In Kabardian, 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 Circassian verbs can be morphologically simple, consisting of only one morpheme. However, Circassian verbs are generally characterized as structurally and semantically difficult entities as the morphological structure of a Circassian verb includes affixes (prefixes, suffixes) specific to the language. These affixes can express the meaning of a subject, direct or indirect objects, adverbials, singular or plural forms, negative forms, mood, direction, mutuality, compatibility and reflexivity, thereby creating a complex verb consisting of many morphemes.
Structure of the verbal complex
Verbs in Kabardian (East Circassian) are built on a rigid template of affixal slots before and after the verbal root, numbered from −12 (leftmost prefix) to +7 (rightmost suffix). An argument-structure zone of prefixes cross-references the verb's absolutive (a marker for the subject of intransitive verbs and the object of transitive verbs), oblique (a marker for indirect objects), and ergative (a marker for the subject of transitive verbs) participants. These are followed by pre-stem elements and a series of suffixes marking aspect, tense, mood, and negation. 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/Transl Manner/Fact IO(Obl) Appl Loc Prep Agt(Erg) Dyn Opt/Juss Neg Caus √ROOT Rep Pot Tense Real Pl Dyn Mood/Neg
Markers filling each slot
+ Markers filling each slot of the Kabardian verb Slot Category Marker Gloss / meaning −12 Absolutive 1SG 2SG 1PL 2PL ∅ 3 (no overt marker) −11 Cislocative / Translocative hither (cislocative) toward (translocative) −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 within / inside −5 Agent (Ergative) 1SG 2SG 1PL 2PL 3SG 3PL −4 'Dynamic' prefix 3rd person positive present −3 Optative / Jussive optative / jussive −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) negative interrogative (NEG.Q) and (additive) adverbial (ADV)
Transitivity and valency
Verbs in Kabardian 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 Kabardian 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 corresponds to the subject of the intransitive, 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.
This contrast is visible with the root "to write":
+ "to write" Voice Example Gloss Translation Antipassive intransitive Boy-ABS writes "The boy writes." (object dropped) Active transitive Boy-ERG letter-ABS writes "The boy writes the letter."
The full three-way system is found only in certain dialects; in Standard Kabardian 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 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
Kabardian, the easternmost Circassian language, has a highly polysynthetic verbal morphology: a single verb can simultaneously encode all of its arguments – subject, direct object, and indirect object – through an ordered sequence of personal prefixes attached to the root. Understanding these prefixes and how they interact is the key to the Kabardian verb.
Person markers Like the other Circassian languages, Kabardian follows a strict ergative–absolutive alignment. 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 (e.g. "to look at", "to read", "to wait for").
The same person can therefore appear on the verb in up to three different shapes depending on its syntactic role.
+ Kabardian personal prefixes Person Absolutive Ergative Oblique 1SG (I / me) сы- с- (~з-) сэ- / къызэ- 2SG (you) у- п- / б- / у- уэ- 3SG (he / she / it) Ø и- (past) / е- (present) е- / йо- 1PL (we / us) ды- т- (~д-) дэ- 2PL (y'all) фы- ф- (~в-) вэ- / фо- 3PL (they / them) Ø … -хэ а- / я- е- (see note)
Which of the three cases a verb 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 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:
+ How the case and tense slots are filled in each verb class Verb class ABS(slot 1) OBL(slot 3) ERG(slot 4) Tense Example Tense suffix(after root) Monovalent intransitive с(ы)-subject "I" — — Present "I look" — (dynamic -о-) Past "I looked" -ащ Bivalent intransitive у-subject "you" с-/з(э)-object "me" — Present "You look at me" — (dynamic -о-) Past "You looked at me" -ащ Bivalent transitive у-object "you" — с-/з-subject "I" Present "I see you" — (dynamic -о-) Past "I saw you" -ащ Trivalent ditransitive сы-direct object "me" у-indirect object "to you" е-subject "he" Present "He gives me to you" — (dynamic -о-) Past "He gave me to you" -ащ
(The optional directional slot 2 and the dynamic slot 5 are omitted here for clarity. Notice that the person markers in the case slots are the same in the present and the past — only the tense suffix changes.)
Important: no я-/а- oblique in intransitive bivalent verbs.Kabardian does not use я-/а- as a 3PL oblique prefix in the intransitive bivalent class. The 3PL oblique object is expressed by the exact same prefix as the 3SG oblique object, namely е- (with its fused allomorphs йо- / о- depending on the phonetic environment); plurality of the oblique is simply left unmarked on the verb. Thus: means both "I look at him" and "I look at them". means both "He looks at him" and "He looks at them".
By contrast, Adyghe explicitly distinguishes singular and plural 3rd-person oblique objects in both tenses – "I look at him" vs. "I look at them" (present), and vs. (past) – a distinction Kabardian lacks here. The я-/а- prefix is still used in Kabardian, but only in transitive verbs (e.g. "to see", where the 3PL ergative "they" surfaces as я-).
Verb template