In Adyghe, like all Northwest Caucasian languages, the verb is the most inflected part of speech. Verbs are typically head final and are conjugated for tense, person, number, etc. Some of Circassian verbs can be morphologically simple, some of them consist only of one morpheme, like: "go", "take". However, generally, Circassian verbs are characterized as structurally and semantically difficult entities. Morphological structure of a Circassian verb includes affixes (prefixes, suffixes) which are specific to the language. Verbal affixes express meaning of subject, direct or indirect object, adverbial, singular or plural form, negative form, mood, direction, mutuality, compatibility and reflexivity, which, as a result, creates a complex verb, that consists of many morphemes and semantically expresses a sentence. For example: "I am forcing you to talk to them again" consists of the following morphemes: , with the following meanings: "you () with them () from there () together () I () am forcing () to speak () again ()".
Color legend for arguments: Absolutive (Abs): Marks the subject of intransitive verbs and direct object of transitive verbs. Ergative (Erg): Marks the subject (agent) of transitive verbs. Oblique (Obl): Marks indirect objects.
Structure of the verbal complex
The verbal word in Adyghe (West Circassian) consists of both prefixes and suffixes arranged in a rigid sequence of slots relative to the root, numbered from −12 (leftmost prefix) to +7 (rightmost suffix). The arguments of the verb are cross-referenced in the prefixal part of the word: these include the absolutive argument and most participants expressed by the oblique form. The overview below gives the order of the slots, followed by a full list of the markers that fill each one.Arkadiev, P. M., & Letuchiy, A. B. (2011). Prefixes and suffixes in the Adyghe polysynthetic wordform: Types of interaction. In V. S. Tomelleri, M. Topadze, & A. Lukianowicz (Eds.), *Languages and Cultures in the Caucasus* (pp. 495–514). Otto Sagner.
Slot template (overview)
+ Order of slots in the verb (negative = prefix, 0 = root, positive = suffix) Prefixes Root Suffixes −12 −11 −10 −9 −8 −7 −6 −5 −4 −3 −2 −1 0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 Abs Cisl Manner/Fact IO(Obl) Appl Loc Prep Agt(Erg) Dyn Opt Neg Caus √ROOT Rep Pot Tense Real Pl Dyn Mood/Neg
Markers filling each slot
+ Markers filling each slot of the Adyghe verb Slot Category Marker Gloss / meaning −12 Absolutive 1SG 2SG 1PL 2PL ∅ 3 (no overt marker) −11 Cislocative hither −10 Manner / Factive the way that…; factive −9 Indirect object (Oblique) 1SG 2SG 1PL 2PL 3SG 3PL −8 Applicative for (benefactive) against (malefactive) with (comitative) −7 Locative at −6 Prepositional (locative preverbs) on under within / among in on / attached to in(side) behind at / near beside beside / next to within / inside −5 Agent (Ergative) 1SG 2SG 1PL 2PL 3SG 3PL −4 'Dynamic' prefix 3rd person positive present −3 Optative optative −2 Negation negation (NEG) −1 Causative causative (CAUS) 0 Root [verb] verb stem +1 Repetition again (re-) +2 Potential can / be able to +3 Tense past (PST) future (FUT) imperfect (IMPF) past perfect (PP) +4 Realization / Completion realization / completion +5 Plural 3rd person plural absolutive (PL) +6 Dynamic suffix dynamic suffix +7 Mood / Negation negative (NEG) conditional (COND) concessive (CONC) interrogative (Q) negative interrogative (NEG.Q) and (additive) adverbial (ADV)
+ Morphological breakdown of плъэ Morphological breakdown English translation look I look I look at you I look at you I look upon you The way I look upon you I look upon him for you The way I look upon him for you The way I already was able to look upon you again
Transitivity and valency
Verbs in Adyghe can be ditransitive, transitive or intransitive. Depending on their valency (the number of arguments they require), they fall into four main types:Kumakhov & Vamling (2009), pp. 31–33.
Monovalent intransitive verbs Bivalent intransitive verbs Bivalent transitive verbs Trivalent ditransitive verbs
A fundamental rule of Adyghe grammar is that a verb can contain at most three arguments: one Absolutive (marked -р), one Ergative (marked -м), and one Oblique (marked -м). The ergative and oblique share the same suffix -м; they are told apart by the verb's transitivity and by word order, not by the ending itself.
Beyond these four types, there are labile (ambitransitive) verbs, where the direct object of the transitive use corresponds to the subject of the intransitive use, and causative verbs, which raise valency by turning an intransitive verb into a transitive one, or a bivalent transitive into a trivalent one.
Monovalent intransitive verbs A monovalent intransitive verb has no direct object. Its single argument — the subject — stands in the absolutive case (-р).Kumakhov & Vamling (2009), pp. 87–89.
Sentence Gloss Function Translation р Man-ABS sleeps S VERB "The man is sleeping." р Guard-ABS goes S VERB "The security guard is going."
Bivalent intransitive verbs Intransitive verbs can also take an indirect object. The subject remains in the absolutive case (-р), while the indirect object (a target, source or location) takes the oblique case (-м).Kumakhov & Vamling (2009), pp. 95–96.
Sentence Gloss Function Translation р м Boy-ABS book-OBL reads S IO VERB "The boy reads the book." р м Boy-ABS girl-OBL kisses S IO VERB "The boy kisses the girl."
Bivalent transitive verbs In a transitive sentence the subject (agent) is in the ergative case (-м), and the direct object is in the absolutive case (-р).Kumakhov & Vamling (2009), pp. 94–95.
Sentence Gloss Function Translation м р Boy-ERG letter-ABS writes A O VERB "The boy is writing the letter." м р Dog-ERG hare-ABS caught A O VERB "The dog has caught the hare."
Trivalent ditransitive verbs Ditransitive verbs involve three participants: an agent in the ergative case (-м), a theme (direct object) in the absolutive case (-р), and a recipient or goal (indirect object) in the oblique case (-м).Kumakhov & Vamling (2009), pp. 100–101.
Sentence Gloss Function Translation м р м Boy-ERG apple-ABS girl-OBL gives A O IO VERB "The boy gives the apple to the girl." м р м Man-ERG rock-ABS sea-OBL throws-into A O IO VERB "The man throws the rock into the sea."
Active and antipassive voice Monovalent intransitive verbs split into two voices. Active intransitive verbs keep the patient/undergoer in the absolutive case, whereas antipassive verbs keep the actor/agent in the absolutive case (the usual object having been dropped). This determines how a verb behaves when its valency increases.Kumakhov & Vamling (2009), pp. 33–34.
The contrast is visible with the root "to clean":
+ "to clean" Voice Example Gloss Translation Active transitive Boy-ERG house-ABS cleans "The boy cleans the house." Active intransitive House-ABS cleans "The house becomes clean." (agent dropped) Antipassive intransitive Boy-ABS cleans "The boy cleans." (object dropped)
The same symmetry appears with "to write", where the antipassive is heavily used even though the active intransitive is not used in speech:
+ "to write" Voice Example Gloss Translation Active transitive Boy-ERG word-ABS writes "The boy writes the word." Active intransitive(not used) Word-ABS writes "The word is written." (agent dropped) Antipassive intransitive Boy-ABS writes "The boy writes." (object dropped)
The full three-way system is found only in certain dialects; in Standard Adyghe most roots show only two of the three forms.
Valency increase Some verbs shift between monovalent, bivalent and trivalent forms without any marking. Valency can also be raised explicitly with the causative affix -гъэ- ("to make, to force"), with prepositional preverbs (e.g. "into", "on"), and with applicative prefixes (benefactive, malefactive, comitative). Because a verb has only one oblique slot, each of these can only be added to a verb whose oblique slot is still free.Kumakhov & Vamling (2009), pp. 98–103.
The causative fills in the "missing" argument:
Base Causative Translation р (ABS VERB) м р (ERG ABS VERB) "The boy runs." → "The man makes the boy run." р м (ABS OBL VERB) м р м (ERG ABS OBL VERB) "The boy looks at the girl." → "The man makes the boy look at the girl." м р (ERG ABS VERB) м р м (ERG ABS OBL VERB) "The boy sees the girl." → "The man makes the boy see the girl."
When the causative applies to a bivalent transitive, the original ergative agent is demoted into the free oblique slot and a new causer enters as the ergative subject.
Verb conjugation
Adyghe, like the other Northwest Caucasian languages, possesses a highly polysynthetic verbal morphology. A single Adyghe verb can simultaneously encode all of its arguments — subject, direct object, and indirect object — through a tightly ordered sequence of personal prefixes attached to the verbal root. These personal prefixes are the backbone of the Adyghe verb, and mastering them is essential to understanding the language.
Person markers Adyghe exhibits a strict ergative–absolutive alignment, meaning its arguments are grouped differently from nominative–accusative languages such as English or Russian. There are three core cases, each marked by its own series of personal prefixes: Absolutive — the single argument (S) of an intransitive verb and the direct object (P) of a transitive verb both occupy this slot. Ergative — the subject (A) of a transitive verb. Oblique — indirect objects (recipients, addressees) and the obligatory objects of intransitive bivalent verbs, i.e. verbs that take two arguments but remain formally intransitive (e.g. "to look at", "to listen to", "to wait for").
The exact same person can therefore appear on the verb in up to three different phonetic shapes depending on its syntactic role.
+ Adyghe personal prefixes Person Absolutive Ergative Oblique 1SG (I / me) сы- с- сэ- 2SG (you) у- / п- бэ- / о- о- 3SG (he / she / it) Ø ы- е- / ы- 1PL (we / us) ты- т- тэ- 2PL (y'all) шъу- шъу- шъо- 3PL (they / them) Ø … -х а- а-
(Note: The 3rd person absolutive is always a zero-morpheme (Ø), with plurality indicated by the suffix -х at the end of the verb. In certain present-tense intransitive verbs, a "dynamic" prefix мэ- appears at the front of the verb when the 3rd person is acting, but this is a tense/aspect marker, not a pronoun.)*
Which of the three cases a verb actually uses depends on its valency (how many arguments it takes) and its transitivity. The table below summarises how each verb class maps its arguments onto cases, and therefore how many person markers appear on the verb:
+ Case alignment by verb class Verb class Subject Direct object Indirect / oblique object Person markers Monovalent intransitive Absolutive — — 1 Bivalent intransitive Absolutive — Oblique 2 Bivalent transitive Ergative Absolutive — 2 Trivalent ditransitive Ergative Absolutive Oblique 3
In other words: A monovalent intransitive verb (e.g. "to look") has a single absolutive argument — its subject — and therefore carries just one person marker. A bivalent intransitive verb (e.g. "to look at") keeps its subject in the absolutive but adds an oblique object; it bears two markers yet remains formally intransitive (the subject is absolutive, not ergative). A bivalent transitive verb (e.g. "to see") has an ergative subject and an absolutive direct object. A trivalent ditransitive verb (e.g. "to give") has an ergative subject, an absolutive direct object and an oblique indirect object — three markers in all.
The following table takes one concrete verb from each class — in both the present and the past tense — and shows which of the three case slots are filled (and which stay empty), together with the tense suffix that fills the post-root tense slot: