Adyghe Phonology

Adyghe is a language of the Northwest Caucasian family which, like the other Northwest Caucasian languages, is very rich in consonants, featuring many labialized and ejective consonants. Adyghe is phonologically more complex than Kabardian, having the retroflex consonants and their labialized forms.

Consonants

Adyghe exhibits a large number of consonants: between 50 and 60 consonants in the various Adyghe dialects. Below is the IPA phoneme chart of the consonant phonemes of Adyghe.

* In the Black Sea coast dialects of Adyghe (e.g. Shapsug and Natukhai) there exist a palatalized voiced velar stop , a palatalized voiceless velar stop and a palatalized velar ejective that were merged with , and in most Adyghe dialects. For example, the Shapsug words "" "shirt", "" "chicken" and "" "rope" are pronounced in other dialects as "" , "" and "" .
* The labialized retroflex consonants and in the literary Temirgoy dialect are alveolo-palatal and in the Black Sea coast dialects of Adyghe (Shapsug and Natukhai).
* In the Black Sea coast dialects of Adyghe (e.g. Shapsug and Natukhai) there exist an alveolar ejective fricative that correspond to in other Adyghe dialects. For example, the Shapsug words "" "name" and "" "lie" are pronounced in other dialects as "" and "" .
* The phoneme written ' is pronounced as a voiced alveolar lateral fricative mostly by the Circassians of Adygea, but many Circassians in diaspora pronounce it as an alveolar lateral approximant .
* In Adyghe, the palato-alveolar consonants , and may be affricated to , and after the consonant or . For example, the words:
:: "I carried him to" → ət͡ʃaːʁ:: "I knew": → ət͡ʂʼaːʁ:: "I don't know": → ət͡ʂʼɐrɐp:: "I thought" → ət͡ʂʷʼɐʃʼəʁ:: "you (pl.) knew" → �ʷt͡ʂʼaːʁ
* The first and second person prefixes , , and may become voiced , , and before the consonant . For example:
:: "I made him go" → ʁɐkʷʼaːʁ:: "we made him go" → ʁɐkʷʼaːʁ:: "you made him go" → ʁɐkʷʼaːʁ:: "you (pl.) made him go" → �ʷʁɐkʷʼaːʁ
* The phoneme found in the Adyghe dialects correspond to ʷ in Kabardian. For example:
:: fə"five" ↔ xʷə:: əʑə"white" ↔ ʷəʑ:: ͡sʼəfə"person" ↔ ͡sʼəxʷ
* In many Adyghe dialects (e.g. Bzhedug, Shapsug, Natukhia and Abzakh) there exist ͡ɕʷ that corresponds to standard Temirgoy ͡sʷ. For example, the Temirgoy word цуакъэ ͡sʷaːqɐis ͡ɕʷaːqɐin the other Adyghe dialects.
* All dialects possess a contrast between plain and labialized glottal stops. A very unusual minimal contrast, and possibly unique to the Abzakh dialect of Adyghe, is a three-way contrast between plain, labialized and palatalized glottal stops.
* The Black Sea dialect of Adyghe contains a very uncommon sound: a bidental fricative , which corresponds to the voiceless velar fricative found in other varieties of Adyghe.
* The Hakuchi dialect of Adyghe contains uvular ejective and a labialized uvular ejective , which corresponds to the and in other dialects.

Vowels

In contrast to its large consonant inventory, Adyghe has only three phonemic vowels in a classic vertical vowel system. and have varying allophones, whereas has a more limited set. Realization of vocalic allophones is based on the surrounding consonants.Studies in West Circassian Phonology and Morphology
/ref>Vowel colouring patterns in Bzhedugh Adyghe
/ref>

* Lax vowels are usually rounded to between labialized consonants within the same syllable; fronted to in the environment of coronal and palatalized consonants; and retracted to in the environment of uvular, pharyngeal and glottal consonants.^:16
* When are surrounded by a plain and a posterior consonant, they are backed only in the CVC environment.^:22

Stress

Stress in Adyghe is phonemic, in that it is unpredictable. The lexical stress tends to fall on one of two last syllables of the word stem. Longer words can also have multiple stress patterns, as in below:
Orthography / Transliteration: /
Stress 1: /
Stress 2: /
Stress 3: /
Stress 4: /
Stress 5: /
Blue: Primary stress
Green: Secondary stress

However, the functional load of stress is extremely low, but yet there are pairs that differ optionally.

References

{{Language phonologies
Adyghe language
Northwest Caucasian phonologies