Adyghe phonology

Adyghe is a language of the Northwest Caucasian family which, like the other Northwest Caucasian languages, is very rich in consonants, featuring many labialized and ejective consonants. Adyghe is phonologically more complex than Kabardian, having the retroflex consonants and their labialized forms.

Consonants

Consonants found only in loanwords.
Consonants found in Shapsugh, Natukhai, Uzunyayla, and Baslaney dialects.
Consonants found in Shapsugh and Natukhai dialects.
Consonants found in some dialects/allophonic contexts, specifics unclear.
Consonants found in Baslaney dialect.
Consonants found in Baslaney and Kfar Kama dialects.
Consonants found in Black Sea Shapsugh dialect.
Consonants found in Abzakh and Kabardian dialects.
Consonants found in Abzakh dialect.
Consonants found in Kabardian dialect.
Consonants found in Hakuchi and in some other dialects/allophonic contexts, specifics unclear.
Consonants found in Shapsugh and Bzhedug dialects.

Notes

• In the Black Sea coast dialects of Adyghe (e.g. Shapsug dialect and Natukhai dialect) 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" [ɡʲaːna] "shirt", "кьэт" [kʲat] "chicken" and "кӏьапсэ" [kʲʼaːpsa] "rope" are pronounced in other dialects as "джанэ" [d͡ʒaːna], "чэт" [t͡ʃat] and кӏапсэ [t͡ʃʼaːpsa].
• 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 dialect and Natukhai dialect).
• In the Black Sea coast dialects of Adyghe (e.g. Shapsug dialect and Natukhai dialect) 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" [t͡sʼa] 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 [sət͡ʂʼarap]

сшӏошӏыгъ "I thought" → счӏошӏыгъ [sət͡ʂʷʼaʃʼəʁ]

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 [zʁakʷʼaːʁ]

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

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

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

• 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 [t͡sʷaːqa] is чъуакъэ [t͡ɕʷaːqa] 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.

Vowels

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

References