The standard Kabardian language, also known as Eastern Circassian, is spoken and written by the Kabardian and Besleney communities primarily in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic and Karachay-Cherkessian Republic in Russia.
Karbardian is ergative–absolutive, predominantly marks head-finally and has a constituent word order of subject–object–verb (SOV). Its nouns are remarkably simple, only marking for 2 numbers and case (which is frequently optional). Its verbal morphology however is the most complex part of the language, being inflected with suffixes and prefixes, making it very agglutinative and polysynthetic. A verb can be marked for several persons (polypersonality), number, tense, mood, causative and with a large array of preverbs. Notions such as "can", "must", and "if", usually expressed as separate words in most European languages, are typically expressed with verbal suffixes in Karbardian.
Ergative–absolutive
Kabardian is an ergative–absolutive language. Unlike nominative–accusative languages, such as English, where the single argument of an intransitive verb ("She" in the sentence "She walks.") behaves grammatically like the agent of a transitive verb ("She" in the sentence "She finds it."), in ergative–absolutive language the subject of an intransitive verb behaves like the object of a transitive verb, and differently from the agent of a transitive verb.
The following examples demonstrate an ergative–absolutive case marking system: Ergative language Sentence: Ӏанэр мэкъутэ. ЛӀым Ӏанэр екъутэ. Word: Ӏанэ-р мэкъутэ ЛӀым Ӏанэр екъутэ Gloss: The table-ABS breaks The man-ERG the table-ABS breaks Function: S VERBintrans A O VERBtrans Translation: "The table breaks." "The man breaks the table." Here, "table" has the absolutive case mark -р /-r/ while "man" has the ergative case mark -м /-m/. We also have the verb "break" in intransitive form "мэкъутэ" and transitive form "екъутэ". In the example above, we specifically used SOV order, but Circassian allows any order.
Nouns in Kabardian can have the following roles in a sentence: Ergative case: Marked as -м /-m/, it serves to mark the one that causes change by doing the verb. Absolutive case: Marked as -р /-r/, it serves to mark the one that is changed by the verb's, i.e. it is being created, altered, moved or ended by the verb. Oblique case: Also marked as -м /-m/, it serves to mark the dative and applicative case roles. It acts as the indirect object in the sentence and its state is not changed by the verb, i.e. we have no indication of what happens to it or how it behaves after the verb.
In intransitive verbs the subject is in the absolutive case thus it indicates that the subject is changing (created, altered, moved or ended).
In this example the boy is changing by moving:
In this example the man is changing by moving. The verb еуэн /jawan/ "to hit" describes the movement of hitting and not the impact itself, so we have no indication of what happens to the object (the wall in this case).
In transitive verbs the subject is in the ergative case thus it indicates that the subject causes change to the object which gets the absolutive case.
In this example the wall changes by being destroyed (it was altered). The verb къутэн /qʷətan/ "to destroy" does not indicate how the subject (boy) destroyed the wall thus we have no indication of the boy changing, making him the one that causes the change (and not the one that changes).
In this example the rock changes by moving (motion in air), the man causes the change and the wall acts as the indirect object of the preposition.
It is important to distinguish between the intransitive and transitive verb, because the subject and object noun cases as well as the sentences' verb conjunctions (the prefixes that indicate person) depend on it. A fault in this can change the meaning of the sentence drastically, switching the roles of the subject and object. For instance, look at the following two sentences:
Even though the noun cases of the word boy кӀалэ are the same (In the Ergative-Oblique case marked as -м), they behave grammatically different because the verb еплъын "to look" is considered an intransitive verb in contrast to the verb елъэгъун "to see" which is transitive.
Nouns
Kabardian nouns inflect for number, case, and definiteness. The plural suffix is -хэ (унэ "house" → унэхэр "houses"), though plural meaning is often carried by the verb instead. Collective nouns such as къуажэ "village" and унагъуэ "family" act as a plurale tantum: they take no plural suffix but trigger plural agreement elsewhere. A definite noun carries a case marker, while an indefinite one is usually unmarked (щӀалэ "a boy" vs. щӀалэр "the boy").
As an ergative–absolutive language, Kabardian declines nouns in four cases:
Case Suffix Example Absolutive -р щӀалэр "the boy" (intransitive subject; transitive object) Ergative–Oblique -м щӀалэм "the boy's / to the boy" (transitive subject, possessor, indirect object, location) Instrumental–directional -(м)кӀэ къэрэндащымкӀэ "with the pencil" (means or direction) Adverbial -у(э) щӀалу "as a boy" (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 ащ / ахэм (ergative–oblique).
When a noun is followed by an adjective, the case suffix attaches to the adjective rather than the noun (пщэщэ дахэр "the pretty girl"). Possession is shown with the prefix и- on the possessed noun (ищӀалэ "his/her boy"), 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 -кӀуэ "agent" (еджакӀуэ "student"). Kabardian is a pro-drop language, so subject and object pronouns are often omitted because the verb marks person and number.
Demonstratives Kabardian has three demonstratives: а /ʔaː/, мо /mo/ and мы /mə/.
а /ʔaː/ that — that table — that girl — that boy is saying The determiner /ʔaː/ refer to a referent that is far away and invisible to both the speaker and the listener(s). It is similar to the English language determiner that, but with the condition that the referent has to be invisible or far away.
мо /maw/ that — that table — that girl — that boy is saying The determiner refer to a referent that is visible and in a known distance from both the speaker and the listener(s) (both the speaker and the listener(s) can see the referent). It is similar to the English language determiner that, but with the condition that the referent has to be visible.
мы /mə/ this — this table — this girl — this boy is saying The determiner refer to a referent that is close to both the speaker and the listener(s). It is exactly like the English language determiner this.
Conjugation The demonstratives can be used to express different things like:
Location: адэ "there", модэ "there", мыдэ "here". Similarity: апхуэд "like that", мопхуэд "like", мыпхуэд "like this".
Pronouns
Personal pronouns In Kabardian, only the first and second person, singular and plural, pronouns have dedicated words. Effectively speaking in terms of usage, а is the third person pronoun, however that is a demonstrative (for more details see here).
Case 1st-person 2nd-person singular plural singular plural Absolutive Ergative Instrumental Adverbial
Demonstrative Pronouns Demonstrative pronouns are мы "this", мо "that", а "that". There is a contradistinction between 'мы' and 'мо' on how far the referred object is. The pronoun 'а' is neutral on this matter. Third person pronouns are expressed as demonstrative pronouns.
Case Demonstratives а мо мы Singular Absolutive Ergative Instrumental Adverbial Plural Absolutive Ergative Instrumental Adverbial
Possessive Pronouns Plurality Person Prefix meaning exampleCyrillicIPA Singular1st person си- "my" сиунэ /səjwəna/ – my house; ситхылъ /səjtxəɬ/ – my book2nd person уи- "your" уиунэ /wəjwəna/ – your house; уитхылъ /wəjtxəɬ/ – your book3rd person и- "his" иунэ /jəwəna/ – his house; итхылъ /jətxəɬ/ – his book Plural1st person ди- "our" диунэ /dəjwəna/ – our house; дитхылъ /dəjtxəɬ/ – our book2nd person фи- "your" фиунэ /fəjwəna/ – your house; фитхылъ /fəjtxəɬ/ – your book3rd person я- "their" яунэ /jaːwəna/ – their house; ятхылъ /jaːtxəɬ/ – their book
Case 1st-person 2nd-person 3rd-person singular plural singular plural singular plural Absolutive Ergative Instrumental Adverbial
Indefinite pronoun In Kabardian whole one – зыгоруэ, Serves for indication of all notions corresponding to English words "someone", "something", "someone", "something", "sometime", "somewhere", etc. Зыгуэрэ changes either as noun – in number and in cases:
Case Singular form Plural form Absolutive Ergative Instrumental Adverbial
Adjectives
Kabardian 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 (пщащэ дахэр "the beautiful girl", пщащэ дахэхэр "the beautiful girls"). The same holds for adjectives that behave as suffixes, such as the augmentative -шхуэ "big" (унэшхуэхэр "the big houses"). Qualitative adjectives ("good", "tall") follow the noun, while relative or material adjectives ("iron", "wooden") precede it and do not inflect (гъущӀ пӀэкӀорыр "the iron bed"). Used on its own, an adjective declines like a noun through all four cases (хужьыр "the white one", хужьым "of/to the white one").
Degree is expressed analytically: the comparative with the particle нэхъ "more" (Ар абы нэхъ лъагэщ "He is taller than that one") and the superlative with янэхъ "most" (Ар пщащэмэ янэхъ дахэщ "She is the most beautiful of the girls"). Size and age are marked by suffixes on the noun (унащӀэ "new house", унэжьы "old house", унэцӀыкӀу "small house"), while a range of suffixes modify the degree of a quality:
Meaning Suffix Example very ~дэд дэгъудэд "very good" slightly ~Ӏуэ стырыӀуэ "slightly spicy" too much ~щэ дыджыщэ "too bitter" quite ~кӀей дэгъукӀей "pretty good" lacking ~ншэ акъылыншэ "mindless"
Adjectives also feed productive derivation. The suffix -гъэ turns them into abstract nouns of measure (кӀыхь "long" → кӀыхьагъэ "length"; дахэ "beautiful" → дэхагъэ "beauty"), while -гъакӀэ forms nouns for the state or essence of a quality (дэхэгъакӀэ "(inherent) prettiness"). The prefix фӀэ- forms psychological predicates meaning "X is [adjective] to someone" (дахэ "beautiful" → фӀэдах "it is beautiful to him/her").
Verbs
Tenses
Tense Suffix Example Meaning Present ~(р) /~(r)/ макӀуэ /maːkʷʼa/ (s)he is going; (s)he goes Preterite ~ащ /~aːɕ/ кӀуащ /kʷʼaːɕ/ (s)he went Pluperfect ~гъащ /~ʁaːɕ/ кӀуэгъащ /kʷʼaʁaːɕ/ (s)he went a long time ago" Categorical Future ~нщ /~nɕ/ кӀуэнщ /kʷʼanɕ/ (s)he will go Factual Future ~нущ /~nəwɕ/ кӀуэнущ /kʷʼanəwɕ/ (s)he will go, (s)he is about to go Imperfect ~(р)т /~(r)t/ кӀуэ(р)т /kʷʼa(r)t/ (s)he was going Anterior Perfect (Perfect II) ~ат /~aːt/ кӀуат /kʷʼaːt/ (then) (s)he went Anterior Pluperfect ~гъат /~ʁaːt/ кӀуэгъат /kʷʼaʁaːt/ (then) (s)he went a long time ago" Future II Categorical ~нт /~nt/ кӀуэнт /kʷʼant/ (s)he was about to go / (s)he would go Future II Factual ~нут /~nəwt/ кӀуэнут /kʷʼanəwt/ (s)he was about to go / (s)he would go
Valency Verb valency is the number of arguments controlled by a verbal predicate. It is very close to the concept of transitivity, in the sense that base intransitive verbs are monovalent, while base transitive verbs are bivalent.
Most operations in Kabardian are valency increasing operations, in frequency as well as in amount of morphemes. Those operations usually affect the transitivity, or rather any operations which affects the transitivity (almost) always affects the valency.