Circassian grammar

Unlike the majority of the world's languages, which follow nominative–accusative alignment, Circassian follows ergative–absolutive alignment. In a nominative–accusative language such as English, the single argument of an intransitive verb ("she" in "she walks") behaves grammatically like the agent of a transitive verb ("she" in "she finds it"). In an ergative–absolutive language, the subject of an intransitive verb instead behaves like the object of a transitive verb, and differently from the agent of a transitive verb.

The distinction between syntactic cases is crucial for understanding who is doing the action and to whom. Nouns take the following case roles depending on the verb's transitivity:

• Absolutive case: Marked with the suffix -р /-r/. It indicates the subject of an intransitive verb or the direct object of a transitive verb — the participant that is changed (created, altered, moved, or ended) by the verb.
• Ergative case: Marked with the suffix -м /-m/. It indicates the subject (agent) of a transitive verb — the participant that causes the change.
• Oblique case: Also marked with the suffix -м /-m/. It marks the target of the action in bivalent intransitive verbs, the indirect object (dative) in ditransitive verbs, and a locative argument in transitive verbs with prepositional prefixes. Its state is not changed by the verb.

The following basic example demonstrates this ergative–absolutive case marking system (the Adyghe and Kabardian forms are identical here):

Here "table" carries the absolutive mark -р /-r/ while "man" carries the ergative mark -м /-m/. The verb "break" appears in an intransitive form (мэкъутэ) and a transitive form (екъутэ). The example uses SOV (subject–object–verb) order, but Circassian allows any word order.

It is important to distinguish intransitive from transitive verbs, because the case of the subject and object nouns, as well as the verb's person-marking prefixes, depend on it. A mistake here can drastically change the meaning of a sentence by switching the roles of subject and object. The following pair illustrates this: the verb "to see" (Adyghe елъэгъун, Kabardian елъэгъун) is transitive while "to look at" (Adyghe еплъын, Kabardian еплъын) is intransitive, so although the word for "boy" carries the same -м suffix in both, the sentences differ in meaning:

Circassian nouns inflect for number, case, and definiteness. The plural suffix is -хэ (Adyghe унэ "house" → унэхэр "houses"), though plural meaning is often carried by the verb instead. Collective nouns act as a plurale tantum — they take no plural suffix but trigger plural agreement elsewhere — for example Adyghe жылэ / Kabardian къуажэ "village" and Adyghe унагъо / Kabardian унагъуэ "family". A definite noun carries a case marker, while an indefinite one is usually unmarked (Adyghe кӏалэ "a boy" vs. кӏалэр "the boy"; Kabardian щӏалэ vs. щӏалэр).

As an ergative–absolutive language, Circassian declines nouns in four cases. The two varieties pattern alike; the table gives Adyghe forms first, then Kabardian:

The ergative–oblique case marks the transitive subject, the possessor, the indirect object, and location. The instrumental–directional marks means or direction, and the adverbial turns the noun into a modifier.

The third-person pronouns double as demonstratives and use suppletive forms rather than the regular suffixes: ар / ахэр (absolutive) and Adyghe ащ / ахэм, Kabardian абы / абыхэм (ergative–oblique).

When a noun is followed by an adjective, the case suffix attaches to the adjective rather than the noun (Adyghe пшъэшъэ дахэр, Kabardian пщащэ дахэр "the pretty girl"). Possession is marked on the possessed noun differently in the two varieties — in Adyghe by a prefix (икӏалэ "his/her boy"), in Kabardian by a separate possessive word (и щӏалэ) — and adjectives can become abstract nouns with -агъэ (дахэ "pretty" → дахагъэ "beauty"). New nouns are also formed by compounding and by productive suffixes such as -пӏэ "place" (еджапӏэ "school") and -кӏо/-кӏуэ "agent" (Adyghe еджакӏо, Kabardian еджакӏуэ "student"). Circassian is a pro-drop language, so subject and object pronouns are often omitted because the verb marks person and number.

The two varieties mark possession quite differently.

• Adyghe distinguishes two categories: inalienable (organic) possession — for things that cannot be separated from the possessor (body parts, kin, intrinsic positions) — and alienable (proprietary) possession — for transferable property, objects, and concepts. Each is marked by a prefix attached directly to the noun.^[1]
• Kabardian does not make this distinction. It marks all possession with a single set of possessive words that stand as separate words before the noun: си "my", уи "your", и "his/her", ди "our", фи "your (pl.)", я "their".

Circassian pronouns fall into the following groups: personal, demonstrative, possessive, interrogative, determinative/reflexive, and indefinite.

Circassian adjectives are morphologically close to nouns and share their number and case markers. The defining feature is phrase-final affixation: when an adjective modifies a noun, the noun stays in its bare stem and the markers for number (-хэ) and case attach to the end of the whole phrase — normally to the adjective (Adyghe пшъэшъэ дахэр, Kabardian пщащэ дахэр "the beautiful girl"). The same holds for adjectival suffixes such as the augmentative Adyghe -шхо / Kabardian -шхуэ "big" (унэшхохэр / унэшхуэхэр "the big houses"). Qualitative adjectives ("good", "tall") follow the noun, while relative or material adjectives ("iron", "wooden") precede it and do not inflect (Adyghe гъучӏ пӏэкӏорыр, Kabardian гъущӏ пӏэкӏорыр "the iron bed"). Used on its own, an adjective declines like a noun through all four cases (Adyghe фыжьыр / Kabardian хужьыр "the white one").

Degree is expressed analytically: the comparative with the particle Adyghe нахь / Kabardian нэхъ "more", and the superlative with Adyghe анахь / Kabardian янэхъ "most":

Size and age are marked by suffixes on the noun (Adyghe унакӏэ / Kabardian унащӏэ "new house", Adyghe унэжъы / Kabardian унэжь "old house", унэцӏыкӏу / унэцӏыкӏу "small house"), while a range of suffixes modify the degree of a quality:

Adjectives also feed productive derivation. The suffix -гъэ turns them into abstract nouns of measure (кӏыхьэ/кӏыхь "long" → кӏыхьагъэ "length"; дахэ "beautiful" → дэхагъэ "beauty"), while -гъакӏэ forms nouns for the state or essence of a quality (дэхэгъакӏэ "(inherent) prettiness"). A prefix forms psychological predicates meaning "X is [adjective] to someone": Adyghe шӏо- (дахэ → шӏодах "it is beautiful to him/her"), Kabardian фӏэ- (дахэ → фӏэдах).

The verb is the most complex part of Circassian grammar. It is heavily agglutinative and polysynthetic, marking several persons (polypersonality), number, tense, mood, causative, and a wide range of preverbs through prefixes and suffixes.

Circassian adverbs fall into four main groups: adverbs of place, of time, of quality (manner), and of amount (quantity).

In English a single word "and" connects various parts of speech. In Circassian there are different suffixes for "and" depending on the part of speech and definiteness. The two varieties pattern alike, except that Kabardian uses -ри/-мри for adjectives where Adyghe uses -рэ/-мрэ:

The independent conjunction ыкӏи /ət͡ʃəj/ "and" can also connect different parts of speech, e.g. Adyghe Кӏалэр еджэ ыкӏи матхэ. "The boy reads and writes."

Particles vary in both meaning and structure. Semantically they fall into groups such as affirmative, negative, interrogative, intensive, indicatory, and stimulating.

The two varieties have partly different particle inventories; they are aligned here by meaning:

In Circassian, as in other Ibero-Caucasian languages, the role of prepositions belongs to postpositions. The exact count is hard to define, because even nouns and some verb prefixes can function as postpositions. For example, in Тхылъыр столым телъ "The book is lying on the table", the noun has no preposition, but the verb prefix те- in те-лъ "is lying" expresses something's being on a surface, so the verb literally means "on the surface is lying".

Nouns describing parts of the human body (head, nose, side, etc.) often function as postpositions. In the example below "in front of" is expressed by the phrase "being in front of his nose":

Nouns and pronouns combine with a postposition only in the ergative case. For example, the postposition Adyghe дэжь / Kabardian деж "near, beside" requires a word in the ergative:

Postpositions can also attach possessive prefixes to themselves. The two languages inflect them alike:

The following words are used as postpositions. Forms are aligned by meaning; a dash marks a meaning not supplied by the source grammar for that variety:

The suffix ~a /aː/ forms the interrogative particle that marks a yes/no question. The paradigm below is Adyghe; Kabardian marks polar questions differently and is not described in the source, so its cells are left blank:

Because word order is free, the particle attaches to whichever word is being questioned, shifting the focus. When the questioned word carries the negative suffix ~п, the particle becomes ~ба, the negative interrogative:

Yes/no questions can also be posed with auxiliary interrogative words (Adyghe dialectal variants in parentheses):

Examples:

Word order in a Circassian sentence is generally free, but verb-final order is the most typical. The structure of a full sentence is usually defined by the verb form. There are several sentence types:

1. Nominative (intransitive) sentence: subject in the absolutive, intransitive verb, no direct object.
2. Ergative sentence: subject in the ergative, direct object in the absolutive, transitive verb.
3. Zero-subject sentence: the subject is in the zero form; both transitive and intransitive verbs may occur (rarer than the first two).

Compound sentences may consist of independent parts only, or of a main part with dependent subparts:

Both Adyghe and Kabardian build new words by the same productive processes of compounding and derivation. The examples below are given in Kabardian; Adyghe uses the same patterns with its own regular sound shapes (e.g. Kabardian щӏэн "to do" = Adyghe шӏэн, Kabardian кӏуэн "to go" = Adyghe кӏон).

Adyghe (West Circassian) and Kabardian (East Circassian) share their numeral system almost entirely. Of the basic digits only "five" and "ten" differ noticeably (Adyghe тфы/пшӀы vs. Kabardian тху/пщӏы). The two languages diverge mainly in the formation of the tens, where standard Adyghe keeps an older vigesimal count and standard Kabardian has generalised a newer decimal one.

Cardinal numbers

Zero to ten

Numbers from zero to ten are individual words:

More information Value, Ady ...

Value	Ady	Kbd	IPA
0	зиӏ	—	[ziʔ]
1	зы		[zə]
2	тӀу		[tʷʼə]
3	щы		[ɕə]
4	плӀы		[pɬʼə]
5	тфы	тху	[tfə] / [txʷə]
6	хы		[xə]
7	блы		[blə] / [bɮə]
8	и		[jə]
9	бгъу		[bʁʷə]
10	пшӀы	пщӏы	[pʃʼə] / [pɕʼə]

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Eleven to twenty

Numbers from eleven to nineteen are built from the word for ten, followed by кӀу ([kʷʼə]) and the unit digit, e.g. Adyghe пшӀыкӀузы / Kabardian пщӏыкӀузы "11". The two languages differ only in the shape of "five" (Adyghe тф vs. Kabardian тху). In running speech the final ~ы of "11" may drop (пшӀыкӀуз), but the citation form keeps it.

More information Value, Ady ...

Value	Ady	IPA	Kbd
11	пшӀыкӀузы	[pʃʼəkʷʼəzə]	пщӏыкӀузы
12	пшӀыкӀутӀу	[pʃʼəkʷʼətʷʼə]	пщӏыкӀутӀу
13	пшӀыкӀущы	[pʃʼəkʷʼəɕə]	пщӏыкӀущы
14	пшӀыкӀуплӀы	[pʃʼəkʷʼəpɬʼə]	пщӏыкӀуплӀы
15	пшӀыкӀутфы	[pʃʼəkʷʼətfə]	пщӏыкӀутху
16	пшӀыкӀухы	[pʃʼəkʷʼəxə]	пщӏыкӀухы
17	пшӀыкӀублы	[pʃʼəkʷʼəblə]	пщӏыкӀублы
18	пшӀыкӀуи	[pʃʼəkʷʼəjə]	пщӏыкӀуи
19	пшӀыкӀубгъу	[pʃʼəkʷʼəbʁʷə]	пщӏыкӀубгъу
20	тӀокӀы	[tʷʼakʷʼə]	тӀощӏ

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The tens

The tens are built in two ways, both inherited within Circassian. The older layer is vigesimal (base-20): the decades above thirty are counted in scores (twenties), with fifty set apart as a "half-hundred". The newer layer is decimal (base-10), giving each ten its own "digit + ten" word. Both languages form twenty and thirty on the decimal pattern (Adyghe тӀокӀы / Kabardian тӀощӏ "20"; Adyghe щэкӀы / Kabardian щэщӏ "30"), but they diverge from forty up: standard Adyghe keeps the vigesimal forms, whereas standard Kabardian has generalised the decimal ones.

In the decimal forms the digit that precedes the ten-marker appears in its combining shape, with the digit's final ~ы fronting to ~э (плӀы → плӀэ, тфы/тху → тфэ/тхуэ, хы → хэ, блы → блэ), "eight" appearing as е~ (и → е~), and "nine" rounding to бгъо~ in Adyghe (бгъу → бгъо~).

Structurally, in the vigesimal columns the decades from forty are multiples of twenty — ${\displaystyle 40=20\times 2}$, ${\displaystyle 60=20\times 3}$, ${\displaystyle 80=20\times 4}$ — with seventy and ninety adding a further ten (${\displaystyle 20\times 3+10}$, ${\displaystyle 20\times 4+10}$) and fifty supplied by a separate "half-hundred" word, whereas in the decimal columns each decade is simply the digit times ten (${\displaystyle 40=4\times 10}$ … ${\displaystyle 90=9\times 10}$). Twenty and thirty coincide in the two systems, being decimal in form (${\displaystyle 2\times 10}$, ${\displaystyle 3\times 10}$) but also serving as the base of the vigesimal count.

The grid gives both systems in both languages. Forms that the standard language does not normally use, and which the source grammars do not attest, are reconstructed by regular analogy and marked with an asterisk (*).

More information Value, Ady ...

The tens in the vigesimal and decimal systems

Value	Ady		Kbd
	Vigesimal	Decimal	Vigesimal	Decimal
20	тӀокӀы		тӀощӏ
30	щэкӀы		щэщӏ
40	тӀокӀитӀу	плӀэкӀы*	тӀощӏитӀу*	плӀэщӏ
50	шъэныкъо	тфэкӀы*	щэныкъуэ*	тхуэщӏ
60	тӀокӀищ	хэкӀы*	тӀощӏищ*	хэщӏ
70	тӀокӀищырэ пшӀырэ	блэкӀы*	тӀощӏищэ пщӏырэ*	блэщӏ
80	тӀокӀиплӀ	екӀы*	тӀощӏиплӀ*	ещӏ
90	тӀокӀиплӀырэ пшӀырэ	бгъокӀы*	тӀощӏиплӀэ пщӏырэ*	бгъуэщӏ

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The decimal forms follow the attested decade marker of each language — Adyghe -кӀы (as in тӀокӀы "20", щэкӀы "30") and Kabardian -щӏ (as in тӀощӏ "20", щэщӏ "30"). The reconstructed Kabardian vigesimal forms build score-multiples on тӀощӏ "20" parallel to Adyghe тӀокӀитӀу; their compound seventy and ninety join their parts on the native connective pattern seen in тӀощӏэ зырэ "21" — the tens word in -э and the added ten in -рэ (тӀощӏищэ пщӏырэ "70") — rather than the Adyghe double -ырэ. In actual use, standard Adyghe takes the vigesimal column for 40–90 and standard Kabardian the decimal column.

Vigesimal compounds

In the vigesimal system a decade is a multiple of twenty, fifty is a separate "half-hundred" word (Adyghe шъэныкъо), and an intermediate number adds a remainder, with the score-word and the remainder each taking the connective -рэ. The remainder itself may be a teen (11–19), so that e.g. "95" contains "fifteen". The following examples use Adyghe:

More information , ...

Value	Decomposition	Ady (vigesimal)
21	${\displaystyle 20+1}$	тӀокӀырэ зырэ
25	${\displaystyle 20+5}$	тӀокӀырэ тфырэ
35	${\displaystyle 20+15}$	тӀокӀырэ пшӀыкӀутфырэ
42	${\displaystyle 20\times 2+2}$	тӀокӀитӀурэ тӀурэ
58	${\displaystyle 50+8}$	шъэныкъорэ ирэ
66	${\displaystyle 20\times 3+6}$	тӀокӀищырэ хырэ
70	${\displaystyle 20\times 3+10}$	тӀокӀищырэ пшӀырэ
77	${\displaystyle 20\times 3+17}$	тӀокӀищырэ пшӀыкӀублырэ
80	${\displaystyle 20\times 4}$	тӀокӀиплӀ
95	${\displaystyle 20\times 4+15}$	тӀокӀиплӀырэ пшӀыкӀутфырэ
99	${\displaystyle 20\times 4+19}$	тӀокӀиплӀырэ пшӀыкӀубгъурэ

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Hundreds and thousands

One hundred is Adyghe шъэ / Kabardian щэ; one thousand is мин in both. Higher hundreds and thousands are formed by the root plus -и- and the multiplier digit. When composed into a larger numeral, the hundred word takes the -рэ suffix, as do any tens and units (e.g. Adyghe шъэрэ зырэ "101").

More information Value, Ady ...

Value	Ady	Kbd
100	шъэ	щэ
200	шъитӀу	щитӀу
300	шъищ	щищ
101	шъэрэ зырэ	щэрэ зырэ
1,000	мин
2,000	минитӀу

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Counting nouns

When counting a definite quantity of a noun, the noun is followed by -и- and the multiplier digit root:

More information Quantity, Ady ...

Quantity	Ady	Gloss
1	зы кӏалэ	"one boy"
2	кӏалитӀу	"two boys"
3	кӏалищ	"three boys"
100	кӏалишъэ	"100 boys"

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• Circassian languages
• Adyghe language
• Kabardian language
• Circassian verb transitivity
• Circassia
• Circassians
• Northwest Caucasian languages