In the Circassian languages — Adyghe (West Circassian) and Kabardian (East Circassian) — as in 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, and more. Some Circassian verbs are morphologically simple, consisting of a single morpheme (Adyghe / Kabardian "go"; Adyghe / Kabardian "take"). In general, however, Circassian verbs are structurally and semantically complex. The morphological structure of a verb includes prefixes and suffixes that express subject, direct and indirect object, adverbial, number, negation, mood, direction, mutuality, compatibility, and reflexivity, so that a single verb can amount to a whole sentence. For example, Adyghe / Kabardian "I am forcing you to talk to them again" breaks down as "you () with them () from there () together () I (/) am forcing () to speak (/) again (/)".
This article describes the verb system of both varieties together, noting differences between Adyghe and Kabardian where they occur.
Colour legend for arguments: Absolutive (Abs): marks the subject of intransitive verbs and the 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 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). An argument-structure zone of prefixes cross-references the verb's absolutive, oblique and ergative participants; these are followed by pre-stem elements and a series of suffixes marking aspect, tense, mood and negation. The slot template is essentially identical in the two languages, with two differences: Kabardian fills the −11 slot with both a cislocative () and a translocative () marker where Adyghe has only the cislocative, and the actual phonological shapes of the markers differ (e.g. tense and mood suffixes).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 Where Adyghe and Kabardian share a marker the two columns are merged into one; where they differ, the Adyghe form is given first and the Kabardian second.
+ Markers filling each slot of the Circassian verb Slot Category Adyghe Kabardian Gloss / meaning −12 Absolutive 1SG 2SG 1PL 2PL ∅ 3 (no overt marker) −11 Cislocative (/ Translocative) hither (cislocative) — toward (translocative; Kabardian only) −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 (Kabardian also 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 (Q / NEG.Q) and (additive) adverbial (ADV)
Transitivity and valency
Verbs in Circassian can be ditransitive, transitive or intransitive. By valency (the number of arguments they require) they fall into four main types:Kumakhov & Vamling (2009), pp. 31–33. monovalent intransitive, bivalent intransitive, bivalent transitive, and trivalent ditransitive.
A fundamental rule 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 suffix -м; they are told apart by the verb's transitivity and by word order, not by the ending. 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.
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.
Language Example Gloss Translation Adyghe р Man-ABS sleeps "The man is sleeping." Kabardian р Adyghe р Guard-ABS goes "The security guard is going." Kabardian р
In an intransitive verb the absolutive subject is the participant undergoing change (created, altered, moved or ended), e.g. Kabardian "the boy is going" (the boy changes by moving).
Bivalent intransitive verbs Intransitive verbs may also take an indirect object: the subject stays absolutive (-р), while the indirect object (target, source or location) takes the oblique case (-м).Kumakhov & Vamling (2009), pp. 95–96. A verb such as Circassian "to hit" describes the motion of hitting rather than the impact, so its target is oblique rather than a changed (absolutive) object.
Language Example Gloss Translation Adyghe р м Boy-ABS book-OBL reads "The boy reads the book." Kabardian р м Adyghe р м Boy-ABS girl-OBL kisses "The boy kisses the girl." Kabardian р м
Bivalent transitive verbs In a transitive clause the subject (agent) is ergative (-м) and the direct object absolutive (-р); the agent causes a change to the object.Kumakhov & Vamling (2009), pp. 94–95.
Language Example Gloss Translation Adyghe м р Boy-ERG letter-ABS writes "The boy is writing the letter." Kabardian м р Adyghe м р Dog-ERG hare-ABS caught "The dog has caught the hare." Kabardian м р
The distinction between intransitive and transitive verbs matters because case and person-marking depend on it. In Kabardian, for example, "to see" is transitive while "to look at" is intransitive, so means "the boy sees the girl" but means "the girl is looking at the boy", even though "boy" carries the same -м.
Trivalent ditransitive verbs Ditransitive verbs involve three participants: an ergative agent (-м), an absolutive theme (-р), and an oblique recipient or goal (-м).Kumakhov & Vamling (2009), pp. 100–101.
Language Example Gloss Translation Adyghe м р м Boy-ERG apple-ABS girl-OBL gives "The boy gives the apple to the girl." Kabardian м р м Adyghe м р м Man-ERG rock-ABS sea-OBL throws-into "The man throws the rock into the sea." Kabardian м р м
Active and antipassive voice Monovalent intransitive verbs split into two voices. Active intransitive verbs keep the patient/undergoer in the absolutive, whereas antipassive verbs keep the actor/agent in the absolutive (the usual object having been dropped).Kumakhov & Vamling (2009), pp. 33–34. The contrast is visible with Adyghe "to clean":
+ "to clean" (Adyghe) Voice Example Translation Active transitive "The boy cleans the house." Active intransitive "The house becomes clean." (agent dropped) Antipassive intransitive "The boy cleans." (object dropped)
The same symmetry appears with the root "to write" (Circassian ), where the antipassive "(s)he writes" is heavily used. The full three-way system survives only in certain dialects; in the standard languages most roots show only two of the three forms.
Valency increase Some verbs shift between monovalent, bivalent and trivalent forms without marking. Valency can also be raised explicitly with the causative affix -гъэ- ("to make, force"), with prepositional preverbs (e.g. Adyghe/Kabardian "into", "on"), and with applicative prefixes (benefactive, malefactive, comitative). Because a verb has only one oblique slot, each can be added only when that slot is free.Kumakhov & Vamling (2009), pp. 98–103. The causative fills in the "missing" argument:
Language Base Causative Translation Adyghe (ABS VERB) (ERG ABS VERB) "The boy runs." → "The man makes the boy run." Kabardian Adyghe (ABS OBL VERB) (ERG ABS OBL VERB) "The boy looks at the girl." → "The man makes the boy look at the girl." Kabardian
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
Both languages have highly polysynthetic verbal morphology: a single verb can encode all of its arguments — subject, direct object, and indirect object — through an ordered sequence of personal prefixes attached to the root.
Person markers Circassian has a strict ergative–absolutive alignment. There are three core cases, each with its own series of personal prefixes: Absolutive — the single argument (S) of an intransitive verb and the direct object (P) of a transitive verb. Ergative — the subject (A) of a transitive verb. Oblique — indirect objects (recipients, addressees) and the obligatory objects of bivalent intransitive verbs (e.g. "to look at", "to wait for").
The same person can therefore appear on the verb in up to three different 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-
+ 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)
In both languages the 3rd person singular absolutive is a zero-morpheme (Ø), with plurality shown by a suffix (Adyghe -х, Kabardian -хэ). In some present-tense intransitive verbs a "dynamic" prefix (Adyghe мэ-, Kabardian мэ-/-о-) appears for the 3rd person; this is a tense/aspect marker, not a pronoun.
Which case a verb uses depends on its valency and transitivity:
+ 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
A key difference: 3PL oblique in bivalent intransitives Adyghe explicitly distinguishes singular and plural 3rd-person oblique objects: "I look at him" vs. "I look at them" (present), vs. (past). Kabardian does not make this distinction in the bivalent intransitive class: the 3PL oblique object uses the same prefix as the 3SG, namely е- (with allomorphs йо- / о-), and plurality of the oblique is left unmarked. Thus Kabardian means both "I look at him" and "I look at them", and both "he looks at him" and "he looks at them". The я-/а- prefix is used in Kabardian, but only in transitive verbs (e.g. "to see", 3PL ergative я-).
Verb template Every Circassian verb is built around an ordered sequence of prefix slots before the root, plus tense/mood suffixes after it. A fundamental rule is that the 3rd person singular absolutive ("he/she/it") is a zero-morpheme (∅-); when a slot's argument is 3SG, the slot is simply empty.
+ Circassian verb template at a glance Slot 1 Slot 2 Slot 3 Slot 4 Slot 5 Slot 6 Slot 7 ABS DIR(Ady. къы-/къэ-,Kab. къы-/нэ-) OBL ERG DYN(Ady. э-/мэ-,Kab. -о-) Root TNS(Ady. -гъ, Kab. -ащ, …)