The Adyghe language

Phonetics

The main feature of the Adyghe phonetics is a pronounced imbalance between the systems of vowel and consonant phonemes. There are 56 consonants and only 3 vowels in literary Adyghe: [а], [e], [ə] (denoted as the letters “а”, “э”, “ы” in Adyghe’s Cyrillic script). It is not the number of vowels that is exceptional - there are many languages in the world where there are only three. Rather, these vowels are usually distinctly contrasted against each other, for example, [a], [i], [u]. In Adyghe, however, the contrast between the vowels is weak, so a non-speaker will find it difficult to tell them apart. Even if [a] is recognizable, the difference between [e] and [ə] is minuscule for a Russian speaker.

It is also possible for a Russian speaker to hear something approximating [o] and [u]. Moreover, these sounds are included in the alphabet as “о” and “у”. However, phonologically they are not independent phonemes and are instead variants of the same three vowels, the realization of which is dependent on the surrounding consonants. For example, the letter “у” means either the sound [w] or the labialization of the preceding consonant (there are both “г” and “гу” in Adyghe); it can also mean the combination of the sound [w] or another labialized consonant and the sound [ə]. The letter “о” in Adyghe means either the combination of the sounds [w] and [e] or the combination of the sound [e] and the preceding labialized consonant. In any case, they are different sounds as far as phonological structure is concerned.

Besides the labialization, glottalization also plays a major part in Adyghe phonology. It ensures the presence of ejective plosives and approximants. Glottalized “тI”, “пI” are added to the voiced and unvoiced pairs of consonants (“т” and “д”, “п” and “б”). Glottalization is marked by the letter “I” that shows ejectiveness or the glottal stop. The so-called palochka is also present in the root (Iэ-) of the Adyghe verb “to be”; as the vowel “э” is usually silent, so only the glottal stop is left in the root; meanwhile, the root (Iэ-) is always accompanied by a prefix (щыIэн, иIэн).

Additionally, the Adyghe language has many hissing and whistling consonants. They can be hard or soft, and their sound is reflected differently in writing: hard “ш” and soft “щ”; hard “ж” and soft “жь”; hard “чъ” and soft “ч”. Furthermore, they can be glottalized (“шI”) and labialized (“шIу”); this makes Adyghe unique in a way. There also exist the rare whistling and hissing consonants “шъ” and “жъ”. Their phonetic realization varies from dialect to dialect, which is of interest to researchers.

In Adyghe, the accent is poorly articulated, and not all speakers agree on where it falls. Although the accent sometimes serves the function of semantic distinction, the question of whether there is any prosodic characteristic of a word at all is debatable.

Morphology

The distinction between the parts of speech in the Adyghe is much weaker than in Russian: depending on the context, the word may appear as a noun, adjective, verb or adverb. Whereas in Russian the parts of speech are primarily distinguished morphologically (it is easy to tell whether it is a verb or a noun using the appearance of the word and the way it is declined), in Adyghe any grammatical morphology can be attached to roots denoting objects, attributes or actions. Basic Adyghe affixes are available for any denominative part of speech. The extremely rich “verb” morphology (in particular, the personal, temporal, interrogative, and negative indicators) can be freely attached to nouns and adjectives. Conversely, it is possible to attach the case index, which is traditionally considered nominative, to the verb form. The phenomenon when one part of speech can be made into another part of speech without any special frame is called conversion. It is very rare in Russian, but if one looks at Adyghe, it seems that almost all words behave that way.

The flexibility of the parts of speech in Adyghe does not create ambiguity, since the meaning of the root is completely predictable from its morphological and syntactic surroundings. It is worth noting that traditional Adyghe grammar does have a formal classification of parts of speech, and there are some reasons for this, namely the subtle differences in their morphological and syntactic behavior. Still, the differences are marginal and are observed only in specific constructions. The vagueness of the categorization can also be seen in the fact that different researchers refer to the same forms as either verbs or nouns.

However, several secondary criteria can be distinguished. For example, a clearer boundary is drawn between verbs denoting active action (they have their own indicators of "dynamism") and static predicates, which include nouns and adjectives. There are a lot of indicators that are characteristic only for transitive verbs. Adjectives behave like nouns in all respects – both, unlike the verb, can have possessive prefixes attached to them. Obviously, functors and pronouns behave differently, as they, for example, cannot act as predicates. Still, some linguists suggest that nouns and verbs should not be opposed.

Syntax

In the absence of pronounced parts of speech, syntactic division is extremely important, and in Adyghe it is very clear that either the subject will be formalized by the appropriate case, or the predicate will be highlighted by specific indicators. Confusion will not arise even though both verb and noun behave in exactly the same way and can act as both subject and predicate.

For example, in the sentence КIалэр къэкIуагъ (“The guy has come”) the verb къэкIуагъ (“has come”) is the predicate. Using a different case it can be made into the subject, КъэкIуагъэр кIалэ (“The one to have come is a guy”). Conversely, the noun can easily become the predicate; for example, in the sentences СыкIал (“I am a guy”), СыкIэлагъ (“I was a guy”), СыкIэлэщт (“I will be a guy”). In the latter case, the stem “guy” is joined by the future tense suffix “щт” in the same way as the stem “to come” in the sentence СыкъэкIощт(“I will come”).

The most important feature of Adyghe grammar, determining the functioning of morphology and syntax of this language, is ergativity.

There are only four cases in the Adyghe, of which the two main (“core”) cases are the absolutive, comparable to the nominative, and the ergative, also known as the indirect. The ergative is used to denote many secondary parts of a sentence. Adyghe uses the ergative strategy: S and P are expressed the same way and are in the same case, absolutive (indicated by -р), the other case, ergative, denotes A (indicated by -м). Thus, [S=P vs. A]

Ergativity appears not only in the case system, but also in the verb. This is a phrase with an intransitive verb “to work”, Сылэжьэщт (“I will work”), and this is a phrase with a transitive verb “to see”, Сыкъэплъэгъущт (“You will see me”), here сы- is the indicator of an absolutive participant. In the first case, this prefix appears in the subject of a non-transitive verb, and in the second, in the patient of a transitive verb. S is expressed the same way as P, while A of the transitive verb is expressed differently (via the prefix п- before the stem).

Vocabulary

Native vocabulary includes names of body parts, kinship terms, simple verbs, pronouns, numerals, qualitative adjectives, and postpositions. The main layer of borrowings in Adyghe comes from the late Middle Ages; there are many Turkic words, while words from the Iranian languages are fewer. Arabisms came into Adyghe with Arabic-speaking scholarship and are also among the earliest borrowings. Some of the religious vocabulary of Greek origin remains from the Christian period. Other Caucasian languages have few loanwords.

Beginning with the first contacts with the Russian-speaking population, many Slavic borrowings entered Adyghe. Loanwords from Russian match Adyghe grammatical morphemes well. Interestingly, otherwise nonexistent phonemes [i], [u], [o] can be realized through Russian loanwords (like стол, Russian for “table”). In the 20th century, internationalisms in the form of socio-political and everyday vocabulary began to infiltrate Adyghe through Russian. They adopted Adyghe morphology and organically integrated into the lexicon.