.jpg) | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| c. 4,000 (highest est.) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Russia | 630 (2021)[1] |
| Languages | |
| Hinuq,Avar,Russian | |
| Religion | |
| Sunni Islam | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Tsez,Khwarshi,Avars and otherNortheast Caucasian peoples | |
TheHinukh (Hinukh: гьинухъесhinuqes,Avar:гьинухъесел,romanized: hinuqesel[2]) are a people ofDagestan living in 2 villages: Genukh,Tsuntinsky District, their "parent village"; and Novomonastyrskoe,Kizlyarsky District where they settled later and live together withAvars andDargins and also in the cities ofDagestan. They are being assimilated by theCaucasian Avars.[citation needed]
The Hinukh ethnonym "hinukh" comes from the wordhino/hinu, "the road" (suffix-kh/-kho formessive case "at the road", "on the road"). TheBezhta people call them "гьинухъаса" (hinukhasa), theGeorgians "ლეკები" (lekebi) or "დიდოელები" (didoelebi), and theTsez people "гьинузи" (hinuzi).[3]
In the official documents and the censuses the Hinukh did not appear as an independent ethnic group. Afterthe forcible deportation of the Vainakh people and disbandment of theChechen–Ingush ASSR, they were (together with some otherAvar–Andi–Dido peoples) resettled inVedensky District which was given toDagestan ASSR.[2][4] After therehabilitation of theVainakh peoples in 1958 they settled back in their native lands.[2]
In 1960s the population of the Hinukh people was estimated to be 200.[2]2002 Russian Census showed their number as 531.[5] They were considered as a subgroup ofAvar people in this census.[6]2021 Russian census registered 630 Hinukh, nearly all living inDagestan.[1]
According to genetic studies in 2016, the following haplogroups are found to predominate among Hinukh:[7]
The Hinukh people are overwhelminglySunni Muslims. Theyconverted to Islam possibly in the late 18th century, through themountain guides from theFree Community of Gidatl andKhunzakh and theBezhta people, who were alreadyMuslims.[8]
TheHinukh language is aNortheast Caucasian language of theTsezic subgroup. Beside their nativeHinukh language, many also speakAvar,Tsez,Russian and often also other languages of the region.
The first information about Archi language was in a letter fromPeter von Uslar toFranz Anton Schiefner dated 1865, where he writes about a special language in Inukhoaul (i.e. Hinukh).[9] The first written material aboutHinukh language was a list of 16 words with their counterparts inTsez language, given by theBelarusian ethnographer and folkloristAleksandr Serzhputovkiy in his work about theTsez people in 1916.[2][10]
LinguistNicholas Marr classifiedHinukh language as an independent language, but erroneously described it as a language "betweenAvar andDido languages".[11] It was classified as a dialect of theTsez language by the linguists D.S. Imnaishvili and E.S. Lomtadze.[10]
The Hinukh people andHinukh language were not in the list of the ethnic groups and languages ofDagestan for a long time. They appeared only in the second edition of theGreat Soviet Encyclopedia.[12]
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