Adyghe phonology

Adyghe exhibits a large number of consonants: between 50 and 60 consonants in the various Adyghe dialects. Below is the IPA phoneme chart of the consonant phonemes of Adyghe.

• In the Black Sea coast dialects of Adyghe (e.g. Shapsug and Natukhai) there exist a palatalized voiced velar stop [ɡʲ], a palatalized voiceless velar stop [kʲ] and a palatalized velar ejective [kʲʼ] that were merged with [d͡ʒ], [t͡ʃ] and [t͡ʃʼ] in most Adyghe dialects.^[1][2][3][4] For example, the Shapsug words "гьанэ" [ɡʲaːnɐ] "shirt", "кьэт" [kʲɐt] "chicken" and "кӏьапсэ" [kʲʼaːpsɐ] "rope" are pronounced in other dialects as "джанэ" [d͡ʒaːnɐ], "чэт" [t͡ʃɐt] and "кӏапсэ" [t͡ʃʼaːpsɐ].
• The labialized retroflex consonants шъу [ʂʷ] and жъу [ʐʷ] in the literary Temirgoy dialect are alveolo-palatal щу [ɕʷ] and жьу [ʑʷ] in the Black Sea coast dialects of Adyghe (Shapsug and Natukhai).
• In the Black Sea coast dialects of Adyghe (e.g. Shapsug and Natukhai) there exist an alveolar ejective fricative [sʼ] that correspond to [t͡sʼ] in other Adyghe dialects.^[5] For example, the Shapsug words "сӏэ" [sʼa] "name" and "псӏы" [psʼə] "lie" are pronounced in other dialects as "цӏэ" [t͡sʼɐ] and "пцӏы" [pt͡sʼə].
• The phoneme written Л л is pronounced as a voiced alveolar lateral fricative [ɮ] mostly by the Circassians of Adygea, but many Circassians in diaspora pronounce it as an alveolar lateral approximant [l].
• In Adyghe, the palato-alveolar consonants ш [ʃ], шӏ [ʃʼ] and шӏу [ʃʷʼ] may be affricated to ч [t͡ʃ], чӏ [ʈ͡ʂʼ] and чӏу [ʈ͡ʂʷʼ] after the consonant с [s] or шъу [ʃʷ]. For example, the words:

сщагъ "I carried him to" → счагъ [sət͡ʃaːʁ]

сшӏагъ "I knew": → счӏагъ [sət͡ʂʼaːʁ]

сшӏэрэп "I don't know": → счӏэрэп [sət͡ʂʼɐrɐp]

сшӏошӏыгъ "I thought" → счӏошӏыгъ [sət͡ʂʷʼɐʃʼəʁ]

шъушӏагъ "you (pl.) knew" → шъучӏагъ [ʃʷt͡ʂʼaːʁ].

• The first and second person prefixes с [s], т [t], п [p] and шъу [ʃʷ] may become voiced з [z], д [d], б [b] and жъу [ʒʷ] before the consonant гъ [ʁ]. For example:

сгъэкӏуагъ "I made him go" → згъэкӏуагъ [zʁɐkʷʼaːʁ]

тгъэкӏуагъ "we made him go" → дгъэкӏуагъ [dʁɐkʷʼaːʁ]

пгъэкӏуагъ "you made him go" → бгъэкӏуагъ [bʁɐkʷʼaːʁ]

шъугъэкӏуагъ "you (pl.) made him go" → жъугъэкӏуагъ [ʒʷʁɐkʷʼaːʁ].

• The phoneme [f] ⟨ф⟩ found in the Adyghe dialects correspond to [xʷ] ⟨ху⟩ in Kabardian. For example:

тфы [tfə] "five" ↔ тху [txʷə]

фыжьы [fəʑə] "white" ↔ хужь [xʷəʑ]

цӏыфы [t͡sʼəfə] "person" ↔ цӏыху [t͡sʼəxʷ].

• In many Adyghe dialects (e.g. Bzhedug, Shapsug, Natukhia and Abzakh) there exist [t͡ɕʷ] ⟨чъу⟩ that corresponds to standard Temirgoy [t͡sʷ] ⟨цу⟩. For example, the Temirgoy word цуакъэ [t͡sʷaːqɐ] is чъуакъэ [t͡ɕʷaːqɐ] in the other 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 palatalized glottal stops.
• The Black Sea dialect of Adyghe contains a very uncommon sound: a bidental fricative [h̪͆], which corresponds to the voiceless velar fricative [x] found in other varieties of Adyghe.
• The Hakuchi dialect of Adyghe contains uvular ejective [qʼ] and a labialized uvular ejective [qʷʼ], which corresponds to the [ʔ] and [ʔʷ] in other dialects.

In contrast to its large consonant inventory, Adyghe has only three phonemic vowels in a classic vertical vowel system. /ə/ and /ɐ/ have varying allophones, whereas /aː/ has a more limited set. Realization of vocalic allophones is based on the surrounding consonants.^[6][7][8]

• Lax vowels /ə, ɐ/ are usually rounded to [ɵ, ɞ] between labialized consonants within the same syllable; fronted to [ɪ, ɛ] in the environment of coronal and palatalized consonants; and retracted to [ɤ, ʌ] in the environment of uvular, pharyngeal and glottal consonants.^[7]:16
• When /ə, ɐ/ are surrounded by a plain and a posterior consonant, they are backed only in the CVC environment.^[7]:22

Stress in Adyghe is phonemic, in that it is unpredictable.^[6] The lexical stress tends to fall on one of two last syllables of the word stem. Longer words can also have multiple stress patterns, as in below:

Orthography / Transliteration: чэлэцъикор / čʼălăcikor
Stress 1:    чэлэцъикор / čʼălăcikor
Stress 2:    чэлэцъикор / čʼălăcikor
Stress 3:    чэлэцъикор / čʼălăcikor
Stress 4:    чэлэцъикор / čʼălăcikor
Stress 5:    чэлэцъикор / čʼălăcikor
Blue: Primary stress
Green: Secondary stress

However, the functional load of stress is extremely low, but yet there are pairs that differ optionally.