Khinalug

Khinalug

Khinalug lies about an hour’s drive from the city of Quba at 2,100 to 2,200 meters. There are about 2,000 people living in the village, belonging to four different families. The locals speak their own language, Khinalugian. Due to the remoteness of the village behind the giants of the Great Caucasus, the language has been able to assert itself to this day.

The village with its own language

Khinalug is one of the longest continuously inhabited places in the world. Already more than 5’000 years ago the small village existed in the inaccessible high mountains. Due to its remoteness, people have been able to preserve their traditions and culture to this day. But not only that: The villagers even have their own language to this day: Khinalugian.

Khinalugic belongs to the Nakh-Daghestanian languages (North-Eastern Caucasian language family). Within this group, Khinalugian could belong to the Lezgian languages or a single language. This is still not exactly known. In any case, Khinalugic is not related to Azerbaijani (Turkic) at all.