Adyghe/Grammar

Parts of Speech

Adyghe is a polysynthetic language, with heavily inflected nouns and verbs, as well as a system of prepositions, adjectives, and adverbs.

Nouns

Nouns in Adyghe are inflected for case, number, and definiteness. A noun in the definite is conjugated slightly differently from a noun in the indefinite, as the definite requires the addition of /-r/ in the absolutive and /-m/ in the oblique and instrumental. There is some disagreement as to whether or not the definite and indefinite inflections should be considered two different declensions or not. Furthermore, the high variation among dialects of Adyghe means that the oblique is sometimes marked in the indefinite, and sometimes not.

Cases

There's a shorter tag for instrumental. -JNW

Nouns and adjectives can be marked for four cases: absolutive, oblique/ergative, instrumental, and adverbial. Absolutive, sometimes called nominative, marks the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb, while the oblique or ergative case marks the subjects of transitive verbs. The instrumental case can be used with a variety of prepositions, while the adverbial case, as the name suggests, gives nouns and adjectives adverbial roles.

Example: «кIалэ» (boy)

кIалэ<n><def><sg><abs> ↔ кIалэр

кIалэ<n><def><sg><obl> ↔ кIалэм

кIалэ<n><def><sg><inst> ↔ кIалэмкIэ

кIалэ<n><def><sg><advl> ↔ кIалэхэу

кIалэ<n><def><pl><abs> ↔ кIалэхэр

кIалэ<n><def><pl><obl> ↔ кIалэхэм

кIалэ<n><def><pl><inst> ↔ кIалэхэмкIэ

кIалэ<n><def><pl><advl> ↔ кIалэхэу

кIалэ<n><indef><sg><abs> ↔ кIалэ

кIалэ<n><indef><sg><obl> ↔ кIалэ

кIалэ<n><indef><sg><inst> ↔ кIалэкIэ

кIалэ<n><indef><sg><advl> ↔ кIалэу

кIалэ<n><indef><pl><abs> ↔ кIалэхэ

кIалэ<n><indef><pl><obl> ↔ кIалэхэм

кIалэ<n><indef><pl><inst> ↔ кIалэхэкIэ

кIалэ<n><indef><pl><advl> ↔ кIалэхэу

Example: «шы» (horse)

шы<n><def><sg><abs> ↔ шыр

шы<n><indef><sg><obl> ↔ шы

шы<n><def><pl><abs> ↔ шыхэр

шы<n><indef><pl><obl> ↔ шыхэ

etc.

Possessives

Adyghe nouns can be marked for alienable and inalienable possession. Alienable possession is marked more or less regularly by the insertion of the possession marker "и" between the possessive prefix and the root.

Inalienable possession: Example: « шъхьэ» (head)

шъхьэ<n><indef><sg><abs><p1><sg> ↔ сшъхьэ

шъхьэ<n><indef><sg><abs><p2><sg> ↔ пшъхьэ

шъхьэ<n><indef><sg><abs><p3><sg> ↔ ышъхьэ

шъхьэ<n><indef><pl><abs><p1><pl> ↔ тшъхьэхэр

шъхьэ<n><indef><pl><abs><p2><pl> ↔ шъушъхьэхэр

шъхьэ<n><indef><pl><abs><p3><pl> ↔ ашъхьэхэр

Alienable possession: Example: «шы» (horse)

шы<n><indef><sg><abs><p1><sg> ↔ сишы

шы<n><indef><sg><abs><p2><sg> ↔ уишы

шы<n><indef><sg><abs><p3><sg> ↔ ишы

шы<n><indef><sg><abs><p1><pl> ↔ тишы

шы<n><indef><sg><abs><p2><pl> ↔ шъуишы

шы<n><indef><sg><abs><p3><pl> ↔ яшы

Pronoun and Demonstratives

Adyghe possesses an incomplete set of pronouns, in that a 3rd person pronoun does not exist per se; a demonstrative is used instead. As a result, the first and second person pronouns have acquired endings based on the demonstrative paradigm in some varieties of Adyghe.

person	<abs>	<obl>	<inst>	<advl>
1SG	subject	<nom>	—	алма<n><nom> ↔ алма
2SG	definite direct object	<acc>	ны, ни, ну, нү, ды, ди, ду, дү, ты, ти, ту, тү	алма<n><acc> ↔ алманы
3SG	possessor	<gen>	нын, нин, нун, нүн, дын, дин, дун, дүн, тын, тин, тун, түн	алма<n><gen> ↔ алманын
1PL	"to"	<dat>	га, го, ге, гө, ка, ко, ке, кө	алма<n><dat> ↔ алмага
2PL	"at, in on"	<loc>	да, до, де, дө, та, то, те, тө	алма<n><loc> ↔ алмада
3PL	"from"	<abl>	дан, дон, ден, дөн, тан, тон, тен, төн	алма<n><abl> ↔ алмадан

Adjectives

Adjectives are not inflected differently from nouns. Syntactically, a noun is followed by the adjective that modifies it. In this case, the case endings are affixed to the adjective and not the noun.

Prepositions

Don't forget to add this to the appropriate wiki category. -JNW