The impact of language contact on Hinuq

Abstract

Abstract This paper investigates the impact of language contact on the Nakh-Daghestanian language Hinuq. Hinuq is a rather small language that has been in contact with larger languages for several centuries; among them the traces of Avar and Russian are particularly visible. The paper provides an overview about all observable influences on the phonology, morphology and syntax of Hinuq as well as on the lexicon. Avar is the main source for borrowed morphology and loan words. The influence of Russian on the Hinuq lexicon is growing, especially among the young speakers, but it is still smaller compared to Avar. With respect to the syntax no Avar impact can be detected since the languages belong to the same language family and large parts of the syntactic features and rules bear strong resemblances in the two languages. By contrast, Russian, which is genetically unrelated and typologically different from Hinuq, has some influence on the Hinuq constituent order.