Wiki Languages: Adyghe language (Адыгэбзэ)

Adyghe
West Circassian
Адыгабзэ
Native to	Adygea Krasnodar Krai
Ethnicity	Circassians
Native speakers	300,000 (2015)[1]
Language family	Northwest Caucasian Circassian Adyghe
Early forms	Proto-Northwest Caucasian Proto-Circassian
Dialects	Abdzakh Bzhedug Hatuqwai Mamkhegh Natukhaj Shapsug Temirgoy (Standard dialect) Yegeruqwai Hakuchi Zhaney
Writing system	Cyrillic Latin Arabic
Official status
Official language in	Russia Adygea
Language codes
ISO 639-2
ISO 639-3	ady
Glottolog	adyg1241
Distribution of the Adyghe language in Adygea, Russia (2002)
Total percentage of the population speaking Adyghe or Kabardian language in Turkey (1965)
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

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Adyghe (/ˈædɪɡeɪ/ or /ˌɑːdɪˈɡeɪ/;^[2]Adyghe: Адыгабзэ, romanized: Adygabzə, [aːdɘɣaːbzɜ]), also known as West Circassian (Adyghe: кӀахыбзэ, romanized: khaxybzə), is a Northwest Caucasian language spoken by the western subgroups of Circassians.^[3] It is spoken mainly in Russia, as well as in Turkey, Jordan, Syria and Israel, where they settled after the Circassian genocide. It is closely related to the Kabardian (East Circassian) language, though some reject the distinction between the two languages in favor of both being dialects of a unitary Circassian language.

The literary language is based on the Temirgoy dialect. Adyghe and Russian are the two official languages of the Republic of Adygea in the Russian Federation.

There are around 128,000 speakers of Adyghe in Russia, almost all of them native speakers. In total, some 300,000 speak it worldwide. The largest Adyghe-speaking community is in Turkey, spoken by the diaspora from the Russian–Circassian War (c. 1763–1864). In addition, the Adyghe language is spoken by the Cherkesogai in Krasnodar Krai.

Adyghe belongs to the family of Northwest Caucasian languages. Kabardian (also known as East Circassian) is a very close relative, treated by some as a dialect of Adyghe or of an overarching Circassian language. Ubykh, Abkhaz and Abaza are somewhat more distantly related to Adyghe.

Dialects

The West Circassian (Adyghe) dialects family tree

• The Black Sea coast dialects:
  • Shapsug dialect (Adyghe: Шапсыгъабзэ)
    • North Shapsugs, Great Shapsugs, Kuban Shapsugs (Шапсыгъэ шху) dialect
      • Kfar Kama dialect (Кфар Камэм ишапсыгъэбзэ)
    • Temirgoy-Shapsugs, Pseuşko accent (Кӏэмгуе-шапсыгъ)
    • South Shapsugs, Small Shapsugs, Coastal Shapsugs, Black Sea Shapsugs (Шапсыгъэ-цӏыкӏу) dialect
    • Hakuchi dialect (ХьакӀуцубзэ, Къарацхаибзэ)
  • Natukhai dialect (Adyghe: Нэтӏхъуаджэбзэ)
  • Zhaney dialect
• The Kuban River dialects:
  • Bzhedug dialect (Adyghe: Бжъэдыгъубзэ): spoken by Circassians in the Republic of Adygea and the Biga district of the city of Çanakkale in Turkey
  • Temirgoy (Adyghe: КӀэмыгуябзэ, КӀэмгуибзэ): literary standard of Adyghe. Also spoken by Circassians in the Republic of Adygea
  • Abzakh dialect (Adyghe: Aбдзэхабзэ): spoken by Circassians in the village of Rehaniya in Israel and Circassians in Syria from the Golan Heights
  • Mamkhegh dialect
  • Yegeruqay dialect
  • Hatuqwai dialect
  • Mequash dialect

Phonology

Adyghe exhibits a large number of consonants: between 50 and 60 consonants in the various Adyghe dialects. All dialects possess a contrast between plain and labialized glottal stops. A very unusual minimal contrast, and possibly unique to the Abzakh dialect of Adyghe, is a three-way contrast between plain, labialized and palatalizedglottal stops (although a palatalized glottal stop is also found in Hausa and a labialized one is found in Tlingit). The Black Sea dialect of Adyghe contains a very uncommon sound: a bidentalfricative[h̪͆], which corresponds to the voiceless velar fricative[x] found in other varieties of Adyghe.

1. Consonants that exist only in borrowed words.
2. Note: Adyghe has many consonants that appear in dialects, and has a complex system of consonant allophony. More information on those can be found at Adyghe phonology.

In contrast to its large consonant inventory, Adyghe has only three phonemic vowels in a vertical vowel system.^[4]

Grammar

Adyghe, like all Northwest Caucasian languages, has a basic agent–object–verb typology and is characterised by an ergative construction of the sentence.

Orthography

The official alphabet for Adyghe is the Cyrillic script, which has been used since 1936. Before that, the Arabic script was used. In recent years, a new Latin script has been devised^{[by whom?]} that seeks to include phonemes from all the Adyghe and Kabardian dialects, as well as other North Caucasian languages.^{[citation needed]}

• There are thirteen labialised consonants; however, in some dialects, there are three additional ones: Кхъу [q͡χʷ], Ху [xʷ], Чъу [t͡ɕʷ].

Orthography rules

• The letter ⟨ы⟩ [ə] is not written after a ⟨у⟩ [w], ⟨й⟩ [j] or a labialised consonant. For example: унэ [wənɐ] "house" instead of уынэ, илъэс [jəɬɐs] "year" instead of йылъэс, шӏу [ʃʷʼə] "well" instead of шӏуы, цумпэ [t͡sʷəmpɐ] "strawberry" instead of цуымпэ.
• In case the letter ⟨у⟩ is the first letter of a word or when it is not related to any other consonant, it is pronounced as [wə] ⟨уы⟩. For example: унэ instead of уынэ, урыс [wərəs] "Russian" instead of уырыс, куу [kʷəwə] "deep" instead of кууы. When it is related to a consonant, it becomes a vowel and pronounced as [əw~u] ⟨ыу⟩. For example: чэту [t͡ʃɐtəw] "cat" instead of чэтыу, бзу [bzəw] "bird" instead of бзыу, дунай [dəwnaːj] "world" instead of дыуней.
• In case a labialised consonant is followed by a vowel ⟨э⟩ [ɐ], instead of the letter ⟨у⟩ there is a ⟨о⟩. For example: гъогу [ʁʷɐɡʷ] "road" instead of гъуэгу, машӏо [maːʃʷʼɐ] "fire" instead of машӏуэ, шъо [ʃʷɐ] "you (pl.)" instead of шъуэ.
• In case a labialised consonant is followed by a vowel ⟨а⟩ [aː] or ⟨и⟩ [əj~i], the labialised consonant letter is written fully. For example: цуакъэ [t͡sʷaːqɐ] "shoes", гуащэ [ɡʷaɕɐ] "princes", шъуи [ʃʷəj] "yours" (pl.).
• In case the letter ⟨о⟩ is the first letter of a word or when it is not related to any other consonant, it is pronounced as [wɐ] ⟨уэ⟩. For example, о [wɐ] "you" instead of уэ, орэд [wɐrɐd] "song" instead of уэрэд, онтэгъу [wɐntɐʁʷ] "heavy" instead of уэнтэгъу, зао [zaːwɐ] "war" instead of зауэ, ныо [nəwɐ] "old lady" instead of ныуэ.
• In case the letter ⟨е⟩ is the first letter of a word or when it is not related to any other consonant, it is pronounced as [jɐ] ⟨йэ⟩. For example: еӏо [jɐʔʷɐ] "he says" instead of йэӏо, еплъы [jɐpɬə] "he sees" instead of йэплъы, мые [məjɐ] "apple" instead of мыйэ, бае [baːjɐ] "rich" instead of байэ, шъэжъые [ʂɐʐəjɐ] "knife" instead of шъэжъыйэ. When it's related to a consonant, it becomes a vowel and pronounced as [ɐj~e] ⟨эй⟩. For example: делэ [dɐjlɐ] "fool" instead of дэйлэ, къедж [qɐjd͡ʒ] "read" instead of къэйдж, непэ [nɐjpɐ] "today" instead of нэйпэ.
• In case the letter ⟨и⟩ is the first letter of a word or when is not related to any other consonant, it is pronounced as [jə] ⟨йы⟩. For example: илъэс [jəɬɐs] "year" instead of йылъэс, иунэ [jəwənɐ] "his house" instead of йыуын, шӏои [ʃʷʼɐjə] "dirty" instead of шӏойы, дэи [dɐjə] "bad" instead of дэйы. When it's related to a consonant, it becomes a vowel and pronounced as [əj~i] ⟨ый⟩. For example: сиӏ [səjʔ] "I have" instead of сыйӏ, уиунэ [wəjwənɐ] "your house" instead of уыйуынэ, къины [qəjnə] "hard" instead of къыйны.

Vowels

The vowels are written ⟨ы⟩ [ə], ⟨э⟩ [ɐ] and ⟨а⟩ [aː]. Other letters represent diphthongs: ⟨я⟩ represents [jaː], ⟨и⟩ [jə] or [əj], ⟨о⟩ [wɐ] or [ɐw], ⟨у⟩ represent [wə] or [əw], and ⟨е⟩ represents [jɐ] or [ɐj].

Other writing systems

The language of Adyghe is officially written in the Cyrillic script but is also unofficially written in the Latin script, in a version of the Arabic script before 1927, and then a version of the Latin alphabet implemented by the Soviet Union until 1938.

• 

  Adyghe Arabic alphabet used before 1927

• 

  Adyghe Latin alphabet used from 1927 to 1938

• 

  Adyghe Latin alphabet used from 1927 to 1938

• 

  Adyghe Latin and Adyghe Cyrillic alphabets compared

• 

  Adyghe Latin alphabet letters

• 

  Adyghe Arabic alphabet letters

Examples of literary Adyghe

Native vocabulary

Loanwords

Adyghe outside Circassia

Adyghe is taught outside Circassia in a Jordanian school for the Jordanian Adyghes, Prince Hamza Ibn Al-Hussein Secondary School in the capital Amman. This school, which was established by the Adyghe Jordanians with support from the late kingHussein of Jordan, is one of the first schools for the Adyghe communities outside Circassia. It has around 750 Jordanian Adyghe students, and one of its major goals is to preserve Adyghe among newer Adyghe generations, while also emphasising the traditions of the Adyghes.^[6]

Adyghe is spoken by Circassians in Iraq and by Circassians in Israel, where it is taught in schools in their villages. It is also spoken by many Circassians in Syria, although the majority of Syrian Circassians speak Kabardian.

Publications

There are many books written in or translated into Adyghe. An Adyghe translation of the Quran by Ishak Mashbash is available. The New Testament and many books of the Old Testament have been published in Adyghe by the Institute for Bible Translation in Moscow.

UNESCO 2009 map of endangered languages

According to the UNESCO 2009 map entitled "UNESCO Map of the World's Languages in Danger", the status of the Adyghe language in 2009, along with all its dialects (Adyghe, Western Circassian tribes) and (Kabard-Cherkess, Eastern Circassian tribes), is classified as vulnerable.^[7]

Sample text

See also

• Adyghe Maq, the main Adyghe-language newspaper

Notes

References

External links

• Grammar of the Circassian Language. Useful site to learn the Adyghe grammar.
• Louis Loewe (1854). A dictionary of the Circassian language, English-Circassian-Turkish. George Bell.
• Adyghe alphabet, Omniglot.
• "Adyghe transliteration schemes"(PDF)..
• Adyghe sample, Language Museum.
• Learning Adyghe resource.
• Learn Circassian, International Centre for Circassian Studies (ICCS).
• Rferl North Caucasus Radio.
• Adyghe transliteration tool.
• Ancient Adyghe Abkhaz–Abaza Ubykh alphabet.
• How to count in Adyghe language.
• Adyghe language dictionary.
• Recordings of Adyghe language