kudyal river. It has a po ...

in the mountains of

Quba Rayon Quba District (; az, Quba rayonu) is one of the 66 districts of Azerbaijan. It is located in the north-east of the country and belongs to the Guba-Khachmaz Economic Region. The district borders the districts of Qusar, Qabala, Ismayilli, Sham ...

, northern

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

. It forms its own independent branch within the Northeast Caucasian language family.Family tree of Northeast Caucasian languages at Ethnologue
/ref> Khinalug is

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...

, and classified as "severely endangered" by

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger The UNESCO ''Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger'' is an online publication containing a comprehensive list of the world's endangered languages. It originally replaced the ''Red Book of Endangered Languages'' as a title in print after a ...

History

Khinalug is the language of the village Khinalug in the

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 The Northeast Caucasian languages, also called East Caucasian, Nakh-Daghestani or ''Vainakh-Daghestani'', is a family of languages spoken in the Russian republics of Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia and in Northern Azerbaijan as well as in ...

Although Khinalug is the official language of the village, it is mostly spoken by villagers in informal circumstances, while the national language

Azerbaijani Azerbaijani may refer to: * Something of, or related to Azerbaijan * Azerbaijanis * Azerbaijani language See also * Azerbaijan (disambiguation) * Azeri (disambiguation) * Azerbaijani cuisine * Culture of Azerbaijan The culture of Azerbaijan ...

is used formally for educational purposes and to communicate with non-Khinalug speakers. Khinalug is considered to be a

threatened Threatened species are any species (including animals, plants and fungi) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future. Species that are threatened are sometimes characterised by the population dynamics measure of '' critical depe ...

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 M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

in collaboration with local school teachers in the village. It is presented in italics on the tables below.

Consonants

¹ The cedilla in the orthography is in the middle of the bottom of 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 Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

loanword A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because ...

Vowels

Khinalug has nine vowels and four

diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...

s. Diphthongs include: u i e a

Vocabulary

The following words were phonetically transcribed from Khinalug: Note: ı is roughly pronounced as the ''e'' in "fall''e''n". u is roughly pronounced as the ''ou'' in "c''ou''p".

Alphabet

References

External links

* Appendix:Cyrillic script
Khinalug basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical DatabaseKhinalug tongue&culture
* New Khinalug alphabet * {{DEFAULTSORT:Khinalug Language Northeast Caucasian languages Languages of Azerbaijan Endangered Caucasian languages

Language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...