Abkhaz, also known as Abkhazian, is a Northwest Caucasian language most closely related to Abaza. It is spoken mostly by the Abkhaz people. It is one of the official languages of

Abkhazia Abkhazia, officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a List of states with limited recognition, partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia. It cover ...

, where around 190,000 people speak it. Furthermore, it is spoken by thousands of members of the Abkhazian diaspora in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

's autonomous republic of Adjara,

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

Jordan Jordan, officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, is a country in the Southern Levant region of West Asia. Jordan is bordered by Syria to the north, Iraq to the east, Saudi Arabia to the south, and Israel and the occupied Palestinian ter ...

, and several Western countries. 27 October is the day of the Abkhazian language in

Classification

Abkhaz is a Northwest Caucasian language and is thus related to Adyghe. The language of Abkhaz is especially close to Abaza, and they are sometimes considered dialects of the same language,''B. G. Hewitt Abkhaz 1979;'' page 1. Abazgi, of which the literary dialects of Abkhaz and Abaza are simply two ends of a

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...

. Grammatically, the two are very similar; however, the differences in phonology are substantial, it also contains elements characteristic of Kabardian; these are the main reasons for many others to prefer keeping the two separate, while others still refer to it as the Tapanta dialect of Abkhaz. Chirikba mentions that there are possible indications that proto-Northwest Caucasian, could have divided firstly into proto-Circassian and to proto-Ubykh-Abkhaz; Ubykh then being the closest relative to Abkhaz, with it only later on being influenced by Circassian.

Geographical distribution

There is not an agreed number of speakers of Abkhaz, and there are widely different numbers. It is agreed that today most of the Abkhaz people do not live in Abkhazia. In the census conducted by the Republic of Abkhazia in 2011, Abkhazians comprised 50.8% of the population, around 122,175 people; of these 92,838 spoke it natively. Only two of the original dialects are still spoken in Abkhazia. The Bzyp dialect is still spoken in its homeland northwest of

Sukhumi Sukhumi or Sokhumi is a city in a wide bay on the Black Sea's eastern coast. It is both the Capital city, capital and largest city of Abkhazia, a partially recognised state that most countries consider a part of Georgia (country), Georgia. The ...

, stretching from the Bzyp River to the western environs of Sukhumi and the Psyrtskha valley, whereas the Abzhywa dialect is spoken south-east of Sukhumi.George Hewitt 1998. The Abkhazians. Page 167 The rest of the Abkhaz speaking population inhabits other neighbouring areas. The exact number of Abkhazians and Abkhaz speakers in Turkey is not clear. The Turkish census denotes 13,951, but the figures are dubious, since the numbers of Abkhazians that came from the beginning of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th have been documented at around 30 thousand. ''Ethnologue'' gives 150,000 Abkhazians living in Turkey, of these 50,000 still speak the language. The head of the Abkhaz federation says there are in between 500 and 700 thousand Abkhazians in Turkey. In general, Abkhaz seems to have been lost by most of the descendants, and bilingualism being low except in some specific areas, although there seems to be an effort for the new generation to learn the language with public schools being able to teach Abkhaz and together with 7,836 second language speakers. Abkhazian villages are concentrated around the cities of

Adapazarı Adapazarı () is a municipality and the capital Districts of Turkey, district of Sakarya Province, Turkey. Its area is 324 km2, and its population 281,489 (2022). It covers the central and northern part of the agglomeration of Adapazarı and t ...

Düzce Düzce () is a city in northwestern Turkey, the capital city of Düzce Province, the eighty-first Provinces of Turkey, province in the country. It is the seat of Düzce District.Sinop, Hendek and

Samsun Samsun is a List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, city on the north coast of Turkey and a major Black Sea port. The urban area recorded a population of 738,692 in 2022. The city is the capital of Samsun Province which has a population of ...

in the northern part, and in the west around cities such as

Bilecik Bilecik is a city in northwestern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the seat of Bilecik Province and Bilecik District.Inegöl and

Eskişehir Eskişehir ( , ; from 'old' and 'city') is a city in northwestern Turkey and the capital of the Eskişehir Province. The urban population of the city is 821 315 (Odunpazari + Tebebasi), with a metropolitan population of 921 630. The city is l ...

; they are mainly found in the provinces of Sakarya and

Bolu Bolu is a city in northern Turkey, and administrative center of the Bolu Province and of Bolu District,Çoruh The Chorokh ( ka, ჭოროხი ''Ch'orokhi'' , , ''Chorokh'', , , ''Akampsis'') is a river that rises in the Mescit Mountains in north-eastern Turkey, flows through the cities of Bayburt, İspir, Yusufeli, and Artvin, along the Kelkit-� ...

river in the north-east. Historically the dialects of Sadz, Ahchypsy and Tsabal were located in Abkhazia; Sadz being spoken from the Bzyp river to the Matsesta River, and further to the north-west bordering the Sochypsta River. Today they are exclusively spoken in the northwestern part of Turkey, specially in the Sakarya province, it being spoken in 14 villages. The other major place where Abkhaz is spoken is in

Karachay-Cherkessia Karachay-Cherkessia (), officially the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, is a republic of Russia located in the North Caucasus. It is administratively part of the North Caucasian Federal District. As of the 2021 census, Karachay-Cherkessia has a popul ...

, where the Northern dialects are spoken, although there they are considered as a separate language and form the literary

Abaza language Abaza is the name of an ethnic group closely related to the Circassians, the Abazins, their language, the Abaza language, an Egyptian noble family of the same origin, the Abaza family, Abaza Family, and a surname. The Abazin people's "self-design ...

. They are spoken by 37,831 people in Russia, mostly in the south of Stavropol Krai in the area around Kislovodsk, and in the upper Kuma river area. Abkhaz is also spoken as a minority language around the world. There is a considerable number of Abkhaz speakers in Adjara in southern Georgia, with the diaspora concentrating itself around the capital

Batumi Batumi (; ka, ბათუმი ), historically Batum or Batoum, is the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), second-largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia and the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Adjara, located on the coast ...

, with about 982 people considering Abkhaz their first language. In the Russian census of 2010, 6,786 speakers of Abkhaz were reported in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. In Ukraine there are around 1,458 according to the 2001 census, but of these only 317 speak Abkhazian. There were also communities in

and

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

with around 5,000 Abkhazians,V.A. Chirikba 2003. Page 8 although this number could reach 10,000 according to the Abkhazia's Foreign Ministry. The biggest western diaspora is in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, with around 5,000 speakers, but other communities are found in countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, Austria, France, Belgium and so on.

History

The earliest indisputable extant written records of the Abkhaz language are in the

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic (Arabic alphabet) and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world (after the Latin script), the second-most widel ...

, recorded by the Turkish traveller

Evliya Çelebi Dervish Mehmed Zillî (25 March 1611 – 1682), known as Evliya Çelebi (), was an Ottoman Empire, Ottoman explorer who travelled through his home country during its cultural zenith as well as neighboring lands. He travelled for over 40 years, rec ...

in the 17th century. Abkhaz has been used as a literary language for only about 100 years. It was suggested that certain inscriptions on

Ancient Greek pottery Pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exerted a dispro ...

which had been considered nonsense are in fact written in Abkhaz-Adydge languages. The methodology of the research was criticised and the results called improbable. In 1918,

Tbilisi State University Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University ( ka, ივანე ჯავახიშვილის სახელობის თბილისის სახელმწიფო უნივერსიტეტი, tr; often shorten ...

became the first institution of higher education to teach Abkhazian language. The founders of the university began to take care of the development and scientific study of the Abkhazian language. At the meeting of the Council of Professors held at Tbilisi State University in 1918,

Ivane Javakhishvili Ivane Alexandres dze Javakhishvili ( ka, ივანე ჯავახიშვილი; 23 April 1876 – 18 November 1940) was a Georgian historian and linguist whose works heavily influenced the Kartvelian studies, modern scholarship of the ...

noted the scientific importance of studying Caucasian languages. In 1918, by the decision of the Council of Professors, Petre Charaia was invited to teach the Abkhazian language, and from 1925, this mission was continued by Dimitri Gulia and Simon Janashia.

Status

Both Georgian and Abkhaz law enshrines an official status of the Abkhaz language in Abkhazia. The 1992 law of Georgia, reiterated in the 1995

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

, grants Abkhaz the status of second official language in the territory of Abkhazia — along with Georgian. In November 2007, the de facto authorities of Abkhazia adopted a new law "on the state language of the Republic of Abkhazia" that mandates Abkhaz as the language of official communication. According to the law, all meetings held by the president, parliament, and government must be conducted in Abkhaz (instead of Russian, which is currently a de facto administrative language) from 2010, and all state officials will be obliged to use Abkhaz as their language of everyday business from 2015. Some, however, have considered the implementation of this law unrealistic and concerns have been made that it will drive people away from Abkhazia and hurt the independent press due to a significant share of non-Abkhaz speakers among ethnic minorities as well as Abkhaz themselves, and a shortage of teachers of Abkhaz. The law is an attempt to amend a situation where up to a third of the ethnic Abkhaz population are no longer capable of speaking their ethnic language, and even more are unable to read or write it; instead, Russian is the language most commonly used in public life at present.

Dialects

Classification

Abkhaz is generally viewed as having three major dialects: * Abzhywa, spoken in the Caucasus, and named after the historical area of Abzhywa (Абжьыуа), sometimes referred to as Abzhui, the Russified form of the name (''Abzhuiski dialekt'', derived from the Russian form of the name for the area, ). * Bzyb or Bzyp, spoken in the Caucasus and in Turkey, and named after the Bzyb () area. * Sadz, nowadays spoken only in Turkey, formerly also spoken between the rivers Bzyp and Khosta. The

literary language Literary language is the Register (sociolinguistics), register of a language used when writing in a formal, academic writing, academic, or particularly polite tone; when speaking or writing in such a tone, it can also be known as formal language. ...

is based on the Abzhywa dialect. Below is a classification of Abkhaz dialects according to Chirikba (1996): *Common Abkhaz (Proto-Abkhaz) **North Abkhaz ***''Tapanta'' **''Ashkharywa'' **South Abkhaz ***Southwestern ****''Sadz'' ***Southeastern ****''Ahchypsy'', ''Bzyp'' ****''Tsabal'', ''Abzhywa''

General characteristics

In some form or the other, all dialects are richer in phonemes than the standard Abzhywa dialect. The only dialects spoken in Abkhazia are Abzhywa and Bzyp. Northern dialects which are the basis for literary Abaza are spoken in

, while the other dialects such as Sadz are spoken in

due to Russian invasions in the 19th century. While most differences are phonetic, differences in the lexicon are present, although mostly due to exterior contact. Bzyp contains the most preserved lexicon, with few borrowings. Abzhywa has adopted many loans from Kartvelian, specially Mingrelian; Sadz on the other hand has more words from Circassian. Northern dialects in general have more loanwords from Persian, Arabic, Turkish and Circassian.

Phonology

Consonants

Abkhaz has a very large number of consonants (58 in the literary dialect), with three-way

voiced Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced. The term, however, is used to refe ...

voiceless In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...

ejective In phonetics, ejective consonants are usually voiceless consonants that are pronounced with a glottalic egressive airstream. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated, voiced and tenuis consonants. Some l ...

and palatalized/

labialized Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels invol ...

/plain distinctions. By contrast, the language has only two phonemically distinct vowels, which have several

allophone In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is one of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, the voiceless plos ...

s depending on the palatal and/or labial quality of adjacent consonants. Labialised alveolo-palatal fricatives are found in the Bzyp and Sadz dialects of Abkhaz, but not in Abzhywa. Plain alveolo-palatal consonants and the pharyngealised and labialised-pharyngealised uvular fricatives are unique to the Bzyp dialect. The consonants highlighted in red and in brackets are the 4 kinds of labialisation described by Chirikba.

Vowels

The nature of the vowels of Abkhaz is not clear. Some linguists, characterise the vowel system as a 2 degree

vertical vowel system A vertical vowel system is the system of vowels in a language that requires only vowel height to phonemically distinguish vowels. Theoretically, rounding, frontness and backness could also be used in one-dimensional vowel systems; however, ''v ...

; with the two vowels being distinguished by height, 'ә' being the high/close vowel, and 'а' being the low/open. This system would very closely resemble the one found in Adyghe. The quality of 'ә' in this case, is usually represented as �if the vowel is in a stressed position, and being unaffected by its neighbouring consonants. Other linguists however, mainly Russian ones, describe the vowels differently. They describe the sound of 'ә' being completely different from � and by their descriptions being closer to � The 'а' is described as being particularly back, likely �

Writing system

Abkhaz has used the

Cyrillic script The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic languages, Slavic, Turkic languages, Turkic, Mongolic languages, Mongolic, Uralic languages, Uralic, C ...

since 1862. The first alphabet was a 37-character

Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...

alphabet invented by Baron Peter von Uslar. In 1909 a 55-letter Cyrillic alphabet was used. A 75-letter Latin script devised by a Russian/Georgian linguist

Nikolai Marr Nikolai Yakovlevich Marr (, ''Nikolay Yakovlevich Marr''; , ''Nikoloz Iak'obis dze Mari''; — 20 December 1934) was a Georgian-born historian and linguist who gained a reputation as a scholar of the Caucasus during the 1910s before embarking o ...

lasted for 2 years 1926–1928 (during the Latinization campaign). The

Georgian script The Georgian scripts are the three writing systems used to write the Georgian language: Asomtavruli, Nuskhuri and Mkhedruli. Although the systems differ in appearance, their letters share the same names and alphabetical order and are writte ...

was adopted and used between 1938 and 1954, after that the initial

alphabet, designed in 1892 by Dmitry Gulia together with Konstantin Machavariani and modified in 1909 by Aleksey Chochua, was restored to use. Cyrillic script: Latin script:

Unicode

The Latin alphabet in Abkhaz is currently not in Unicode. Its inclusion was proposed in 2011

Grammar

Typical of Northwest Caucasian languages, Abkhaz is an Agglutinative language, agglutinative language that relies heavily on affixation. It has an ergative-absolutive typology, such that the subject of an intransitive verb functions identically to the object of a transitive verb.Chirikba 2003, p.48 Notably, Abkhaz expresses ergativity entirely through the ordering of subjects and objects within verb constructions rather than through overt case marking as most other ergative languages do. All Latin transliterations in this section utilize the system explicated in Chirikba (2003) (see Abkhaz alphabet for the details).

Verbs

Abkhaz

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines *Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts *Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies, ...

features a highly complex verb system that could be called a "sentence in miniature."Chirikba 2003, p.37 Chirikba (2003) describes Abkhaz as a "verbocentric" language wherein verbs occupy the "central part of the morphology."Chirikba 2003, p.22 However, despite its complexity, Abkhaz verbal morphology is highly regular. Abkhaz, being an ergative language, makes a strong distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs, as well as dynamic and stative. Stative verbs describe states of being, roughly analogous to copular phrases in English, as in дхәыҷуп (''d-x˚əčә́-wə-p'' - "she is a child").Chirikba 2003, p.41 Dynamic verbs express direct actions, functioning more closely to standard English verbs. Dynamic verbs possess the full range of aspect, mood and tense forms, in contrast to statives, which do not. Some verbs, called inversives, combine certain features of both stative and dynamic verbs. Another important verbal distinction in Abkhaz is

finite Finite may refer to: * Finite set, a set whose cardinality (number of elements) is some natural number * Finite verb, a verb form that has a subject, usually being inflected or marked for person and/or tense or aspect * "Finite", a song by Sara Gr ...

versus non-finite, referring to the duration of the action. Finite verbs usually contain enough information to form a complete sentence, whereas non-finite verbs typically form

dependent clause A dependent clause, also known as a subordinate clause, subclause or embedded clause, is a certain type of clause that juxtaposes an independent clause within a complex sentence. For instance, in the sentence "I know Bette is a dolphin", the claus ...

s. Verb stems can be derived in a number of ways, including

compounding In the field of pharmacy, compounding (performed in compounding pharmacies) is preparation of custom medications to fit unique needs of patients that cannot be met with mass-produced formulations. This may be done, for example, to provide medic ...

, affixation,

reduplication In linguistics, reduplication is a Morphology (linguistics), morphological process in which the Root (linguistics), root or Stem (linguistics), stem of a word, part of that, or the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change. The cla ...

or conversion from another part of speech. Roughly equivalent to the infinitive, or to a so-called "verbal noun," the Masdar form of the verb resembles the English gerund. It is formed by the addition of a specific suffix to a bare verb stem, -ра (''-ra'') for a dynamic verb and -заара (''-zaara'') for a stative. Various prefixes can be added to the Masdar to form entire dependent clauses, as in However, the fully conjugated personal Abkhaz verb forms are "templatic," with each grammatical distinction occupying a specific "slot" or "position" within the broader verb template. Verbs are thus formed by the addition of various affixes to the verb stem; these affixes express such distinctions as transitivity,

person A person (: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations suc ...

and stative/dynamic quality, occupying rigid positions within the overall verb structure. There is a high degree of

agreement Agreement may refer to: Agreements between people and organizations * Gentlemen's agreement, not enforceable by law * Trade agreement, between countries * Consensus (disambiguation), a decision-making process * Contract, enforceable in a court of ...

between verbs and other parts of speech. Overall, the Abkhaz verb is constructed as follows: :: irst Position econd Position hird Position ndirect Object eflexive ree Preverb tem Preverb gent egation ausativeSTEM+ xtension

umber Umber is a natural earth pigment consisting of iron oxide and manganese oxide; it has a brownish color that can vary among shades of yellow, red, and green. Umber is considered one of the oldest pigments known to humans, first used in the Ajant ...

spect Single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT, or less commonly, SPET) is a nuclear medicine tomographic imaging technique using gamma rays. It is very similar to conventional nuclear medicine planar imaging using a gamma camera (that is, ...

ense egation nding Suffixes Not all of these elements will necessarily co-occur in every verb. The individual parts of verb morphology are addressed below. First Position The first prefixing element of the verb complex expresses either the subject of an intransitive verb in the absolutive construction, or the

direct object In linguistics, an object is any of several types of arguments. In subject-prominent, nominative-accusative languages such as English, a transitive verb typically distinguishes between its subject and any of its objects, which can include but ...

of a transitive verb in an ergative construction. The following table illustrates the various agreement markers which can occupy the first position. These prefixes can either be in their long forms, containing the letters inside the parenthesis, or in the short forms that do not contain them. The rules for using them are the following: # If the prefix is followed by a consonant cluster, the long form shall be used. # If the stress falls on the prefix, the long form shall be used # If the prefix is not followed by a consonant cluster, the short form shall be used. # If the stress does not fall on the prefix, the short form shall be used. It is also possible for the

possessive A possessive or ktetic form (Glossing abbreviation, abbreviated or ; from ; ) is a word or grammatical construction indicating a relationship of possession (linguistics), possession in a broad sense. This can include strict ownership, or a numbe ...

prefix ҽы́- (''čə́-'') in a reflexive construction or the relative prefix иы́- (''jә́-'') in a non-finite construction to occupy this position.Chirikba 2003, p.38 Example of an absolutive construction with the intransitive subject in the first slot highlighted Example of an ergative construction with the direct object in the first slot highlighted Example of a reflexive construction with the possessive prefix in the first slot Second Position The second position is occupied by the indirect object or by the prefix аи- (''aj-'') for reciprocal pronouns equivalent to "each other" or "one another" in English. Third Position This position accommodates a number of prefixes. Second Indirect Object Any indirect object occurring after the one in the second position occupies this position instead; a possessive prefix of stative verbs can also be placed here. Reflexive Where a possessive prefix exists in the first position, the reflexive prefix is placed here. Free Preverb This position is occupied by preverbal elements which are not an explicit part of the verb stem. Stem Preverb Preverbal elements that are explicitly attached to the verb stem take this position. Agent The agreement marker corresponding to the agent (the subject of a transitive verb) takes this position. Negation (Dynamic) The

negation In logic, negation, also called the logical not or logical complement, is an operation (mathematics), operation that takes a Proposition (mathematics), proposition P to another proposition "not P", written \neg P, \mathord P, P^\prime or \over ...

prefix m- occupies this position in a dynamic verb construction. Causative The

causative In linguistics, a causative (abbreviated ) is a valency-increasing operationPayne, Thomas E. (1997). Describing morphosyntax: A guide for field linguists'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 173–186. that indicates that a subject either ...

prefix r- takes the final position before the verb stem. Extension The first of the suffixing elements expresses adverbial information relating to "inside" (-la) or "outside" (-aa).Chirikba 2003, p.39 Number The suffix -kºá pluralizes a stative verb. Aspect Several aspect markers occupy this position as suffixes. Tense Several tense markers occupy this position, dependent upon whether the verb in question is stative or dynamic. Dynamic verbs have a richly developed tense paradigm incorporating tense and aspect distinctions. The table below illustrates these various dynamic tense forms using the verb агара (''agara'' – "to take"). Stative verbs, by contrast, lack this rich tense system, as illustrated below using the verb а́цәара (''ácºara'' - "to be sleeping"). Negation (Stative) The negation prefix m- occupies this position in a stative verb construction. Ending Suffixes The final position in the verb complex can accommodate any one of several mixed purpose markers. The imperative takes a few possible forms, depending upon the type of verb. Dynamic verbs form the imperative by the addition of agreement suffixes to a bare verb stem; intransitives include the subject and indirect object makers, whereas transitives include the direct object and absolutive. ThusChirikba 2003, p.68 Stative verbs form the imperative simply by adding the durative suffix -z to the verb stem. Thus Abkhaz lacks diathetic opposition, and as such there is no true passive voice distinction.

Nouns

Like verbs, Abkhaz nouns are formed by the addition of various prefixes and suffixes to a static noun stem. Noun stems can be derived according to several different processes, including compounding, reduplication, or the addition of a derivational affix. The affixes mark number,

definiteness In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases that distinguishes between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those that are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical ...

and possession, as well as some case-like elements. Taken as a whole, the entire morphological structure of the Abkhaz noun is as follows: :: efinite Article nflectional Prefix uantitySTEM+ nflectional Suffix ndefinite Article liticref name="Chirikba 2003, p.23">Chirikba 2003, p.23 As with verbs, not all of these elements can occur at the same time. The individual parts of noun morphology are addressed below. Article Affixes There is a range of definiteness in Abkhaz. Those articles adhering to definite/generic categories appear as prefixes in the broader noun structure, whereas the indefinite is suffixed. The absence of either article affix implies a zero reference implying universal quantifiers, or to express the total lack of a referent. Definite and indefinite affixes may appear together in the same noun, implying that the referents are meant as a group or body. There are some semantic differences in article usage between the different dialects of Abkhaz.Chirikba 2003, p.24 Inflectional Prefixes Pronominal prefixes in Abkhaz

These are possessive prefixes which express grammatical person and

noun class In linguistics, a noun class is a particular category of nouns. A noun may belong to a given class because of the characteristic features of its referent, such as gender, animacy, shape, but such designations are often clearly conventional. Some ...

. They come in two forms, the full and short ones. The full ones contain the vowels inside the parenthesis, whereas the short ones do not. Quantifying Prefixes These few prefixes add numeric information to the noun complex. Often, this takes the form of a numeral. Inflectional Suffixes These suffixes convey either plural number or case-like adverbial information. Plural markers are addressed further below; the other possible inflectional suffixes are the following: *The third-person singular non-human possessive marker, attached to a

locative In grammar, the locative case ( ; abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. In languages using it, the locative case may perform a function which in English would be expressed with such prepositions as "in", "on", "at", and " ...

or directional postposition *Locative -ҿы́ (''-č’ә́'') or directional -хьы́ (''-x’ә́'') postpositions *

Instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

suffix -ла (''-la'') *Adverbial suffix -с (''-s''), as in: ''иашьас'' (''jaš’ás'' - "as a brother")Chirikba 2003, p.25 *Comparative suffix -ҵас (''-c’as''), as in: ''ҩнҵа́с'' (''jºənc’ás'' - "like a house") *

Privative A privative, named from Latin language, Latin , is a particle (grammar), particle that negates or inverts the semantics, value of the root word, stem of the word. In Indo-European languages, many privatives are prefix (linguistics), prefixes, bu ...

suffix -да (''-da''), as in: ''ҩны́да'' (''jºnә́da'' - "without a house") *Various coordinating suffixes Inflectional suffixes can follow each other sequentially. Plural Suffixes Abkhaz distinguishes singular and plural; the singular is unmarked, whereas the plural is indicated by noun class-dependent suffixes. There are several pluralizing suffixes, but the two most commonly used refer generally to the human and non-human noun classes. There are instances where explicitly human nouns take non-human plural markers. There are also several plural endings that are of much narrower use. Clitic The clitic -гьы (''-g’ə'') functions as an in-built

coordinating conjunction In grammar, a conjunction ( abbreviated or ) is a part of speech that connects words, phrases, or clauses'','' which are called its conjuncts. That description is vague enough to overlap with those of other parts of speech because what consti ...

. Noun Class Nouns in Abkhaz are classified broadly according to a human/non-human paradigm, with the human class itself further subdivided into masculine and feminine

gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...

. Gender is a fairly weak concept in Abkhaz grammar, and gender distinctions undergo a fair degree of neutralization in several contexts, including personal pronouns, verb agreement and possession marking. This class and gender system distinguishes Abkhaz from the other Northwest Caucasian languages. Vocative Affixes Although there is no special

vocative In grammar, the vocative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed or occasionally for the noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and numeral ...

declension, the prefix уа- (''wa-''), when attached to a noun stem, can express a vocative form. Similarly, the suffix -a can be added to a proper noun ending in a consonant to communicate respect and endearment.

Pronouns

Abkhaz is a

pro-drop A pro-drop language (from "pronoun-dropping") is a language in which certain classes of pronouns may be omitted when they can be pragmatically or grammatically inferable. The precise conditions vary from language to language, and can be quite ...

language. Pronouns are not inflected, and verbal agreement is generally sufficient to indicate grammatical person. It is common in everyday speech to use a short version of the pronoun which omits the suffix -рá (''-rá''), although this is done less frequently with third-person pronouns. In addition to noun-marking, possession can be indicated by adding the suffix -тәы́ (''-t’˚ә́'') to the short version of a personal pronoun. Thus: ::''стәы́'' (''st’˚ә́'' - "mine") ::''лтәы́'' (''lt’˚ә́'' - "hers")Chirikba 2003, p.33 Intensive pronouns are derived from short-form personal pronouns combined with the suffix -хаҭá (''-xatá''). These have a roughly reflexive meaning. ::сарá (''sará'' - "I") ::схаҭá (''sxatá'' - "I myself")

Adjectives

Morphologically, adjectives are very similar to nouns, differing only in their syntactic function.Chirikba 2003, p.29 Similarly to nouns, adjective stems can be derived by compounding, reduplication and affixation. When used attributively, adjectives follow the noun that they modify. Predicative adjectives, or those derived by suffixation, precede the noun. Adjectives are formed according to the following paradigm: :: efinite Article nflectional PrefixSTEM+ nflectional Suffix ndefinite Article dverbial Suffixref name="Chirikba 2003, p.29"/> Inflectional Prefix The possessive prefix r- is used to show possessive agreement.Chirikba 2003, p.30 Adjective Suffixes These suffixes are added to the adjective stem to show agreement with the noun being modified. The

comparative The degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs are the various forms taken by adjectives and adverbs when used to compare two entities (comparative degree), three or more entities (superlative degree), or when not comparing entities (positi ...

form of an adjective is formed using the comparative particle аиҳá (''ajhá'' - "more"), which precedes the adjective. The superlative form is indicated by the intensifier suffix -ӡа. Thus:

Sample text

Original version

Transliteration

ISO 9 ISO 9 is an international standard establishing a system for the transliteration into Latin characters of Cyrillic characters constituting the alphabets of many Slavic and non-Slavic languages. Published on February 23, 1995 by the Internation ...
Romanization

Translation

"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

Phonetic transcription

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * *

External links

Introduction, basic phrases and grammar and texts

Abkhaz at Language Museum

Abkhaz-Russian On-Line Dictionary

Ancient Adyghe Abkhaz–Abaza Ubykh alphabet

Abkhaz basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database

Abkhaz text corpus

* {{authority control Northwest Caucasian languages Agglutinative languages Subject–object–verb languages Languages of Abkhazia Languages of Georgia (country) Languages of Russia Indigenous languages of Europe Indigenous languages of Asia Languages attested from the 17th century Vertical vowel systems Languages written in Cyrillic script

Classification

Geographical distribution

History

Status

Dialects

Classification

General characteristics

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Writing system

Unicode

Grammar

Verbs

Nouns

Pronouns

Adjectives

Sample text

Original version

Transliteration

ISO 9 ISO 9 is an international standard establishing a system for the transliteration into Latin characters of Cyrillic characters constituting the alphabets of many Slavic and non-Slavic languages. Published on February 23, 1995 by the Internation ... Romanization

Translation

Phonetic transcription

Notes

References

Bibliography

External links

ISO 9 ISO 9 is an international standard establishing a system for the transliteration into Latin characters of Cyrillic characters constituting the alphabets of many Slavic and non-Slavic languages. Published on February 23, 1995 by the Internation ...
Romanization