HUNZIB LANGUAGE

'Hunzib' is a Northeast Caucasian language spoken by about 2000 people in the south of Dagestan, near the Russian border with Georgia.

Contents

Classification

Geographic distribution

Sounds

Consonants

Vowels

Grammar

Nouns

Verbs

Word order

References

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.

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.

Sounds

Consonants

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

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Lateral	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyngeal	Glottal
Stop
Fricative
Affricate
Nasal
Liquid
Semivowel

Vowels

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

	Front	Central	Back
High
Mid
Low

Grammar

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.

Verbs

Most verbs agree in class and number with the noun in the phrase that is in the absolutive case. As Hunzib has ergative allignment, 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.

References

A Grammar of Hunzib (with Texts and Lexicon), , Helma van den, Berg, Lincom Europa, 1995, ISBN 3-89586-006-9