Kabardian language

Kabardian (/kəˈbɑːrdiən/;^[3] Kabardian: адыгэбзэ, къэбэрдей адыгэбзэ, къэбэрдейбзэ  qabardejbza ; Adyghe: адыгэбзэ, къэбэртай адыгабзэ, къэбэртайбзэ), also known as Kabardino-Cherkess (къэбэрдей-черкесыбзэ)^[4] or East Circassian, is a Northwest Caucasian language closely related to the Adyghe language. It is spoken mainly in parts of the North Caucasus republics of Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia (Eastern Circassia) and in Turkey, Jordan and Syria (the extensive post-war diaspora). It has 47 or 48 consonant phonemes, of which 22 or 23 are fricatives, depending upon whether one counts [h] as phonemic, but it has only 3 phonemic vowels. It is one of very few languages to possess a clear phonemic distinction between ejective affricates and ejective fricatives.

The Kabardian language has two major dialects; Kabardian and Besleney. Some linguists argue that Kabardian is only one dialect of an overarching Adyghe or Circassian language, which consists of all of the dialects of Adyghe and Kabardian together, and the Kabardians themselves most often refer to their language using the Kabardian term Adighabze ("Adyghe language"). Several linguists, including Georges Dumézil, have used the terms "eastern Circassian" (Kabardian) and "western Circassian" (Adyghe) to avoid that confusion, but both "Circassian" and "Kabardian" may still be found in linguistic literature. There are several key phonetic and lexical differences that create a reasonably well-defined separation between the eastern and the western Circassian dialects, but the degree to which the two are mutually intelligible has not yet been determined. The matter is also complicated somewhat by the existence of Besleney, which is usually considered a dialect of Kabardian but also shares a large number of features with certain dialects of Adyghe.

Kabardian is written in a form of Cyrillic and serves as the literary language for Circassians in both Kabardino-Balkaria (where it is usually called the "Kabardian language") and Karachay-Cherkessia (where it is called the "Cherkess language").

Like all other Northwest Caucasian languages, Kabardian is ergative and has an extremely complex verbal system.

Since 2004, the Turkish state broadcasting corporation TRT has maintained a half-an-hour programme a week in the Terek dialect of Kabardian.

Dialects

• East Circassian
  • Kabardian
    • West Kabardian
      • Kuban
      • Kuban-Zelenchuk (Cherkess)
    • Central Kabardian
      • Baksan (basis for the literary language)
      • Malka
    • Eastern Kabardian
      • Terek
      • Mozdok
    • North Kabardian
      • Mulka
      • Zabardiqa (1925 until 1991 Soviet Zaparika)
  • Baslaney dialect (Adyghe: Бэслъыныйбзэ)

Phonology

The phoneme written Л л is pronounced as a voiced alveolar lateral fricative [ɮ] mostly by the Circassians of Kabardino and Cherkessia, but many Kabardians pronounce it as an alveolar lateral approximant [l] in diaspora.^[5] The series of labialized alveolar sibilant affricates and fricatives that exist in Adyghe /ʃʷʼ/ /ʒʷ/ /ʃʷ/ /t͡sʷ/ became labiodental consonants /fʼ/ /v/ /f/ /v/ in Kabardian, for example the Kabardian words мафӏэ [maːfʼa] "fire", зэвы [zavə] "narrow", фыз [fəz] "wife" and вакъэ [vaːqa] "shoe" are pronounced as машӏо [maːʃʷʼa], зэжъу [zaʒʷə], шъуз /ʃʷəz/ and цуакъэ [t͡sʷaːqa] in Adyghe. Kabardian has a labialized voiceless velar fricative [xʷ] which correspond to Adyghe [f], for example the Adyghe word "тфы" ( [tfə]  "five" is тху ( [txʷə] ) in Kabardian. In the Beslenei dialect, there exist an alveolar lateral ejective affricate [t͡ɬʼ] which corresponds to [ɬʼ] in literary Kabardian.^[6] The Turkish Kabardians (Uzunyayla) and Besleneys have a palatalized voiced velar stop [gʲ] and a palatalized velar ejective [kʲʼ] which corresponds to [d͡ʒ] and [t͡ʃʼ] in literary Kabardian.^[5][7]

Orthography

Grammar

Kabardian, like all Northwest Caucasian languages, has a basic agent–object–verb typology, and is characterized by an ergative construction of the sentence.

Example

The following texts are excerpts from the official translations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Adyghe and Kabardian, along with the original declaration in English.

References

Sources

• Gordon, Matthew and Applebaum, Ayla. "Phonetic structures of Turkish Kabardian", 2006, Journal of the International Phonetic Association 36(2), 159-186.
• Halle, Morris. "Is Kabardian a Vowel-Less Language?" Foundations of Language, Vol. 6, No. 1 (Feb., 1970), pp. 95–103.
• Kuipers, Aert. "Phoneme and Morpheme in Kabardian", 1960, Janua Linguarum: Series Minor, Nos. 8–9. 's-Gravenhage: Mouton and Co.

External links

Kabardian edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Ranko Matasović (2008). "A Short Grammar of Kabardian" (PDF).
• Adyga.org - Popular Circassian internet forum
• Audio.Adyga.org - Virtual Circassian Dictionary
• Louis Loewe (1854). A dictionary of the Circassian language. George Bell. Retrieved 25 August 2012. , Circassian, English, Turkish
• A guide to North Caucasian languages
• Kabardian (къэбэрдеибзэ) alphabet
• Circassian language online lessons