thumb|Yinal speaking Adyghe in different dialects. In order: Shapsug, Bzhedug Abzakh, Kabardian
Adyghe, also known as West Circassian, (or Lower Circassian) is a Northwest Caucasian language spoken by the western subgroups of Circassians. Native to Circassia in the Caucasus, it is one of the two official languages of Adygea, the other being Russian. It is spoken in Russia, but mainly in Turkey, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Israel, where Circassians settled after the Circassian genocide by the Russian Empire. Adyghe literary language () is mainly based on the Chemguy dialect, which was chosen for its grammatical and phonological simplicity, Despite phonological differences, Circassian languages are reciprocally intelligible, While the self-designation for both Adyghe and Kabardian language is Adyghe, in linguistic and administrative terms, "Adyghe" refers specifically to the language of the western tribes of Circassians, while "Kabardian" refers to the language of the two eastern tribes (Kabardians and Besleney). 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 <code>жъ</code>vs. Kabardian <code>жь</code>). 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.
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 "How does Arabic in Latin letters sound?". 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 Adyghe language in Jordan is currently classified as severely endangered due to a rapid disruption in intergenerational transmission. The decline of the language was triggered by migration, urbanization, and the dispersion of the Circassian population among the Arabic-speaking majority. For example, the expansion of Amman in the early 1900s transformed predominantly Circassian farming villages into diverse urban centres inhabited by Arabs, causing Circassians to become a minority in their original settlements. Today, Arabic has almost entirely ousted Circassian as the primary language of communication within the home. Surveys indicate that 21% of children use Circassian at home. Because schools historically used Arabic as the sole medium of instruction, Circassian parents began speaking Arabic at home to ensure their children would not struggle academically. 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.
<div style="overflow-x:auto;">
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Adyghe consonant system
|-
! rowspan="2" colspan="2" |
! colspan="2" | Labial
! colspan="3" | Alveolar
! rowspan="2" | Post-alveolar
! rowspan="2" | Alveolo-<br>palatal
! colspan="2" | Retroflex
! colspan="3" | Velar
! colspan="2" | Uvular
! rowspan="2" | Pharyngeal
! colspan="2" | Glottal
|-
!
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! colspan=2 | Nasal
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! rowspan="3" | Plosive
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! rowspan="3" | Fricative
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</div>
- 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.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"
!
! Central
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! Mid
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! Near-open
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! Open
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|}
Orthography
Modern alphabet
Other alphabets
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. Over the following decades, several authors attempted to further improve the Adyghe Arabic orthography. The most successful attempt was the alphabet created by Akhmetov Bekukh. In this version, letters were designated for vowel sounds, and the orthography was transformed from an "Impure abjads to a true alphabet. In 1918, on the initiative of the Kuban Revolutionary Committee, a primer was published in Yekaterinodar. This official endorsement resulted in a literary boom in Adyghe and the publication of various newspapers, textbooks and other literature, including the Adyghe Maq, the main Adyghe language newspaper established in 1923. 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.
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
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! Cyrillic
! ABX Latin
! IPA
! Translation
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|I
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|girl
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|to sit
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|to stand
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|How are you?
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|I'm fine.
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|horse
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|three
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|star
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|sun
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|moon
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|shoe
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|welcome
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|toe
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|worm
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|egg
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|butterfly
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|train
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|chair
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|prophet
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|ant
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|duck
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Loanwords
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
! Cyrillic
! ABX Latin
! IPA
! Translation
! Etymology
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|republic
|From Latin ('public concern') via Russian .
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|computer
|From Latin ('to settle together') via Russian .
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|mathematics
|From Ancient Greek ('study, knowledge') via Russian .
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|sports
|From English sport via Russian .
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|flag
|Ultimately from Proto-Turkic *badrak ('spear; stick').
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|potato
|From German ('potato') via Russian .
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|tomato
|From Spanish , which in turn derives from Nahuan , via Russian .
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|orange
|From Persian نارنگ or نارنج .
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|salah (Islamic praying)
|From Persian نماز .
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|city
|Akkadian ('fort').
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|earth
|From Arabic دنيا ('world').
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Sample texts
Al-Fatiha
{|class="wikitable"
!Adyghe in Cyrillic script
(Mashbash & Koshbaev)
!Adyghe in ABX Latin Script
(Used by Turkish Ministry of Education)
!Adyghe in Perso-Arabic Script
(Historical)
!English
(Dr. Mustafa Khattab)
|- style="vertical-align:top;text-align:center;"
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|dir="rtl"|
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|}
John 1:1–5
{|class="wikitable"
!Adyghe in Cyrillic script!!Adyghe in ABX Latin Script
(Used by Turkish Ministry of Education)
!Adyghe in Perso-Arabic Script
(Historical)
!English translation
|- style="vertical-align:top;text-align:center;"
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|dir="rtl"|
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|}
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
{|class="wikitable"
!UDHR in Adyghe!!Adyghe in ABX Latin Script
(Used by Turkish Ministry of Education)
!Adyghe in Perso-Arabic Script
(Historical)
!IPA!!English translation
|- style="vertical-align:top;text-align:center;"
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|[t͡sʼəf pstawərəj ʂ͡ħafəjtawə jaːɬətanəʁara jaːfaʂʷaːʃaxamrat͡ʃʼa zafadawə qaːɬfə aqəɮra zaxaʃʼət͡ʃʼ ʁʷaːzara jaːʔaʃə zər zəm zaqʷaʃ azfaːgʷ daɬawə zafəɕətənxa faːja]
|All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
|}
See also
- Adyghe Maq, the main Adyghe-language newspaper
- Anthem of the Republic of Adygea
Notes
References
External links
- Grammar of the Circassian Language . Useful site to learn the Adyghe grammar.
- Sample Adyghe document in Arabic Script, 1924, / . Zubrilin, Aleksey Arsenevich. Moscow and Krasny Vostok, USSR.
- .
- 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