Adyghe language

Adyghe belongs to the Northwest Caucasian language family. Glottochronological studies suggest that the common Proto-Northwest Caucasian language split into the Circassian, Abkhaz, and Ubykh branches roughly 5,000 years ago. == History ==

For most of its history, Adyghe was an oral language. The folklore, particularly the Nart sagas, served as a repository for the language. Besides native vocabulary, the Adyghe language has accepted loanwords from Turkic, Arabic, Persian, and Russian languages. Words such as chapych (kopeck) are pre-revolutionary loans from Russian, while internationalisms like revolutsiye (revolution) entered later. As a rule, the phonetic composition of borrowed words is adapted to the phonological system of the Adyghe language. Standardization of Adyghe Pre-Soviet attempts One of the earliest attempts to create a standard for the Adyghe language was made by Natouko Sheretluk (Natouko Efendi), a Shapsug nobleman. He opened a madrasa in his native village of Bogundyr and compiled an Adyghe alphabet and grammar. Leonty Lyulye, a Russian official who lived for many years among the Shapsugs, Natukhays, and Abadzekhs on the Black Sea coast, published a "Russian-Circassian Dictionary" and a brief grammar in Odessa in 1846. Lyulye identified three dialects of Adyghe: "Kabardian", "Besleney", and a third he called "Common Circassian" (referring to the Western coastal dialects). He tried to base his dictionary on this "Common" dialect. Another pre-Soviet attempt was made by Wumar Bersey, an Abzakh. On March 14, 1853, he published the "Primer of the Circassian Language" (Adyghe Alphabet) in Tiflis (Tbilisi), based on the Arabic script. This date (March 14) is now celebrated annually as the "Day of the Adyghe Language". Modern Standard Adyghe The standard register of Adyghe, known as Literary Adyghe (; ), was created by Circassian linguist Daut Ashkhamaf based largely on the Chemguy dialect, which was chosen for its simplicity. However, Literary Adyghe is a constructed dialect and is distinct from the natural Chemguy dialect, as there was significant input from the dialects of other tribes who remained in the Caucasus after the Circassian exile, spesifically the Bzhedug, Shapsug, and partly Abzakh. Attempts to unify Adyghe and Kabardian There were proposals to merge Adyghe and Kabardian to create a single Circassian literary language. There were attempts to create a single unified alphabet for Adyghe, Kabardian, Chechen and Karachay-Balkar; but efforts failed because the leaders of the movement were accused of being "bourgeois nationalists" and executed in 1937. The Bolsheviks supported the creation of separate alphabets and grammars for the "Kyakh" (Western; the modern Adyghe language) and Kabardian, despite ongoing debates on unifying them. A more moderate proposal developed by the linguist M.A. Kumakhov aimed to unify the alphabets and orthography without forcing a complete merger of spoken Adyghe and Kabardian. This project proposed standardizing the representation of identical phonemes (using the same letter for the same sound where they currently differ, such as the Adyghe жъvs. Kabardian жь). The project was accepted by specialists at regional conferences in Nalchik and Maikop in 1998 and 1999. While the Parliament of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic approved the project, the Parliament of the Republic of Adygea did not proceed to discuss it. The International Circassian Association (ICA) officially stated the goal of creating a "uniform Circassian language" in its 2015 congress resolution. == Adyghe outside Circassia ==

Turkey Turkey hosts the largest Circassian population, but the language lacks any legal recognition in Turkey. Historically, the first Adyghe language education in the diaspora occurred in Istanbul; the "Circassian Benevolence School" (1910) and the "Circassian Girls Model School" (1919) provided instruction until their closure by the Kemalists in 1923. Linguistically, the Adyghe spoken in Turkey exhibits distinct features as it was not subject to the standartisation policies in the Caucasus. It contains archaic vocabulary lost in the Caucasus, alongside Turkish loanwords. While the Chemguy dialect forms the basis of the literary language in the Republic of Adygea, the majority of the diaspora in Turkey speaks the Abzakh and Shapsug dialects (as well as Kabardian), alongside smaller numbers of Bzhedug and Hatuqay speakers. The language policy was liberalized, which prompted revival efforts. Demonstrations were at Ministry of Education offices across the country with slogans including "Hands off my alphabet," "We want our mother tongue's alphabet" and "What about Arabic in Latin letters?". Adyghe serves as the language of daily communication in the home, school, and public spaces. In 1958-1959, Israeli Circassians made contact for the first time with Circassians in the Caucasus and requested literary material in Adyghe, which they received. In 1976, the Adyghe language was introduced into the official school curriculum. It is a compulsory subject from 6th grade onward, and utilizes textbooks based on the literary standard of the Republic of Adygea. Jordan In Jordan, the Adyghe language has historically enjoyed a relatively privileged status, though it currently faces significant pressure, as Arabic has become the dominant language for the younger generation, and the Adyghe language is often restricted to symbolic functions or domestic use. The diaspora in Jordan has produced dictionaries and linguistic works, such as a Circassian-Arabic dictionary published in 1988. Historically, various dialects were spoken by immigrants, including Shapsug, Bzhedug, (and Kabardian), but over time these dialects have merged. == Publications ==

There are many books written in or translated into Adyghe. А significant milestone was the publication of the "ABC-book of the Circassian language" by Wumar Bersey in Tbilisi on March 14, 1853, a date now celebrated as the Day of the Adyghe Language and Writing. An Adyghe translation of the Quran by Iskhak 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. In 2020 a bilingual edition of Ecclesiastes was released in Adyghe and Kabardian, a closely-related language of the North Caucasus in the Russian Federation. Adyghe Maq is the main Adyghe language newspaper. It is published in the capital of the Adyghe Republic, Maykop, five times a week. == Vitality ==

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. == Dialects ==

Black Sea coast dialects • Shapsug dialect () • North Shapsugs, Great Shapsugs, Kuban Shapsugs () dialect • Kfar Kama dialect () • Chemguy-Shapsugs, Pseuşko accent () • South Shapsugs, Small Shapsugs, Coastal Shapsugs, Black Sea Shapsugs () dialect • Hakuchi dialect () • Natukhai dialect () • Zhaney dialect Kuban River dialects • Bzhedug dialect (): spoken by Circassians in the Republic of Adygea and the Biga district of the city of Çanakkale in Turkey • Chemguy (): literary standard of Adyghe. Also spoken by Circassians in the Republic of Adygea • Abzakh dialect (): spoken by Circassians in the village of Rehaniya in Israel and Circassians in Syria from the Golan Heights • Mamkhegh dialect • Yegeruqay dialect • Hatuqay dialect • Makhosh dialect == Phonology ==

Adyghe exhibits between 50 and 60 consonants depending on the dialect. 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 palatalized glottal stops (although a palatalized glottal stop is also found in Hausa and a labialized one in Tlingit). The Shapsug (Black Sea) dialect of Adyghe contains a very uncommon sound: a voiceless bidental fricative , which corresponds to the voiceless velar fricative found in other varieties of Adyghe. This sound is only known to be used in the Black Sea dialect. • These consonants exist only in borrowed words. • In the Black Sea coast Adyghe dialects (e.g. Shapsug dialect and Natukhai dialect) there exist a palatalized voiced velar stop , a palatalized voiceless velar stop and a palatalized velar ejective that were merged with , and in most Adyghe dialects. For example the Shapsug words "гьанэ" "shirt", "кьэт" "chicken" and "кӏьапсэ" "rope" are pronounced in other dialects as "джанэ" , "чэт" and кӏапсэ . In contrast to its large inventory of consonants, Adyghe has only three phonemic vowels in a vertical vowel system. == Orthography ==

Modern alphabet Orthography rules • The letter is not written after a , or a labialised consonant. For example: унэ "house" instead of уынэ. • In case the letter is the first letter of a word or when it is not related to any other consonant, it is pronounced as . For example: унэ instead of уынэ. When it is related to a consonant, it becomes a vowel and pronounced as . For example: чэту 'cat' instead of чэтыу. • In case a labialised consonant is followed by a vowel , instead of the letter there is a . For example: гъогу 'road' instead of гъуэгу. • In case a labialised consonant is followed by a vowel or , the labialised consonant letter is written fully. For example: цуакъэ 'shoes'. • In case the letter is the first letter of a word or when it is not related to any other consonant, it is pronounced as [wɐ] . For example, о 'you' instead of уэ. • In case the letter is the first letter of a word or when it is not related to any other consonant, it is pronounced as . For example: еӏо 'he says' instead of йэӏо. When it is related to a consonant, it becomes a vowel and pronounced as . For example: делэ 'fool' instead of дэйлэ. • In case the letter is the first letter of a word or when is not related to any other consonant, it is pronounced as . For example: илъэс 'year' instead of йылъэс. When it is related to a consonant, it becomes a vowel and pronounced as . For example: сиӏ 'I have' instead of сыйӏ. Use of Ъ and Ь Unlike in the Russian language, where (Hard Sign) and (Soft Sign) serve to separate syllables or modify the palatalization of a preceding consonant, in Adyghe they are used as integral parts of the alphabet to define entirely distinct phonemes. This adaptation was necessary because Adyghe has a much larger consonant inventory than standard Cyrillic can accommodate. • Ъ (Hardener): Generally indicates a moving the place of articulation back to the uvular or pharyngeal position (e.g., turning a velar into a uvular). • Ь (Softener): Generally indicates a moving the place of articulation forward or palatalization. The table below illustrates how these signs modify the base letters: Vowels The vowels are written , and . Other letters represent diphthongs: represents , or , or , represent or , and represents or . Other writing systems History Widespread literacy in Adyghe did not exist until the modern era and literacy was limited to a few people. From the 6th–5th centuries BC until the first half of the 15th century, the Adyghe people used the Greek alphabet, initially introduced through ancient Greek colonies and later reinforced by the Byzantine Empire and the Christian church. Early forms of the Cyrillic alphabet were also used during this period due to Russian influence. In 1853, the Adyghe educator Umar Bersey published the first "Primer of the Circassian Language" based on the Arabic script. The Arabic script was used until 1927, when as a part of the Soviet "Latinisation" campaign, a Latin-based alphabet was adopted. It was developed by the linguist N.F. Yakovlev and the Adyghe scholar Daud Ashkhamaf. In the late 1930s, the script was converted to Cyrillic to align with Russian. Adyghe Arabic alphabet Below table shows the Adyghe Perso-Arabic alphabet as it was officially adopted between 1918 and 1927. Adyghe Latin alphabet The Adyghe orthography was officially switched to the Latin alphabet in 1927. The Adyghe Latin alphabet was compiled and finalized a year prior, in 1926. This alphabet was the sole official script in the Soviet Union. The Adyghe Latin alphabet consisted of 50 letters, many of them newly created, some even borrowed from Cyrillic. Another interesting feature of this iteration of the Adyghe Latin alphabet was that there was no distinction between lower case and upper case letters. Each letter only had one single case. and that the use of the Latin script would sever the ties with the homeland. Despite the criticism, the CLA has obtained a €40,000 funding from the European Union for the recording of the Circassian language with a Latin script and the preparation of multi-media learning materials for the language, and the materials created by ABX were accepted by the Ministry of National Education to be taught in Secondary Schools. This decision was protested and legally objected by the Federation of Caucasian Associations (; KAFFED) who created the materials for Circassian and Abaza languages with the Cyrillic script; however, the court ruled in favour of the Latin alphabet created by the CLA and continued the use of their alphabet in Circassian courses. Some glyphs in the Chemguy-based Cyrillic alphabet have no equivalent in the Abzakh-based Latin alphabet because of dialectal differences. The most notable of these differences is the lack of differentiation between post-alveolar, alveolo-palatal and retroflex sounds. Though there are some additional letters in the alphabet for Kabardian, the materials in the CLA website are primarily in Adyghe. 1) Ć is the equivalent of both Кӏ and Чӏ and shows the ejective postalveolar affricate. Qq, on the other hand, only corresponds to Кӏ and shows an ejective velar plosive. 2) Ç normally stands for Ч but when it is followed by Ü and Ö, it is equivalent to Цу in the Cyrillic script. 3) É and İ are not direct equivalents of Е and И. The Cyrillic letters denote the [jɜ] and [jə] sounds at the beginning of syllables and [e] and [i] sounds at the end. The Latin letters are only used for the sounds [e] and [i]. The diphthongs are written as "Ye" and "Yi", respectively. 4) Circassian languages do not have phonemic rounded vowels but the labialized consonants affect the vowels around them to create allophonic rounded vowels. The letters O, Ö, U and Ü are used to show these allophonic rounded vowels. O/Ö and U/Ü works similar to the vowel use О and У in the Adyghe Cyrillic alphabet with O/Ö showing labialized consonant+[ɜ] combinations and U/Ü the labialized consonant+[ə] combinations. However, Ö and Ü are used when these combinations occur next to postalveolar sounds (Ş, J, Ç). The diphthongal uses of О and У, i.e. [wɜ] and [wə], are written as "We" and "Wı". Another use of Ö and Ü is writing Turkish loanwords containing these letters. 5) Wıçüpe (уцупэ; the place of stopping) is written with a ` (accent grave) or ' (apostrophe) and has a complicated use. It is equivalent to Ӏ (palochka) in its use an ejective marker but not as the glottal stop. The glottal stop is not written as a letter but is implied through the use of consecutive vowels like in "mıerıs" (мыӀэрыс; apple). As many ejective sounds have their own letters (Ć, Ṕ, Q, Š, Ṫ), only some ejective sounds are written with the wıçüpe (ş`, ĺ`). Another use of wıçüpe is to show that an U at the end of a word represents a labialized consonant and not a labialized consonant + [ə] combination. For example, джэгу in Cyrillic is written cegu` to make sure that it is pronounced [d͡ʒɜgʷ] as a single syllable but wıçüpe is removed when the word takes a suffix and the allophonic [u] is audible, as in cegum [d͡ʒɜgum]. File:Adyghe arabic alphabet.JPG|Adyghe Arabic alphabet used before 1927 File:Adyghe alphabet cyrillic-latin.JPG|Comparison of Adyghe Latin and Adyghe Cyrillic alphabets File:Adige arab alphabet.JPG|Adyghe Arabic alphabet letters File:Adyghe latin alphabet (1927).svg|Adyghe Latin alphabet letters == Grammar ==

Adyghe, like all Northwest Caucasian languages, has a basic subject–object–verb typology and is characterised by the ergative construction of sentences. ==Vocabulary==

Native vocabulary } Loanwords } • There are thirteen labialised consonants; however, in some dialects, there are three additional ones: , and . == Sample texts ==

Al-Fatiha John 1:1–5 Universal Declaration of Human Rights == See also ==