Pronunciation [kætʃ mit͡sʼ] ISO 639-3 kjj | Native speakers 1,000 (2007) | |
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Language family Northeast CaucasianKhinalug | ||
Khinalug (also spelled Khinalig, Khinalugi, Xinalug(h), Xinaliq or Khinalugh) 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.
Contents
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. This is in part due to the breaking down of a road that leads into the village, leaving it mostly isolated.
Vocabulary
The following words were phonetically transcribed from Khinalug:
Note: ı is roughly pronounced as the e in "fallen". u is roughly pronounced as the ou in "coup".